Quilts In The Garden at Thanksgiving Point has turned into a yearly event, attracting people from all across the nation. I was home 3 years ago for the first one. Each year it gets bigger and better.
This year, I arrived at 10:00 this morning and I went to hear Karen Ashton’s welcoming remarks in one of the big tents. Quilters were streaming into the gardens. Karen did a very nice job. She started by showing my Maple Leaf quilt. Then she told a story about seeing her first quilt as a young girl. It was Christmas day and she went over to her best friend’s house to see what she’d received for CMS. Her friend had moved all of her gifts to her bedroom and was proudly displaying them. At the end of her bed there was a Maple Leaf quilt, folded and off to the side. Karen saw it and touched it and said, “what’s this??” Her friend said, “Oh that’s just a quilt. My grandma gives one to me and one to my sister every year.” This grandma only had the 2 grandchildren. Karen lost all interest in the other gifts and only wanted to see this amazing quilt. That’s where it all started for her.
She shared a beautiful personal history of her quilting world–from being a financially-strapped mom with 8 children, with a husband who taught at BYU, to being a maker and collector with 11 children who love quilts. She showed some of her own quilts and some of her very choice collected quilts. She’s a good story teller and it was fun to be there, listening.
This year, Karen arranged for our Thimblecreek Quilt Group to have our own tent to show some of our favorite quilts.
Four of my quilts were displayed here–this is my Flower Basket Quilt:
Here are my Cobblestone and my Christmas Quilts:
And here is my Pizza Pie quilt:
All of these others were made by my quilt group friends. They are spectacular!
Karen arranged for our quilt group to have an English Tea at 12:30 in the tent with our quilts. It was Delightful!
After the tea, we all went our ways to look at the quilts.
I met up with some of my dearest Book Club friends to spend the rest of the afternoon touring the gardens and enjoying the quilts.
Here are a few of the quilts I enjoyed looking at:
The flowers in the gardens were also spectacular. It was a pretty perfect day!
