Deseret News It’s easy.
Send a link to the story you were just reading to a friend. Just fill out the form on this page and we’ll send it along. Quilts come in all shapes and sizes, all colors and styles. Some are pieced some are appliqueed some are tied. And while beautiful quilts are still being made the old-fashioned way &mdash by hand &mdash in recent years, the fastest growing niche in the quilting world has been machine quilting. Spurred by the introduction of long-arm and other quilting machines for home use, the genre has grown rapidly, says Jennifer Pond, spokeswoman for the Sixth Annual Home Machine Quilting Show, which will be held this week at the South Towne Exposition Center. The event features classes, demonstrations, the latest technologies, a judged quilt competition (with more than $23,000 in cash awards and prizes), special exhibits, a quilted-garment display, “make-and-take” projects, a Vendor’s Mall with 200 booths and hundreds of quilts on display. The theme this year is “Pump Up the Color,” and that has double significance, says Pond. “Of course, the exquisite quilts are always vibrant and colorful, but that theme also reflects this year’s charity project, which is to build a well in a village in Kenya.” Every year, the show works with a different charity, she says. “From the first, we wanted it to be a vehicle for good,” says Pond.
In the past, they have had dealings with the village of Kwoyo Kochia, which is in a poor area and populated mostly by women and children who have been widowed and orphaned or abandoned by husbands and fathers. “We’ve taken them treadle sewing machines so they can make scarves and other things to sell. But we’ve found that now what they really need is a well for fresh water.”