National Park Service

Louise with her Tallgrass Prairie Grasses and Wildflower quilt.

The preserve's 3rd annual prairie quilt display doubled in size with sixty-two quilts, four pieces of fabric artwork, and one afghan being displayed at the preserve over the Labor Day weekend with 142 visitors voting in the contest. A wide variety of quilts were on display making for very stiff competition, as all the quilts were beautiful and very unique. Quilts ranged from antiques, new creations, historic patterns, hand-quilted, machine quilting, embroidery, scrap, and more using old and new techniques.

A local Chase County resident won the honor of Favorite Quilt in this year's display with her Tallgrass Prairie Grasses and Wildflower quilt. The quilt bosts fine embroidery techniques and hand quilting using the tallgrass prairie grasses and wildflowers as its subject. Louise drew each pattern using a book and the prairie as a reference. She loved the quilt so much, she made herself another as the first was sold for a good cause.

Throughout the weekend children and adults learned more about the history of quilting, while quilting demonstrations were presented by National Park Service rangers. Visitors were encouraged to try their hand at quilting on the preserve's log cabin quilt.

The preserve wishes to thank all that participated in this year's display and for the show of support to keep this artform alive. Join us as we thank Louise for sharing her beautiful quilt and the love of the prairie.