Hill City Quilt & Fiber Arts Show this weekend

The Heart of the Hills Quilters are busy with final preparations for the 25th anniversary of the Hill City Quilt & Fiber Arts Show which takes place Saturday, Sept. 7 and Sunday, Sept. 8 at the Gins Gym from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Admission to the show is $7 for adults and free for children under 18. 

Twenty-five years ago the show started as an all-outdoor event. Today quilts are still displayed at businesses along Main Street, but the majority of the quilts and fiber arts are exhibited at the Hill City school gymnasiums. 

People from across the United States attend the show and enter quilts. Some come every year, and others plan their trips to the Black Hills around the event. That is why it is always held the weekend after Labor Day. Typical attendance is 1,200 people during the two-day event. 

To celebrate the anniversary, the quilt guild brought back classes and demonstrations, increased the number of vendors, invited two feature artists to attend, added raffle items and will have a quilt scavenger hunt on Main Street. 

“The committee has been working hard putting this whole thing together essentially since last October,” said Lorena Freis, show committee chairman.

Around 326 quilts and 64 fiber arts items of all different styles were registered for the show. These will be displayed throughout the school gymnasiums. There will also be a Pillowcase Project display of more than 136 pillowcases made by guild members and community members for various organizations like the Purse Project, WAVI and WEAVE shelters, Gifts from the Heart Tree, nursing homes and Sleep in Heavenly Peace. 

“With that many entries and that much variety, it should be a stellar show,” said Freis. 

The guild also invited both a locally renowned quilter and fiber artists to have a special display of their work at the show and visit with guests about it. 

This year’s featured quilt artist is Joyce Hoyer of Rapid City. 

“Joyce is enormously good at appliqué and making fabulous visuals so I think everyone will be amazed at her talent. I think everyone will enjoy her work as well. It’s usually very bright, very happy,” said Freis. 

Also coming from Rapid City, the featured fiber artist is Jean Selvy-Wyss, who has been weaving tapestries for over 40 years. 

“We’ve never had a fiber arts featured artist before so we are enormously honored that she has agreed to come. Having her here is a big win for our show just because she is enormously, enormously talented,” Freis said.

Also new this year are the classes and demonstrations. There will be three classes including The Oh So Professional Looking Dopp Kit with Hannah Larson, Hot Pad Class with Jody Tomac and Primitive Sunflower Rug Hooking with Sherrie Mumm. These are beginning-level classes, and instructors will show attendees how to complete the projects step-by-step. 

“There is a limited number of seating for classes. So if people wanted to take a class, they should go online and register now,” said Freis. 

Dates, times, fees and class information can be found at heartofthehillsquil

ters.com.

Along with this, Freis said, “there will be demonstrations throughout Saturday and Sunday by various quilters and various artists showing folks how to do what they’re most talented at and what they love to do the most.” 

For children, guild president Kay Cole and her daughter are running a Kids’ Area where children can color quilt blocks and learn to embroider. 

“Last year, we even had members of the middle school football team try their hand at it. I told them about famous sports figures who sew and knit and how it’s helpful to them,” said Cole.

In the vendor area there will be 18 vendors selling everything from fabric and notions, to wool and handmade yarns, to patterns and quilt supplies, to kitchen tools and custom pans. 

One vendor, Wilda McBride of Kathy’s Patchwork, is coming from the Atlanta, Ga., area for the show. 

“Everybody loves her products so we are seriously excited about her,” said Freis. “She makes just the cutest chenille horses and unicorns and blankets. Oh my gosh, it just makes your heart happy to look at them. We’re pretty excited about her coming all the way from Georgia.”

This year the guild will also raffle off four baskets filled with fun quilting-related items. 

“The other raffle that we have this year is for the scavenger hunt quilt. The scavenger hunt quilt was designed and made by Deborah Clutter of Deborah Clutter Designs. She is out of Rapid City. The quilt is divided into 15 different blocks in sections, and there are 15 merchant stores up and down Main Street that will have both a QR code and a copy of their block. So if a quilter visits all 15 stores, they can scan the QR code or be given a copy of that store’s block. 

“Miss Clutter has agreed to allow her quilt that she made and designed for this event to be raffled off at the quilt guild table. And then she is donating all of those proceeds to the quilt guild,” said Freis. 

The Bed Turning and Dinner event Saturday evening, sponsored by Xi Alpha Chi sorority, is already sold out. Along with a dinner spearheaded by Wally Matush and the other sorority sisters, the event is an opportunity for participants to share the story of their quilts. 

“It allows the quilter, the piecer, to talk about the quilt they made and why they made it. So it tells us the story of their quilt and allows 70 other event participants to enjoy that story and enjoy the feast of seeing beautiful quilts made by a variety of people,” said Freis. “It’s always one of the more popular events of the year.” 

At the end of the quilt show several awards will be presented. One of these is the Best of Show Award, which is voted on by all the show attendees. The recipient will also receive a cash prize. 

Meanwhile, the Best of Hill City Award will be presented by guest judge Blake Gardner, Hill City School District auperintendent. 

Several quilts are for sale as well, making the show a great place to buy a gift.

“If you’re not a quilter, please come and be a quilt appreciator. We would love to see everybody,” said Freis.

For more information, go to heartofthehillsquil

ters.com or follow the guild on Facebook.