Quilt Trails Project

Quilt Trails wins prestigious award
Quilt Trails has received notification from the NC Office of Urban Development, a division of the NC Department of Commerce, that we have won a Small Town Main Street award for Promotion in “furthering the causes of downtown revitalization in your community.” We were competing with other small towns across the entire state. This is the first time the western North Carolina district has had a winner in the Small Town Main Street awards and the judges were so impressed with our project and application that they claimed they will use it as a model for others going forward! Awards will be presented at the North Carolina Main Street Annual Awards Dinner in New Bern on January 28.

2010 Calendar Winners
Winners of the 2010 Calendar contest are Jim Bailey, Joe Bennett, Jeff Boone, Marsha Burns, Stuart DeWitt, Phil Evaul, Rachel Garland, Angie Higgins, Dick Kennedy, Hugh Smith, Alisa Upson, Margaret Von Rosen, and Jewel Warrick. Thanks to everyone who submitted pictures!

Calendar contest winners will be featured in our first calendar, due into the gift shop on or about December 8. It is being printed right now. We ordered only 150 so if you want a calendar, either call to reserve yours, or plan to come into the gift shop in December. The 8.5”x11” full color calendars will be $12.95. Winners will each get one free calendar. The prototype calendar is already in the gift shop so go take a peek.

It is not too early to be thinking about entering next year’s calendar contest. We need pictures to illustrate every month, so we are looking for winter pictures, snow pictures, fall pictures, spring and summer pictures. If you have a favorite quilt block, start shooting pictures now for next year’s calendar. We want to use blocks in the 2011 calendar that were not featured in the 2010 calendar. The 2011 calendar deadline will be October 1. Be sure to read the rules. We need HIGH RESOLUTION pictures – not pictures shot with a cellphone or small snapshot camera. Make sure your pictures are in focus. We want pictures of barns, homes and buildings in Mitchell and Yancey counties.

Road Rally Winners
Quilt Trails of Western North Carolina held their first Road Rally, Thread Through the Mountains, on Saturday, November 7. The goal was to find 15 quilt blocks by driving the fewest miles. To prove you found the block, you had to report what the verification block at the site looked like. These were small colorfully painted blocks with a simple geometric symbol on them. Participants had until 4pm to find all the blocks. Participants were given a set of five maps to help them in their quest.

Donald and Linda Voltz, from New Durham, New Hampshire won the grand prize. He and his wife were visiting his twin brother in Brevard and the four of them spent at least an hour plotting their trip. It paid off and they won Rolf Holmquist's magnificent birdhouse.

Winner of the Bobbin route was Matthew and Sara Simms, from Burnsville. They won a hurricane lamp made by Sarah House. Second place was won by George DeWalder of Weaverville who won a blown glass tumbler made by Rob Levin. There was no third place winner in the Bobbin route.

Winner of the Thimble route was Dr. Ian Garriques and his wife, Susan, from Green Mountain. They won a quilt made by Barbara Webster. Second place was won by Deborah Smith and friends of Old Fort, who won a vase made by Claudia Dunaway. Third place was won by Cathy Swindall of Abingdon, VA who won a set of pillows made by Judy Dowis.

Winner of the Spool route was Donald and Linda Voltz from New Hampshire. They won a barn print made by Kay Workman. Second place was won by Charles and Kathy Rose who won a clay birdhouse made by Estela Shakelford. There was no third place winner on the Spool route.

To be eligible to win the grand prize you had to find all 15 blocks on your route. Not everyone qualified to win the grand prize, but it was clear everyone had a good time.

Deborah Palmer won the raffle quilt which was made by Chloe and Glenda Ramsey of the Bee Log community. The winning raffle ticket was pulled by Linda Hardesty. Deborah lives on Star Lane off Hardscrabble. We were all thrilled that Deborah won the quilt because it was Deborah who painted the Lone Star block upon which the quilt was based! The Lone Star block hangs on Julie Letterman’s home – directly across the road from Chloe Ramsey, her grandmother. Fate does some wonderful things sometimes! We managed to raise $1093 from the sale of raffle tickets. Thank you to all who bought a ticket and special thanks to Chloe and Glenda for making such a beautiful quilt.

Volunteers who helped make this first event successful were: Steve Hardesty, who came up with the idea and figured out all the itineraries and rules (no small feat); Fayma and Harry Childs, Ethel and Sam Nash, and Carole Pearson who helped distribute the verification blocks; Claudia Dunaway, John Richards, Joy Bennett, Estela Shakelford, Rob Levin, Kay Workman, Judy Dowis, Sarah House, Barbara Webster and Rolf Holmquist, artists who made prizes for the event; Violet Metcalf, Katie Webster and Carole Pearson who helped paint the verification blocks. Businesses and artists contributed coupons and private individuals and businesses with quilt blocks participated by hosting a verification block.

