Quilt show is Sept. 12 and 13

The Hill City Quilt Show is coming up.

The two-day event will start on Sept. 12 and will end on Sept. 13. Each day, the show will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the gyms in the Hill City Middle School.

“We’ll also have quilts along Main Street,” said Mackenzie Swanson, executive director of the Hill City Arts Council. “We’re excited about that. We’re excited to have the businesses participating. It will be a good way to bring our community together.”

Over 150 quilts have been registered for the quilt show, Swanson said. This year, in addition to quilts, there will be fiber arts included. Swanson said she’s excited about that because it broadens the horizon of the show.

Swanson said preparation for the show has been going well. She said she has a great board working hard on the show, and the Quilt Guild has worked very hard, too.

“Of course, they’ve been working all along making quilts, so that’s a big portion of it,” Swanson said. “I’m really excited to see what we come up with. I know this year has been a difficult year for everyone, so we’re excited to just be able to have it and grateful that we can have the show.”

Mask wearing will be encouraged at the show, and social distancing will be recommended.

Swanson said she is hoping the quilters will show off the masks that they have made to show off their artist’s spin.

This year will feature vendors, as well. There are a total of 20 vendors. This year, the vendors won’t be set up at just the gym. They will also be at Quilt Time, located at 177 Museum Drive on the south end of town.

“The idea is to get people to walk the full length of downtown,” Swanson said. “We really want our local businesses to do well, to benefit from this show and to be involved. We try as an arts council to keep our community involved in what we’re doing and make sure it benefits everyone.”

Like every year, awards will be handed out (best of show, mayor’s choice and first and second place awards in the nine categories); however, it will be done differently. In year’s past, one award would go to just the quilt.

That’s not the case this year.

“With quilters, sometimes it’s two different people who are working on that quilt,” Swanson said. “So I might piece it together, but then I send it off to someone who will do the actual quilting part. So this year what we’re doing is if I won first place, the person who helped also gets first place. That’s a very cool thing that they decided to do this year. Instead of just recognizing the person who pieced the quilt, they are also recognizing the person who quilted it. That might be the same person.”

There will also be a free kids activity and demonstration from vendors throughout the day.

The demonstrations, too, will be different. The demonstrations will be done at the vendors’ booths and will not be held at a specific time.

There will also be the Pillowcase Roundup this year, which goes to benefit local nonprofits. This year, the Pillowcase Roundup will go to benefit Sleep in Heavily Peace, an organization who builds beds for children who do not have one, as well as foster care organization sand Gifts from the Heart.

“(Pillowcase Roundup) gives area quilters and sewers an opportunity to make pillowcases to be donated to local children in need,” said Marian Johnson, who organizes the Roundup.

The Pillowcase Roundup has been going on for four years now. The pillowcases made are displayed at the show. For drop off location contact the arts council at 574-2810.

“We have had over 200 pillowcases each year,” Johnson said.

This year’s Pillowcase Roundup will take place at 2 p.m. on Sept. 12.

The annual bed turning event will also be held at 5 p.m. on Sept. 12 at the Little White Church. For reservations please call 574-2937.

Swanson said the arts council is still looking for volunteers. Volunteers would be asked to do things such as sit at the registration table, help take down quilts Saturday and Sunday evening and have people walk around town and direct people to the gym if they want to buy a quilt. The money from the quilts purchased on Main Street go to benefit Project Warm Quilts.

Volunteer shifts will be two-hours or, as Swanson puts it, “whatever you can do.”

“We’re also asking everyone in the surrounding area to hang their own quilts on their fences or railings or close lines just to make a big show of it and as people are driving into town there’s quilts hanging, and all these other homes will have quilts,” Swanson said.