DES MOINES, IA – Quilt Haven on Main, a quilt shop in Hutchinson, Minnesota, has been chosen as one of
the 10 featured shops across the United States for the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of Quilt Sampler® magazine,
published by Better Homes and Gardens.
Quilt Sampler, published twice a year, has been profiling North America’s top quilt shops for the past 22 years.
Quilt shops submit a detailed application on their history, business promotions, charitable work, teaching schedulesand design philosophies. A panel of quilt experts led by Linda Augsburg, Editorial Content Chief of AmericanPatchwork & Quilting® magazine, narrows down the applications to 10 featured shops for each issue.
Competition to be included in Quilt Sampler is keen. Nearly 3,000 quilt shops are eligible to apply for this year’s
honor. Quilt Haven on Main and the other nine shops chosen were photographed and interviewed by a team from
Quilt Sampler, and a multi‐page profile of the shop will appear in the issue, which will be available on newsstands
on May 16, 2017. Employees of each quilt shop also design an original quilt for the magazine, and the full‐sized
pattern for the quilt appears in the issue of Quilt Sampler.
Quilt Sampler has proven to be a huge success, and early, out‐of‐print issues are collector’s items. Chosen
shops are inundated with visitors and requests for the shop’s quilt patterns and fabrics. Quilters are known to try
and visit all the shops in each issue, getting the signature of each shop owner in their copy of the issue.
The art of quilting has changed dramatically since the days of quilting bees in church basements, with quilting
enjoying a major renaissance across the country. A Quilting Consumer Insights study, completed in 2011 by
American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, reports that the U.S. quilting market is comprised of 4.2 million avid
quilters. Further research shows that readers of American Patchwork & Quilting spend an average of $1,165 per
year on quilting supplies and complete nearly 11 projects per year. This group is overwhelmingly female, well
educated, affluent, and have been quilting for almost eight years.
