Crafters reunite at 23rd quilt show

Vendors, teachers, quilters and visitors returned to Bloomington this weekend for the 23rd annual Indiana Heritage Quilt Show.

Quilts entered in the show were hung on display for judges and guests to view Thursday through Saturday at the Bloomington Convention Center.

Volunteers stood at their posts throughout the building next to quilts in categories of pieced, appliqué, youth quilters and art.

One volunteer, Dawna Petersen, returned to the quilt show after a long
hiatus.

Petersen said she mostly admires the works at the show, but she has made a couple of quilts herself.

“I sometimes add some quilting to something else I’m doing, but I don’t do full quilts,” she said.

Petersen said she is a textile and tactile person who enjoys the eye candy of quilts.
She said as a woman who’s sewn for a great deal of her life, her favorite part of the show was talking to visitors who were admiring the works on display.

“When I wander through alone, it’s probably trying to deconstruct designs, figuring out how to the pieces went together,” she said.

Petersen said though choosing a favorite quilt among the entries was too difficult a task for her, art quilts are her favorite.

Another volunteer, Danielle Abplanalp, rejoined the task force at the quilt show for her third year.

She said her mother, an avid quilter of 25 years, got her into the craft.
Abplanalp said she considers herself a novice.

“I started basically quilting baby quilts for friends,” she said. “Everyone seemed to be having babies at the same time, so I started making quilts.”

Abplanalp said she suggests to other newbies like herself to work through the difficulties of finding quality materials, thread, learning equipment and basic techniques.

She said it is necessary to work through the basics in order to reach the enjoyable aspect of quilting.

“A lot of it you can get from books and people that you know, and if you join a quilt guild, you have a whole bunch of people to talk to about it,” she said.

Alplanalp also said she encourages people who might be intimidated by the craft to start small and to be content with making mistakes.

“You don’t get to the level of this quality overnight,” she said, waving her hand at a first place appliqué quilt behind her. “It’s just a matter of having fun, enjoying the colors and the process.”

Alpanalp said she believed the Bloomington quilt show revealed heavily artistic quilts more than most venues.

“There’s not as many traditional style quilts in this show versus other ones where they have a lot more simple patterns,” she said. “This is much more artistic.”

Petersen said she also noticed a difference in Bloomington’s quilt festivities in terms of traditional design.

She said there seemed to be a push for more machine quilting and a change in the applicants of Bloomington’s show.

“When I volunteered before, the show was pretty new in Bloomington and most of the entries were from the area, so it’s got a much broader geographical scope,” Petersen said. “Now there are quilts here from all over the country.”

While observing visitors and receiving feedback from them, Petersen said she wanted others to come to the show for inspiration rather than comparison.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say today, ‘Oh, what I do just isn’t anything like this,’ but what they do is about them,” she said. “We’ve all got gifts to give and they are different.”

Alpanalp said she wanted the volunteers, entries and organizers of the show to encourage those around them.

“Even if you’re not going to do quilting, it’s a great place just to see colors and get any kind of artistic direction,” she said.