Typically, November signals the launch of our annual quilt auction. For the past ten years, we have invited quilters from all over the world to enter our small quilt contest. Each year we offered up a different theme–adventurous, yet open-ended, to encourage quilters from all corners of our community to join in the challenge. Each quilter provided an artist’s statement, and a quilt label for their piece, ensuring future owners would know its history.

Thanks to our devoted sponsors at Handi Quilter, Moda, Aurifil, Electric Quilt Company, Simplicity and Storypatches, our winners received fabulous prizes (as in: longarm and mid-arm sewing machines, giant thread collections and fabric gift baskets). After judging, the contest quilts went on an exhibition tour across the country, showcased at quilt shows and in corporate and public galleries. And the culminating event of the year was the online auction of the quilts, thanks to the generosity of the artists who donated them.

This year, we hit pause on the contest in order to reconfigure our formula a bit. We wanted to process feedback from our entrants, our sponsors, our buyers and our members. Since our mission is to document, preserve and share the history of quilts and their makers, our contest allowed us to record and archive the work of today’s quilters while raising critical operating funds. We’re excited about the next chapter and look forward to sharing, so Please Stand By!

In the mean time we thought you might enjoy a series of themed galleries of past contest entries, like this one focused on portrait quilts. We do love a quilted face!

[huge_it_gallery id=”22″]