AQS adds quilt show in Daytona Beach

American Quilter’s Society has added an eighth quilt show to its 2016 schedule in Florida. The newest QuiltWeek show will be held February 24 through 27 at the Ocean Center, 101 North Atlantic Avenue, Daytona Beach.

The finer details of the show still need to be finalized, but Bonnie Browning, executive show director for AQS said there will be a new contest with $50,000 in cash prizes and 500 to 600 quilts in the show and special exhibits. AQS organized the Daytona QuiltWeek to add a winter show in the southeast to reach quilters who spend their winters in the south.

“We try to hit it so a lot of people are either home or at their home away from home when we’re going to be there,” Browning said.

Newcomers to the show are often surprised by the type of quilts on featured in AQS shows. They feature fiber art, wall hangings and creations that don’t resemble the bed quilts many quilters remember growing up.

“It is a fiber arts show and I think sometimes people think they’ll see quilts like grandma made,” Browning said. “Well they’ll see quilts that are like what today’s grandma makes, which is much different than what they’re used to seeing.”

The show will also feature an expansive vendor mall with 200 to 250 booths filled with all the latest sewing machines, quilting tools, thread, rulers, notions and anything else needed to make a quilt.

“They can come test drive every make and model of sewing machine at the show and I highly recommend that they do,” Browning said.

There will also be 100 classes available taught by 25 of the top quilting instructors ranging from one-hour lectures to three- and six-hour classes.

AQS is also considering adding another QuiltWeek in 2016 in the southwest, continuing to expand from its original show and contest in Paducah, Kentucky in 1984.

“We fill every hotel for 50 miles in every direction,” Browning said of the Paducah show. “Not everybody can come to Paducah so we started taking our shows out to people throughout the country. … We’re taking our shows to the quilters.”

For more information on QuiltWeek, visit www.quiltweek.com.