Today, we inaugurate our new occasional online news column. The Thread will appear whenever we have industry news to share that we think you’ll find interesting, noteworthy or helpful.
equilter charity giving tops $1 million
BOULDER, COLORADO–Equilter.com, known as much for its charitable giving as well as being one of the largest online retailers of fabric and related products, has blown past the $1 million mark in dollars given to charity since its founding in 1999 by Luana and Paul Rubin.
The company donates 2% of all purchases—before taxes and shipping—to selected charities, including the National Breast Cancer Foundation and Mission of Love. Customers also get to participate in the charity-minded fun by choosing which of equilter’s seven selected charities they’d like their 2% to be funneled toward. In mid-June, the company’s website announced that more than $1,002,000 had been raised for charity since the effort began 14 years ago. In 2011, the donations totaled $107,000.
(You can read more about equilter’s charity work, and its globe-trotting, big-hearted founder, Luana, in our upcoming Fall 2012 issue.)
texas quilt museum snags preservation honors
LA GRANGE, TEXAS–The Texas Quilt Museum, founded by quilt industry legends Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes, has won an award for its transformation of two neglected historic buildings in this Central Texas town, into a museum for quilt art.
The award, a Historic Rehabilitation Award, is one of only 11 special honors given in 2012 by Preservation Texas, a statewide nonprofit organization working to for preserve the historic resources of Texas. Recipients of the Preservation Texas awards were judged by an independent jury representing a cross-section of the field of historic preservation.
One of the two buildings that make up the Texas Quilt Museum in the La Grange historic district was originally a furniture store built circa 1892. The second, built around 1881, began as a cigar factory, but also went through phases as a grocery, a furniture shop, a hardware store, and finally a shop and offices.
Bresenhan and Puentes chose architect architect Barry Moore of Gensler, Texas, to lead the two-year effort to adapt the buildings into a functional museum space without sacrificing historical integrity. Fayette County artisans Ivan Riggin, master carpenter; Franklin Schobel, master mason; and Ralph Rigdon, finish carpenter, comprised the expert team helping to preserve the buildings’ unique 19th century architectural features, including the flooring, ceilings and mezzanine balcony.
Bresenhan and Puentes are co-founders and co-directors of the museum, as well as leaders of the Houston-based Quilts, Inc., which produces the International Quilt Markets and International Quilt Festivals.
big doings in omaha for accuquilt
OMAHA, NEBRASKA—AccuQuilt, distributors of the AccuQuilt GO!®, GO! Baby® and Studio™ fabric cutting systems, moved earlier this month to new headquarters just 30 miles away from its previous location in Fremont, Nebraska.
The new building includes state-of-the-art warehouse space, classroom/retreat space, a fully-outfitted quilting studio, offices and a quilt gallery for traveling collections. Plus, it’s only 40 miles from the International Quilt Study Center & Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska.
AccuQuilt is also well known for its participation in the barn quilt movement, specifically its sponsorship of the AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest. In fact, the grand prize winner of the 2012 contest by cross-stitch designer Belinda Karls-Nace of Des Moines, Iowa, will be installed and unveiled during grand opening celebrations at the new AccuQuilt facility on June 22. The new HQ is
along Interstate 80, and tens of thousands of drivers are expected to see the 17-foot high painted replica of Karls-Nace’s design.
A smaller version of the design winning second honors—a creation by North Bay, Ontario, truck driver Carol Johnson—will be displayed inside the AccuQuilt building. All festivities coincide with the Omaha Quilt Show.
If you have quilting industry news to share, contact melissa@generationqmagazine.com.
