Who took home top honors at the Pins and Needles Quilt Show?

With the season of growth in full swing, the Shadow Mountain Quilters celebrated all the wonder and beauty that can be inspired by nature during its annual Pins and Needles Quilt and Fiber Arts Show, where the theme of “Spring in Bloom” had the Bob Ruud Community Center transformed into a world of vivid color.

Taking place Friday and Saturday, April 4 and 5, the 2025 Pins and Needles Quilt Show marked two decades in the community and it has now gotten so large that the Shadow Mountain Quilters are even considering finding a new venue for future shows.

“We actually had to limit the number of entries this year,” Quilt Show Chair Joyce Bowser told the Pahrump Valley Times as attendees filtered through the show. “We love this community center for its central location but really, we’re way too big for this space now — we had to cut down the show by 29 quilts. And if we had more space, we could also have vendors at the show, too. We’d love to do that again.”

This year’s quilt show featured more than 80 entries in the quilting competition, along with 21 non-quilt entries in categories such as crochet, knitting, embroidery and more. The multitude of crafty fabric artwork came in a profusion of colors, from brilliantly bright hues to pastel shades and everything in between, with eye-catching pieces at every turn.

On top of the exhibition of quilting skill, show-goers were invited to sit down and learn a few new tips and techniques from five ladies in the know.

Cindy Deschamp presented a workshop on barn quilts and Kelley Tortaro taught attendees about how to create half-square triangles four different ways. Jennifer Baggett offered demonstrations on wool applique and Darla Holt teamed up with Marilyn Herbert to teach quilters how to prepare their quilts for the longarmer. Terri Holloway, who has been participating in the Pins and Needles Quilt Show for more than a decade, was back again too, offering her expertise in quilt appraisal.

Taking home Best in Show at the Pins and Needles Quilt Show this year was Theresa Caselman for her piece “Lavender Lyrics,” a small quilt repleted with purple tones and added textural details.

Other special awards for 2025 included: Judge’s Choice, Lisa Quiel - “Omigosh”; Viewer’s Choice, Violet Touchton – “Treble Illusion for my Son”; Best Piecing, Touchton - “Treble Illusion for my Son”; Best of Theme, Julie Ritchie - “Ladybug Petal Party”; Best Use of Color, Ritchie - “Braided Dresdens”; Best Applique, Gale Isaacson - “Garden Party”; Best Machine Quilting, Darla Holt - “Welcome Winter”; Best Hand Quilting, Diane Johnston - “Favorites of Hawaii.”

Every year the members of the quilting guild also take part in two special challenges, one for fabric arts of any variety and another for Best Hat at the show. The theme for 2025’s fabric arts challenge was birth-month flowers. Winning Most Humorous was Yvonne Rettagliata for her embroidered toilet paper roll while Most Creative went to Holt for her piece “Daffodils in Water”. Awarded Best Use of Theme in the challenge was Lisa Quiel for “February Flowers” and Viewer’s Choice went to Sue Carpenter for “Hummingbird and Daffodil”. Baggett won the hat challenge with her tree-like headgear inspired by Mother Nature.

As to the group overall, the Shadow Mountain Quilters are doing very well, Bowser remarked. Membership is now verging on 150-plus but the quilters are always happy to welcome new members into the guild.

For more information visit ShadowMountainQuilters.com

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com