Sponsors of the event were Angel & Hughes Insurance, Beech Creek, Buchanan & Young Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep, Burnsville Chevrolet, Burnsville Health & Nutrition, Carolina First Bank, Crimson Laurel Gallery, David's Limited, de la Casa, In the Garden, Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce, Needle Me This, Radio Shack, The Country Peddler, Yancey County Chamber of Commerce, Ye Olde Country Store, Yummy Mud Puddle, and Mountain Lifestyle Communities.

Our thanks to each and every one of you for helping to make this first event a success. We got great feedback and will use that as we plan the second event.

Next Road Rally planned for June 26, 2010
Our second event will take place on Saturday, June 26 so mark your calendars NOW to participate! This event will offer a short route (roughly 2 hours) and a long route (roughly 5 hours). Want to volunteer to help? Now's the time to call! 828-682-7331.

And if you were one of the people on the tour and no one has yet picked up your verification block, feel free to bring it in to our Gift Shop at the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce or call us to let us know what is convenient for you (828-682-7331). Don’t throw it away-we will be using it again.

Meet Volunteer Cheryl Hughes
Cheryl Hughes has been a paint volunteer with Quilt Trails for two and a half years. She is the person who puts the certification mark (the green Q) on the side of the blocks, and she sometimes paints fabric detail on those blocks that are painted to match a family quilt. She is now serving as co-captain, along with Carole Pearson, for the paint team.

Cheryl and her husband Ricky live in Mitchell County on a farm once owned by Ricky’s grandmother. They moved here from Charlotte in 1992, where for many years Cheryl was lucky enough to be a stay-at-home mom while Ricky built his construction business.

After moving back to the mountains (Ricky was born and raised here and always wanted to come back), Cheryl got involved at Tipton Hill School where two of her children attended (her third child was in high school). She ended up becoming the manager of the school lunch program there.

For many years Cheryl had hobbies relating to crafts, sewing, and painting. She was always interested in art but never got into it seriously. Cheryl says “I was always too busy with kids.” But after all the kids were grown and left home, she started taking pottery and art classes. Cheryl likes to make a variety of things with pottery – cups, plates, bowls, art pieces, mostly useful things. She did a lot of sewing clothes, and a little bit of quilting, but doesn’t sew any more. Cheryl likes to do watercolors and has exhibited through Arts Centered in Bakersville.

When I asked her how she got interested in quilt trails, Cheryl said “I wanted to paint a block for my own family. But after I started painting, I discovered I really loved it so I became a volunteer. I think it is just great and I like being involved with it. I like the people I’ve met and the painting is fun.”
We appreciate all the time Cheryl has devoted to quilt trails, and the many many blocks she has helped paint. It is because of dedicated volunteers like Cheryl that this project has come as far as it has. Thank you Cheryl!

Need Volunteers
Painters: We have over 40 blocks in the hopper right now. Currently painters are working on blocks on Tuesdays from 10-1. But many of our painters have gone to Florida for the winter, and so the painting has slowed down. If you would like to help paint quilt blocks, please give us a call. You might want to join with some friends and commit to one or two days a month. It can be evening hours or weekend hours – just let us know what you want. We have a wonderful paint studio now: heat, light, bathrooms, utility sink – we are in heaven! The Paint Studio is located in the building with Shortbus Studio on East Main St. across from Dr. Aldridge’s Eye Institute.

Writers: We also need people to help write the stories that go into the Tour Guides. If you would like to see yourself in print give us a call and we’ll give you a story to write. The Tour Guides are sold in our Gift Shop and off our website and hopefully next year will be available in other stores in the area.

New in the Gift Shop
We have new winter greeting cards in the Gift Shop along with a couple of new products. Estela Shakelford has made new clay ornaments which are wonderful, as usual, Rolf Holmquist has brought in more magnet houses, and Louise Boudreau has brought in more magnets. We also have cross stitch quilt blocks and patterns for same. If you are looking for a specific block on a magnet, greeting card or ornament, let us know and maybe we can have it made for you. We also have really cute Christmas Tree ornaments of the quilt blocks for only $2! You can also buy a Gift Certificate if you want to give a quilt block to someone for Christmas, and we have LONG SLEEVE T-shirts. Please do some of your Christmas shopping with us. We are trying to raise money to hire a full time assistant for our Executive Director. All sales are celebrated and all donations are swooned over. Our Gift Shop is located inside the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce. It’s a small space but we have a lot of delightful goodies packed into it! Lynne McCullough, is the Gift Shop Manager and Violet Metcalf is her assistant. Both can take your special orders.

We wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving and joyful holidays.






Have a suggestion? You can call one of our Board Members, or our Executive Director.
Board members:
Norm Rabek nrabek@verizon.net 828-675-5413
Shirley Hise shise@mitchell-county.com 828-765-9033
Jake Blood yanceyedc@gmail.com 828-682-7722
Sue Ledford mtnprosue@gmail.com828-778-8111
LouAnn Morehouse info@avercountyartscouncil.org 828-898-4292
Barbara Tester barbara.tester@carolinafirst.com 828-682-7744
Barbara Webster, Ex. Dir. info@quilttrailswnc.org828-682-7331

Click Here To Visit Our Sister Radio Station

This page was last updated on Monday, 23 November 2009 05:00 PM