Sioux Falls, SD
18^th Annual Minn-Kota Relief Sale
July 23 & 24, 2004

Celestial Garden

The Feature Quilt (left) was donated in memory of Edith Preheim, mother, grandmother, and avid quilter and MCC supporter.  The materials were bought and donated by the Peter P. Preheim family through funds raised by selling a family cookbook. Pieced by Lorrene Kaufman and appliqued by Elizabeth Graber (former South Dakotans) and quilted by the women of Salem Mennonite Church in Freeman, the quilt sold at noon for the highest price, $2300.

Talk with sale quilters at most sales eventually turns to the merits of machine-quilting. Some say it should not be allowed at sales, others are see it as a practical matter, well aware that many experts on intricate hand stitching, the women who have spent a lifetime quilting in church women’s groups, are now into their 80s and 90s.  Pictured here with Minn-Kota Quilt Chair Diane Dick and Marilyn are sisters Lena (81 yrs) and Anna Ewert (90 yrs) from the Carson MB Church in Delft, MN. who have quilted every year for either Minn-Kota or Twin Cities Sales.

Some quilters have suggested to us that machine-quilting is the wave of the future, that interest is shifting toward time spent piecing, appliquéing, choosing colors and designing.  A machine-quilt, “Tennessee Waltz” pieced by Anita Falk, Adeline Friesen and Jo Nickel sold for $1250.  When “Celestial Garden” donated by members of the Graber family, made by machine quilter Monica (Graber) Hofer, brought $2000, Gertie Graber exclaimed to Marilyn, “This is the biggest high you can have!”

In addition to the many beautiful quilts donated by Dakota and Minnesota area churches, quilts also came from the Oaklane Hutterite Colony Girls Youth Group, a Holdeman Sewing Circle from Iroquois, SD, the Beachy Amish Believers Fellowship Sewing Circle of Grove City, MN, as well a from the MCC Material Resources in Akron, PA where a variety of Mennonite and Amish groups are constantly quilting.

It was nice to see five whole cloth quilts: Feathered Pineapple, Welsh Beauty, Flower Basket, White Delight, and Queen Anne Star, averaging $800 each.  A detail of Queen Anne Star by Martha Walter and Sarah Hofer (MB and Hutterthal Churches), Freeman, SD is shown on the left. This antique tea-dyed quilt brought $1700.

The inclusion of non-traditional colors and designs was also stunning as seen in the detail from “Fractured Diamond” made by Phyllis Kaufman, Salem Mennonite, Freeman.

Marilyn represented Quilting Culture in Sioux Falls without Sharon. But good friend Rev. Rosie Epp, shown here setting up on Friday evening, kept Marilyn in business, hosting her, arranging for over ten interviews, bringing in numerous surveys, and setting up a display of the project at the main information table.  Thank you Rosie.

And thank you Minn-Kota for having the quilt auction signed for the hearing impaired—a gracious addition.

Questions:  At the Minn-Kota Sale, two auctions—quilt and woodwork—take place at the same time, in the same building, separated by rows and rows of quilts waiting to be sold.  Not surprisingly, quilts were almost exclusively the creations of women;  wood items, of men.  Why?  Do women have a special attachment to fabric?  to bed and wall coverings?  to the communal experience of quilting?

To discuss these and other questions click here on discuss.