This year’s Festival of Quilts is a Salute to the Red, White and Blue celebrating America’s 250th anniversary (semiquincentennial). The Quilt Festival will be held at the Dawes County Fairgrounds April 24-26.; Friday and Saturday the show will be open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The featured quilter this year is Sonja Taylor from Alma, Nebraska. Sonja Bose Taylor grew up on a Nebraska farm. She and her husband retired near Alma after having lived in numerous US cities. Sonja’s work career focused on teaching elementary music but her retirement years have focused on quilt making. Sonja enjoys making bed sized quilts as well as many smaller projects such as table runners and wall hangings for a variety of seasons and holidays. Sonja enjoys working with quilters cotton and flannel but she has most recently ventured into the world of wool applique’. She has exhibited many quilts and other projects at the Nebraska State Fair; the most recent two award winners were wool appliqued on flannel. Sonja does all of the quilting of her projects on her APQS long arm machine. World travel has been a big part of the Taylor family’s activities. Those experiences have contributed to the creativity of Sonja’s projects. As the featured quilter of the event, she will display and discuss quilts and other projects with a wide variety of techniques. She will be available to answer questions throughout the event.
In addition to the featured quilter there will also be a trunk show each afternoon by Katie Miller of Chadron, and the Crawford Quilt Guild. Linda Novotny will be showing quilts created by the late Carol Wacker.
Vendors joining the Quilt Festival this year include Journey Back Quilts from Casper, Wyoming; Seams, Etc. from Pierre, SD; Quacky Quilter Haberdashery from McCook, Nebraska; and Sew Blessed from McCook, Nebraska.
The Salute to the Red, White and Blue 2026 Chadron Festival of Quilts promises to offer a great show this year. The quilt festival is produced in part by a grant from the Dawes County Travel Board.