2026 Special Exhibit: America's 250th Anniversary
Quiet Valley Quilters Guild Retrospective
Quilts by Guild Presidents
As the country prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of America, it is a time to honor the contributions of all Americans. The Bennington Quiltfest will feature a special exhibit honoring our Guild Presidents over the last 42 years.
The display will feature over 30 quilts and quilted items reflecting a variety of styles and techniques. Several quilts are previous award winners.
The Quiet Valley Quilters started in 1984 when twenty-six die-hard quilters gathered to organize in the art room at Catamount School. Membership grew rapidly and necessitated the move to larger quarters. The first effort to raise funds for this group was a raffle quilt, and the Guild has sponsored a raffle quilt each year since.
The Guild held its first quilt show, now known as the Bennington Quiltfest, in 1994 to celebrate its 10th anniversary of the guild. The Quiltfest has been held annually for the last 32 years.
2025 Special Exhibit: AMERICA 250 - America's Semiquincentennial
These quilts were made to celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary.
2024 Special Exhibit: The Quilts of Serena Mattison
This exhibit has two parts, quilts made by Serena herself and shared with us by her family. The other part of the exhibit contains quilts lovingly assembled, layered and quilted by Quiet Valley Quilters’ Guild members. They used blocks and tops made by Serena and donated to the guild by her husband Rick. He also donated her fabric collection to the guild. These quilts and others using her fabric stash will be given to the local Southern Vermont Regional Cancer Center or our guild’s Quilt Cupboard.for people in need.
I Spy Hexagons
Yellow and Green Leaves
Amber Red Medallion
2023 Special Exhibit: Hoffman Challenge Quilts By Karen Pratt
Bennington Quiltfest presents 22 Hoffman Challenge Quilts created by Karen Pratt from 1997 to 2018.
Every year, Hoffman California Fabrics selects one or more fabrics and conducts a world-wide challenge to use these fabrics in a quilt, garment, or other related category. Karen used this as an opportunity to try something new each year, i.e., technique, design, textile, thread, embellishment, etc. 15 of these quilts were chosen to travel the country with one of their trunk shows.
2022 Special Exhibitor: Lucille Makrin
The Bennington Quiltfest will be featuring an eclectic collection of quilts made by Lucille Makrin over a 30 year period as their special exhibit in 2022.
Lucille Makrin, of Queensbury, N.Y. has loved fabrics since childhood by making doll clothes and eventually her own garments. Her grandmother nurtured her hand-needle skills and techniques. Lucille began her own cake decorating and doll clothes sewing businesses as a young mother on Long Island and went on to work for a sewing machine dealer and wholesale trim dealer. It was during this time that she took an adult education class in quilting. Lucille grew as a self-taught quilter and has dabbled in all aspects of fabric art and mixed media in the years since. Lucille expanded into art quilting in the 2000s after moving to Cambridge, N.Y. and joining the Adirondack Regional Textile Artists’ Alliance (ARTAA) and other guilds. She began participating in workshops and quilt challenges and enjoys thinking and creating ‘out of the box”. Many of her projects are fun and whimsical. Lucille incorporates embroidery, threadwork, and embellishing with beads, charms, stamps, and unusual items into her traditional and art quilts. She has been a member of eight regional quilt guilds and has had her work displayed in quilt shows and special exhibits in regional museums and galleries. She has won dozens of ribbons over the years. One of her favorite quilts Many Years on the Slopes received special recognition in The Quilter’s Newsletter magazine, Issue # 388, in December 2006.
Quilt photos shown (l-r): Many Years on the Slopes, Girlz Night Out, a 2009 ARTAA Challenge and Grandious Sunflower, begun as an S. Shaumber workshop quilt in 2013.
