More than 800 quilts from around the world are hanging inside DeVos Place this week, part of a competition offering $50,400 in total prize money as AQS QuiltWeek Grand Rapids returns for its 13th year. The show runs through Saturday, August 22, drawing entrants, vendors, and shoppers into downtown Grand Rapids for one of the region's largest textile arts gatherings.
A Missouri Quilt Takes Top Honors
Among the 365 contest entries judged this year, a piece called The Visitation, created by Ricky Tims in Missouri, won Best of Show, according to MLive. Michelle Renee Hyatt, executive director of the American Quilter's Society, described QuiltWeek Grand Rapids as the organization's second-largest annual event. The show is held at DeVos Place, located at 303 Monroe Ave. NW, a downtown convention center that gives the event room to display its sprawling exhibit alongside a large merchant mall.
The competitive stakes carry real financial weight. AQS's flagship Paducah show alone awards over $110,000 annually and has topped $7.9 million in total lifetime competition awards across its national events, a scale that traces back to the organization's roots. AQS was founded in 1984 in Paducah, Kentucky, by Meredith and Bill Schroeder, who set out to elevate quiltmaking into a recognized fine art form; the pair went on to open the National Quilt Museum in Paducah in 1991. At its very first show in 1985, AQS handed out a $10,000 top prize, a record sum at a time when most quilt shows offered only ribbons.
Workshops, Lectures and a Community Beyond the Quilts
Beyond the judged entries, QuiltWeek Grand Rapids includes 70 workshops along with lectures and demonstrations, plus special workshops and events scheduled before and after official show hours. Show hours run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission runs $15 for a one-day nonmember pass, $27 for a two-day pass, and $35 for a multi-day pass, with discounts available for AQS members and children 12 and younger admitted free with an adult.
Hyatt said quilting offers something beyond technique. “Quilting is a community,” she said, adding that the craft provides inspiration and ideas about colors and techniques, and that QuiltWeek gives newcomers a chance to see quilting at a high level and learn from experienced makers. The West Michigan Quilters Guild helps visitors navigate the convention each year, and member Betsy Carlson echoed that sense of belonging, saying quilting gives people community and that quilting groups offer friendships and purpose beyond the craft itself. Carlson also said Grand Rapids' downtown, restaurants, and arts scene help fit the annual event.
Local Guilds Compete Alongside Global Entries
Michigan quilting groups are represented among this year's competitors even as quilts arrive from around the world. Mary Beth Donovan of Farmington Hills, who has quilted for more than 20 years, said the craft became her passion. The Creative Seasons group, part of the Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild, has remained together for more than two decades after starting with maybe 25 people; the group earned second place in this year's guild challenge competition.
The event's footprint reflects a much larger industry. Quilting in America research places the U.S. quilting industry's value at roughly $4.2 billion, supported by an estimated 9 to 11 million active quilters across North America, according to Craft Industry Alliance. That same research found 98% of North American quilting consumers are female with an average age of 65, and that dedicated quilters spend six to 10 hours per week on their craft — a demographic profile that lines up with the crowds filling DeVos Place's 162,000-square-foot exhibit hall this week.
Hosting an event of this size depends on the venue's scale. DeVos Place encompasses 1 million gross square feet in total, including its column-free exhibit hall and a 40,000-square-foot ballroom along the Grand River, according to Grand Action 2.0. The facility, completed in 2005 at a cost of $215 million, was funded through a public-private partnership that included $93.4 million from Kent County, $65 million from the State of Michigan, and $33.2 million in private contributions led by a $20 million donation from Richard DeVos. Multi-day conventions like QuiltWeek have become a pillar of downtown Grand Rapids' hospitality strategy, with officials in past years pursuing a proposed $140 million, 400-room convention hotel connected to DeVos Place to expand capacity for events like this one, according to WZZM13.
