Scroll the La Plata Quilters Guild Facebook page and you’ll learn a lot about this singular community organization. Fifty-one members strong with a long, local history building on a deep American tradition, LPQG members simply love the art of quilting. Attend any meeting, and you’ll witness camaraderie, warmth and humor.
At the La Plata County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday, LPQG will host its semiannual show.
If you go
WHAT: Festival of Color 2025 by La Plata Quilters Guild
WHEN: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: La Plata County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall, 2500 Main Ave.
TICKETS: $5 adults, free children under 12.
MORE INFORMATION: Call 259-1079 or email www.lpqg@gmail.com.
“Quilting takes time,” Exhibit Chairwoman Barbara Morgan said. “That’s one reason why we shifted to biannual exhibits.”
Morgan estimates 100 quilts will be on display, many of which are for sale. In addition, there will be a boutique with hand-quilted/sewn items for sale and about 10 vendor booths. A Small Quilt Silent Auction will be held on Saturday, and a spectacular, large quilt designed by Judy Livingston and contributed to by the membership will be the big raffle item.
Because the show is a fundraiser for the many outreach programs the Guild undertakes, an entry fee of $5 will be charged. Children under 12 are free. Raffle tickets are $1 each or six/$5.
“We make and give quilts to hospice as well as The Family Center, Health and Human Services, the Community Compassion Center, the Durango Shelter and Safehouse, and to friends in need,” said founding Guild member Charlotte Pirnat. “We also make dog and cat beds for the Humane Society and other animal shelters.”
The big 2025 exhibit is titled: “Festival of Color” and will have a special section for the 19 members who accepted this year’s challenge.
“We challenged members to create a small quilt, 24 x 24 inches, and they must use all nine colors of the color wheel,” Morgan said. “The variety is astonishing.”
Some challenge quilts are elegantly abstract: Morgan’s “Starburst.” Pirnat’s “Mini Color Pop” has the elegance of a minimalist painting. Others are whimsical: Noel Tambre’s “Rainbow Plus Trout” or Rachel Mauzy’s “The High Wheeler.” Barb McCall’s “The DNA of Spring: Under the Microscope” is an imaginative riff on allergies that she explains in a well-written artist’s statement.
“We love what we do,” Morgan said, and this year’s burst of color, pattern, texture and technique demonstrate that core belief. “And we make quilts to give away to Gold Star Families, local veterans and to individual Guild members who may be going through personal trauma.”
Morgan has been a Guild member since the 1990s when it began to exhibit at the Fairgrounds.
“We have 51 members,” she said. “Our dues are $30 a year. We meet on the second Thursday of the month at the Fairgrounds. During the year we have meetings where members and guests are invited to hear various presentations. And the best part is ‘show-and-tell.’”
The history of quilt making is as colorful as any art form. The massive collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London illuminates its trajectory and survival after the Industrial Revolution. American quilting surged in popularity in the 1960s along with many handicrafts, and it is undergoing another renaissance now. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln opened The International Quilt Museum in 2008 and has the largest known public collection of quilts in the world. It was founded back in 1997 as a study center, about the same time as the LPQG started, when collectors Ardis and Robert James donated a collection of 950 American quilts. The center evolved into the IQM and is affiliated with the university’s Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design in the College of Education and Human Sciences.
That’s only one reason the 2025 Festival of Color at the Fairgrounds belongs to a remarkable tradition.
Don’t miss it.
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.
