September 25-27, 2025; 9 am – 5 pm all three days
Iowa State Fairgrounds
4-H Building, free parking
Online quilt registration is now open and ends July 25th
We warmly encourage every Guild member to enter a quilt—or even a few—to help make our show the wonderful event it is year after year.
Click the buttons below to read the entry instructions and definitions, then go ahead and register your quilts. They don’t need to be finished when you register—just ready in time for the show!
Stay tuned for next year’s events.
Curators: Andrea Henson andreahenson65@gmail.com and Barb Aldeman cmjbbja@aol.com
This exhibit will showcase quilts that feature houses as the central design element. This theme has a wide range of interpretations from house quilts, schoolhouse quilts to village or city scenes, and even traditional log cabin quilts. Quilts that tell stories of home and community, depicting rural homesteads or urban landscapes. The quilt does not have to be new, feel free to dig through your cupboard for a quilt that fits the “Quilt Makers Village” theme. You can even submit a quilt that you’ve previously displayed in the DMAQG Quilt Show, as long as it meets the exhibit criteria.
Size: Minimum of 24” on any one side
Curators: Jill Reber and Lisa Zbylicki
How exciting is it to spot a Barn Quilt on a Sunday Drive? We will be showcasing a collection of authentic quilts in the Barn Quilt style. Makers will choose one quilt block with a size between 20” and 40” square. All quilts must be crafted with two layers of fabric and batting in between, and each piece must be quilted and bound.
Collection made and gathered by the DMAQG Block Study Group.
Curator: Janet Pittman
A garden adds special texture, color and fragrance to our home. With fabric and thread many of our members have chosen to reflect on this with various genre of quilting including piecing, hand and machine appliqué, English paper piecing and collage. Then embellishing along the way with embroidery and decorative stitches to make the designs come to life.
Curator: Peggy Kirk pegquilt@icloud.com
“Carry Me Home” Special Display will be showcasing bags crafted by our Guild Members, including totes, purses, backpacks, and project bags—anything designed to carry you home.
Curator: Beth Freeman
Quilt Turning (or in some parts of the country a bed turning) is an opportunity to see and hear the description of a quilt in a unique way. Quilts have a long history of not only being used for warmth, but also as a way to express the maker’s art. This year’s Quilt Turning will feature Best of Show quilts from the Iowa State Fair. Please plan on attending one of the show’s quilt turnings to learn about the inspiration and the story behind these award winning quilts.
Curator: Susie Martin, DMAQG President
Guild members have chosen a 1/2 yard cut of one of Riley Blake’s many beautiful Confetti Cotton solids. In making their quilt, they have been asked to explain how their fabric choice inspired them to make this particular quilt. Quilts must be between 32 and 52″ wide and 32 and 64″ long. They can be pieced, appliquéd, or any mix of techniques. Embellishments are allowed, but their beginning fabric must be prominent in the quilt. A 3″ square of the fabric must be attached to the label.
Gold Sponsors – Woodside Quilting /Bernina
YLI
Riley Blake
Leo 9 Textiles
Off the Rails
The Woolen Needle
The Iowa Quilt Block
Creekside Quilting
Click to watch these informative videos on our YouTube channel, or scroll down to see them here.
We can’t do the quilt show without you, please consider volunteering to help set up and/or work the show. There are many different kinds of jobs, with details of what is necessary for each before you sign up.
Sign up link for 2025 will be posted as soon as it is available. Thank you!
Our guild has offered judging for our members’ quilts since 2006 and each year around 50% of the show entries are entered to be judged by a certified quilt judge– someone who has spent years studying all aspects of quilt making and the process of judging, completed a series of steps set out by the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges (https://www.nacqj.com), and then been certified as able to professionally judge. No matter how new or experienced, we can all learn a lot from these judges. We strongly encourage all members to have their entries judged.
The primary elements and standards used by judges are:
This is not an exhaustive list, these are just the most commonly remarked upon areas. Art quilts and modern quilts are more design focused, rather than workmanship focused. Each of the elements/standards has many more specific points, depending on quilt type.
The judge tries to recognize and comment on the positives of each quilt being judged and to identify one or more areas that could benefit from improvement. When the judge is ready to decide on ribbon winners in each category, there is some agreement that design is probably most important — the quilt with the greatest visual impact (the WOW factor). This is often determined by the complexity of design (COD) and degree of difficulty (DOD). But even the quilt with the greatest visual impact cannot rescue poor workmanship.
Please contact a member of the judging committee with any questions about the judging process, best category for a particular quilt, or other questions.
Judging Committee – Eva Marie Evans
Join us at the quilt show dinner on Friday evening, September 26, 2025
West Des Moines Christian Church, 4501 Mills Civic Parkway, WDM
Program by Janet Pittman, guild member and curator of the Walk in the Garden Bed special exhibit.
