Texas Quilt Museum

This past weekend my family took a little road trip out to the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange, TX. My Butterfly Swirl quilt was on display in the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Prizewinners 2024 exhibit and Saturday was the last day to see it.

I was so honored that this quilt won a Blue Ribbon as well as the Best in Category award for piecing at the Houston Rodeo. The quilt will go on from the TQM and hang one more time at International Quilt Festival, before finally coming home to me.

The Texas Quilt Museum is housed in two historic 1890s buildings in La Grange, Texas. It was founded by fifth-generation Texas quilters. Karey Bresenhan, CEO of Quilts, Inc., and Nancy Puentes, executive vice president of Quilts, Inc. The pair have brought thousands of quilts to International Quilt Festival in Houston each year since 1974.

However, they realized many people were unable to see them since the show is a relatively short amount of time. They wanted a place where even more people could discover and appreciate quilts as art in a setting that showcased them for longer periods. The Texas Quilt Museum opened its doors in November of 2011, which makes William about two months older than the museum. 😆

This was the second time we made the drive to La Grange to visit the museum. It is about an hour and a half drive from our part of Houston. The rotating exhibits usually last a few months, and you can see their upcoming exhibits HERE.

As a parent I love that they have a variety of crafts and games that kiddos can play while at the museum. William and Sam both did the scavenger hunt while we were there. The hunt tasked them with finding different quilts and then matching that quilt to a clue on the paper. It was a lot of fun, and they got a prize at the end. It is a great way to get kids looking at the artworks and engaging with them in a unique way.

Thoughts on Entering Shows

I started entering quilts in shows back in 2014 for the second QuiltCon in Austin. I did not get in. The #QuiltConReject hashtag on Instagram grows year over year. And there are some damn good looking quilts under that hashtag.

Is QuiltCon the only show out there? Definitely not. While many modern quilters do focus on entering QuiltCon, I believe there’s so much more out there. I have nothing against QuiltCon—I’m even teaching there next February! However, its popularity means the competition has become tougher, with the ratio of quilts entered to those accepted growing smaller each year. Kelly Spell has a great breakdown of the numbers on her website. Though I’ve been a #QuiltConReject over the years, I’ve also entered and had quilts accepted into a few other shows.

Quilt Shows to Enter

My biggest piece of advice if you’re on the fence about entering shows is start with a local show. Unlike QuiltCon, the competition is normally a smaller field. Plus it’s more common to enter a quilt made from a pattern, like my quilt is above. My Rainbow Railroad quilt is also made from a pattern and it hang in two different AQS shows. I encourage you to look into local shows including State Fairs, the Rodeo, or local quilt guilds.

I’ve entered and had quilts accepted into a few national-level quilt shows, including:

One resource I learned about recently is CaFÉ™ aka callforentry.org. The have a variety of art calls, not just quilt shows so it can be a fun change of pace. This definitely is not an exhaustive list, rather more of a starting point for inspiration. The main takeaway I want to emphasize is this: You do beautiful work, you are worthy, and there’s other shows out there to enter. 💖 And you never know what will happen, like winning a best in category award. 😁

Have you ever entered your work in a show?

Texas Quilt Museum | Thoughts on Entering Quilt Shows