By Caroline Santiago
More than 160 unique hand-made mini-quilts for each 2002 Olympic and Paralympic team will be on display this weekend at the Utah Quilt Guild for a “soft salute.”
The Utah Quilt Guild is hosting their annual meeting, “Wonderful World of Quilting,” on Sept. 27-29 at the Provo Marriott Hotel. The mini-quilts will be on display in the lobby.
Jodi Warner, project coordinator for “soft salute,” said it was an obvious choice to express the Guild”s welcome to the world through needlework.
Each mini-quilt is unique and has a central idea of Utah and the Olympics, said Saundra Cindrich, mountain lands representative.
“The Olympic ”soft salute” has been well received in Utah and at the end there will be 250 quilts to be presented to each team,” she said.
It was a challenge to represent the Olympics on the quilts because no Olympic torches or rings were allowed on the quilts, said Gretchen Freeman, publicity chairman.
“Many of the quilts display snowflakes, winter scenes or mountains,” she said.
More than 8,000 volunteer hours have been put into making these mini-quilts, Freeman said.
She said it is exciting not knowing where the quilts will end up, after they are handed out to the teams. Each quilt will include a post card to be sent back to the quilter, telling where the it has ended up.
During the Atlanta Games, bed-sized quilts were given to each team. The Salt Lake Olympic Committee said they are glad this year”s quilts will be only 20-by-20 inches because it will limit the amount of gifts athletes will have to haul home.
Cindrich said this year”s meeting will have three nationally recognized quilting teachers: Elly Sienkiewicsz, Bonnie Lyn McCaffery and Crane Johnson.
Other local Utah quilt teachers will be teaching more than 50 quilting classes. The classes will include everything from appliqu? to piecing. They will even an all night quilt class, Cindrich said.
Some of Utah”s best quilts will be displayed for judging from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. The admission is $2 dollars.
A merchant mall will be set up with 11 different specialty shops where quilters can find every thing they need in one place, Cindrich said.
For more information on quilting classes email or call (801) 548-3476.
