Quilters converge in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - Vibrant, colorful quilts filled the commons at Moses Lake High School Friday and Saturday for the Piecemakers quilt show.

"It went really well," said Barbara Bolton, co-chair for the quilt show. Approximately 150 people attended on Friday and she thought more than that attended on Saturday.

Shirley Kinyon came to view quilts with her husband Don. She said she's been quilting for six or seven years.

"It's an amazing pastime," she said. "It allows you to be creative. I don't have a whole lot of artistic ability, but this helps me."

She makes quilts for her church and the senior center group Creative Cutouts to donate to various charitable causes.

"I don't sell my quilts, I give them away," she said.

Sisters Debbi Brown and Ginger Kidder from Ephrata said it was their love of quilting that led them to the quilting show Friday.

"It's a great community thing, I think," said Kidder. "We like designing our own quilts and putting them together so we make kind of like one-of-a-kind and then, you know, taking other people's patterns and adding our own colors to them."

Debbie Snyder was at the show promoting her business, "Sew Simple Patterns." Snyder designs original quilting patterns that are sold internationally. She's been quilting since the early 1980s when she took quilting classes with her mother, she said.

Coming to quilt shows gives her an opportunity to spread the joy of quilting, she said.

"A lot of my patterns help the young gals and young men who want to sew learn to sew because everything I do is on a very simple, very beginner scale," she said.

Cheryl Walker, a member of Piecemakers, won a quilt that the Piecemakers raffled off during the event.

"This is wonderful," said Walker. "I'm excited!"

The quilt was designed by Virginia Cole and quilted by Gail Earl.

"The quilting is a pretty big part of the prettiness of the quilt," said Walker.