This year's quilt is a pieced quilt; an original design by Joan Dyer which was first seen in the book Great American Quilts for 1998. Ardy Tobin, Joan Dyer and Ann Sanderson selected the over 75 batiks (in shades of blue, purple and green) and 25 butterscotch prints from local fabric shops. Joan Dyer dyed the backing fabric.

The Mountain Art Quilters pieced the 120+ nine patch blocks. Joan and Ardy did the rest of the construction. The quilt measures 100" x 116" and can be used on either a Queen or King bed.

How does it begin? It seems that a lot of people are involved. Fabric is selected, and in this case, Joan overdyed fabric for the quilt's backing. They cut over 120 pieces of the fabric into exact shapes and sizes. Then they sew some of them together. Someone, as shown below, designs the quilt by placing the pieces onto a fabric-board.

What is quilting? That's the thousands of tiny stitches, formed into a beautiful pattern, which holds the backing, batting and top, together. The photograph at the bottom of this page shows the 'quilting' being done to our 2007 Opportunity Quilt. This is called machine quilting, as opposed to hand quilting. Both methods bond the three layers together with a beautiful stitch pattern.

The end result is a beautiful work of art. This quilt measures 100" x 116" which can be used for either a Queen or King size bed.