By Jesse Bertel

See more than 300 quilts at “Bloom Where You Are Planted,” a biennial quilt show presented by Thumb Butte Quilters Guild (TBQ). The quilt show will feature quilts reflecting the diversity of the members, representing traditional, modern and art-style quilts. Quilt show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, June 16, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 17, in the Prescott High School Gym, 1050 Ruth St., Prescott.

This show is for quilters as well as those who just want to come and enjoy beautiful quilts. Patricia Noel, a guild member, explained that quilting started out as a way of repurposing old material.

“Quilting has been around forever, way back, nothing was wasted,” Noel said. “If a shirt or jeans or whatever wore out, they took the good pieces and they quilted those together, sewed those together then would create a quilt that was used for the bed.”

Noel said quilts were even made out of feed bags.

“The feed companies put their feed in different colored bags,” she said. “The ladies would go through and buy the chicken feed or buy whatever it was they were buying in those bags because they wanted that specific feed bag for their quilt, for their clothing. A lot of children’s clothing was made from feed sacks.”

The well-stocked Vendors Mall will offer a variety of products including sewing machines, fabrics, notions, tools, patterns, kits and other items. This year a Quilt Appraiser will be available for those who are interested. Quilts and other items handmade by Guild members will be for sale in the ever-popular Market Place.

A Basket and Opportunity Quilt drawing will be on Saturday. Tickets for these drawings are $1 each or six for $5. Although winners do not have to be present to win, they will have to make arrangements to pick up their prize. There will also be a Small Quilt Auction on Saturday.

The 2023 President’s Challenge quilts will also be on display. This year each of the quilts will portray the name of a song.

“One of them had a ram and a lamb and a ding dong, so Rama Lama Ding Dong was the name of the song,” Noel said. “Mine had a big ocean and a clock and a rainbow and it was Rainbow at Midnight by Ernest Tubb.”

Admission is $5 for both days. There will be food trucks available on site.

The purpose of TBQ is to advance appreciation of quilting through education. This is accomplished by offering programs, workshops, ongoing group projects and special events throughout the year.

For more information about the quilt show and the Guild, visit www.thumbbuttequilters.com.