Keys Quilters Festival
March 5 & 6, 2004
Islamorada, Florida
Mile Marker 89.5
What a perfect excuse to try out our new motorhome by taking a trip
to the Florida Keys at the same time a quilt show is going on! That is what we did this past March.
We “camped” in our RV right on the Gulf, and looked at the peaceful turquoise water for a couple
days, and then we headed back up the Keys with a plan to stop at a quilt show I had found in
theQuilterCommunity.com Quilting Event Finder (See the Home page).
We were trying to find the show at this small church when all of a
sudden we spot this car with quilt blocks all over it. We knew we were at the right place!
One of the
guild members summers in Michigan, and she borrowed the car quilt from a friend for the Florida
Keys Quilters Quilters’ Festival. The car is even drivable with the quilt covering on, because
there is screening over the windows, cut outs for the lights and mirrors, and velcro so you can
open the doors.
What a fantastic way to advertise a quilt show!
We were welcomed with open arms to the Keys Quilters’ Festival by the
guild members who were serving a scrumptious lunch and had a wonderful booth of hand made articles
and quilts for sale. There were two rooms full of quilts at the San Pedro Church, a raffle quilt, a
live auction (which the president’s husband dressed in a tux and top hat was conducting), delicious
gourmet morning coffee, luncheon and afternoon teas from their Key Lime Cafe, plus the country store
and of course the Car Quilt!
The award ribbons were made by the members and were unique and very
nicely done. The judge this year was Pamela M. Pampe from the Miami area, an AQS Certified Appraiser.
If you are interested in the Florida Keys Quilters Guild, they meet on
the first Saturday of the month at 10:00am in the Key Largo Library Community Room. They also have a
“sit and sew” on Fridays in the Key Largo Library Community room at 10:00am. The guild is active in
charity work for Coral Shores High School Scholarship Fund, Hospice and Visiting Nurse Association,
The National Breast Cancer Fund, the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, the Monroe County Children
Center, the Key Largo Library, the Island Home of Key Largo, the Quilter’s Hall of Fame, and the South
Florida Council of the Arts.
To contact the Florida Keys Quilters:
Florida Keys Quilters
PO Box 2781
Key Largo, FL 33037
Some of the quilts that were in the show were:

Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Amy’s Garden” By Diane Puto 109” x 139” received the Award for Best Use Of Color
“I made this quilt as a Christmas present for Amy and Jerry Puto. The pattern was no problem,
but the color scheme was. No longer, they loved it. They’ve recently purchased a new home and
the bedroom walls were already lavender."
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Jacobs Ladder” By Joan Allot 77” x 95” received the Award of 1st Place from quilts
in a class by Dolores Reiter.
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Halloween Dash” By Gale Polk received two awards: 2nd Places for Hand Appliqué &
Hand Quilting “This was so much fun to do! I love playing with embellishments and own
more than I’ll ever use.”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Oma’s Schortje or Grandma’s Apron” By Connie Akers 34” x 30” “The colors and fabrics
remind me of my Dutch Grandma’s aprons. She had many varieties, all blue including a Sunday
“Best”. I use this cloth daily as a decorative touch on a kitchen table.” This was Connie’s
first quilt. |

Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Bud One” By Loretta Brehm 48” x 55” “My older brother Bud just passed away, and I
needed to quilt away my grief. I am planning on a series of quilts inspired by the fun things
we used to do together. This quilt represents our time spent “sky watching.” As kids, we used
to play on the lawn looking at the clouds and stars. He taught me a lot of things.” |

Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Grandmother’s Flower Garden” By Harriett Rudoff 76” x 90”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“4 Generation Quilt” By Mary Wennerstrom 87” x 106” My mother had a box full of quilt
pieces in her attic on a farm in Brighton. She gave them to me: Dresden Plate was our first
quilt put together. I am now working on more of her blocks! This is Mary’s first quilt.
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Alphabet Quilt” By Barbara Oliver 58” x 66” This quilt was made for a wished grandchild
in mind. I was glad to dip into my stash and use up a lot of scraps, too.
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Birds Of Paradise, Tropical” By Alison Shamblen 80” x 80” “I love bright tropical
fabrics and colors and enjoy paper piecing….A great combination!”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Cosmos” By Mary Lou Wilkinson 62” x 76” “My first Round Robin, and I think everyone
did an excellent job. I started out with the center medallion on coral, and Sheila took it
off and put it on black, and added the corners that were leftover from the center. From there
everyone added on to it, to what is now a great quilt.”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Dragonflies and Stars” By Alison Shamblem 120” x 120” “I started making some paper
pieced stars…….and I got prolific and made a king-sized quilt.”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Herds Of Birds” By Mary Lou Wilkinson “This quilt started out to be 42” x 59”, but I
had so much fun making the geese that it grew. This is my second 3-D flying geese quilt, and
I hope to do more in the future.”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Jewel-Toned Stars” By Mary Ellen Sample 110” x 114” “I began making the stars in 1997,
assuming they would make up quickly. Well, they didn’t. I showed the bag of blocks to Jaki Rowe
who offered me a challenge. If I would “complete something”, she would quilt it. I now love it!”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Stars And Sails” By Alison Shamblen A learning experience! In the future I will measure
and make a pattern first….This was time consuming and required a lot of improvisation!”
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Courtesy of Keys Quilters Festival |
“Tablecloth Series” By Kim Hunt “I vowed to use up my scraps before buying more fabric
or making other quilts. I managed to make 5 scrap tablecloths before breaking my vow and how!
The flowered blocks in number 2 are from dresses from my teaching days. On number 3, I’ve hardly
made a dent in my bag of scraps! About number 4: we do like to have pancake breakfast for 20 or
more so we use folding tables, which I like to cover with quilts instead of standard tablecloths.
Number 5: From the high level of scraps and the low level of style, you can see why I lost my
enthusiasm for this scrap reduction project! I started several more quilts or scrap producing
projects, and will come back to this later.”
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©2004 Dori Hawks
www.thequiltercommunity.com
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