Regional Craft Shows Spotlight Makers, Quilt Heritage

Holiday craft shows in Spokane and southern Indiana are giving local makers opportunities to sell handmade goods, connect with customers and support community organizations; the Clark County YMCA event featured 45 vendors, with a larger Louisville show planned for November. Quilting is also in the spotlight through exhibitions showcasing regional work and textile history: Parkersburg’s annual heritage quilt show presents 53 quilts in styles ranging from antique to machine- and hand-quilted, while a Derry exhibition brings together 15 quilts illustrating how women repurposed shirt-factory fabric into practical bedcovers. Separately, renewed research into the Sears Century of Progress Quilt Contest has uncovered additional surviving entries and revisited its historic designs and disputed judging.