National Quilting Day -- March 15

How did this day of quilting come about? In the early 90's, the National Qulting Association sought to have Congress designate one day as a day to celebrate quiltmaking. Congress never did pass that legislation so NQA designated the 3rd Saturday of March each year as National Quilting Day. I was serving on the NQA board at that time and the day was patterned after Kentucky's Quilter's Day Out that has been held for many years. Now quilters all across the globe celebrate National Quilting Day with a variety of quilting events, from small gatherings of quilters, to shows and classes.

I attended the Quilter's Day Out event held at the Museum of the American Quilter's Society... and of course, I also stopped by some of our local quilt shops to see what's new and make some purchases of quilting supplies. It was after all a day about the art of quiltmaking.

On Friday, our office received this beautiful bouquet of flowers from the Knoxville Convention Center to celebrate National Quilting Day. AQS will be holding our summer shows in Knoxville, starting in 2009. The Convention Center already knows all about quilting from the large guilds in that area. Many of the members of their guilds are national prizewinning quilters. I just had to share this beautiful bouquet with you. It has a variety of purple flowers, red roses, and pussy willows - a sure sign that spring is here.

Knoxville, TN is site chosen for 2009 AQS Quilt Expo

Here I am in Knoxville, Tennessee, signing the contract for AQS to hold its summer show in Knoxville, starting in July 2009. To spread out our shows, we needed to move the summer show that we've been holding in Nashville in August to a July date. Gaylord Opryland did not have July dates for us in either 2009 or 2010. We found a great facility in Knoxville. The convention center is really beautiful - it has excellent exhibit hall space, and wait until you see the classrooms! The lobby areas are full of artwork of all kinds - sculptures, mosaics that cover an entire wall, paintings and wallhangings of all kinds, including a few quilts. Artwork was included in their budget for building the convention center, and it certainly makes this facility unique and shows their appreciation for the arts. Now I know you are all excited and want more information, but we are really just in the planning stages for this show. The registration materials will be ready in January 2009. Hotels will not take reservations until July 2008. This is a great spot for you to plan a family holiday in July - the Smoky Mountains are very close - I'll have to figure out how many minutes away they are.