The Founding of The Quilters Hall of Fame
Written by Karen B. Alexander, Quilt Historian
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In 1975, as the United States prepared for its bicentennial, Hazel McDowell Carter was busy making a quilt to commemorate our
nation’s two-hundredth birthday, just as American needle-workers have celebrated historic quilts, carrying on a long tradition
among quilters of working together to reach a common goal.
Hazel McDowell was born in Salem, Iowa, and learned how to quilt early in her childhood from her mother, Grace McDowell,
and her maternal grandmother, Elsie McVey. Hazel still has one of those first hand-pieced blocks in her possession. In 1958, she
moved to Washington D.C. to work in the office of her Iowa Congressman, and she continued to quilt. In 1964, she married
Joseph G. Carter and was the busy mother of two small children by 1971.
Hazel Carter carried more than her administrative skills with her from Iowa to her new home. She carried her love of quilting.
Her first study of quilting history began with the discovery of an article in a 1970 issue of Needlewoman and Needlecraft
magazine about a 1708 English-made patchwork quilt with accompanying bed hangings and curtains. Over the next few years,
Patsy and Myron Orlofsky’s book, Quilts in America (Patsy Orlofsky), and articles in Quilters’ Newsletter Magazine (Bonnie
Leman), Nimble Needle Treasures, and Quilters Journal (Joyce Gross) would form the backbone of her knowledge of quilting
history. In 1973, Hazel Carter and Jinny Beyer met at a local gathering of quilters, and together began studying old fabrics in
order to learn how to date their growing collections of antique quilts.
Just months before meeting Jinny, in December 1972, Carter had founded Quilters Unlimited of Northern Virginia in order to
create a quilting community for those individuals desiring to quilt together, as well as to offer classes for those who wanted to
increase their skills. QU would one day grow into an eleven-chapter, 1,400 member, non-profit organization that would not only
offer classes, but would spread good will throughout the greater community by making and donating thousands of quilts to
hospitalized children, foster children, seniors in long-term care facilities, and victims of natural disasters. This was grassroots
America in action. Quilters coming together to make things happen.
As the then-small group continued to discuss the approaching bicentennial, an idea began to form in Hazel’s mind. Her vision
was of a giant quilting bee where hundreds of quilters could come together in one place to learn, share, and shop. That dream
came to fruition in 1978, when she founded yet another organization: the Continental Quilting Congress, an educational non-
profit entity based in Vienna, Virginia. It was one of the earliest quilt conferences in the nation, where quilters got together to
learn the art and craft of quilting from Beginner to Advanced, to participate in a Show and Tell, and to shop at a Quilters
Merchant Mall set up just for quiltmakers and their specialized needs. Such conferences would quickly prove to be one of the
great revolutionary movements of twentieth-century quilting history.
The first Continental Quilting Congress convention in July 1978 brought more than five hundred delegates to the Sheraton Hotel
in Arlington, Virginia, with additional shoppers raising the final attendance total to more than one thousand quilt enthusiasts
gathered under that first hotel roof. Husbands and families of quilters across the country were in shock. What had suddenly
come over their wives and mothers? Why were they headed for Arlington, Virginia? Why in the world would a
wife/mother/sister/sweetheart pay money to stay in a hotel (sometimes five to a room) just to quilt? Couldn’t she do that at
home? Women had been quilting for generations without going to all that expense and trouble!
Hazel tells stories of quilters who had never spent a night away from their families in their lives, suddenly hitting the road with a
quilt friend and discovering new dimensions to freedom and self-expression. Perhaps it is hard for us to contemplate today just
how revolutionary this idea was for quilters at the time, but most quilting had traditionally been done at home or in church
groups, with relatives or friends teaching the how-tos; not a stranger in a hotel! Freedom was in the air for women in the 1970s.
Freedom was in the air for quilting in 1978. Ten Continental Quilting Congresses were held over a thirteen-year period, as well
as five overseas tours to meet with quilters around the world and learn of quilting in other cultures: Australia, Japan, China, New
Zealand, Great Britain, Scotland, and Ireland.
In 1979, a milestone occurred at the Continental Quilting Congress. As Hazel digested all the comments and feedback she had
received from that first CQC meeting in 1978, she realized another need existed in the quilt world that was not being met: the
need to bring to the attention of her delegates the work of previous generations of quilters and to recognize and praise the
individuals of the present day who were bringing the story of quilting to the fore. Many delegates appeared to be ignorant about
the history of their quilting heritage, the art from and craft they obviously love with some passion. How could this be remedied?
After careful exploration and discussion with her fellow quilters, Hazel’s insightful solution was the creation of The Quilters Hall
of Fame. The souvenir book for that first induction ceremony in 1979 stated, The Quilters Hall of Fame has been established to
recognize the people behind the quilting renaissance, to pay tribute to their accomplishments, and thereby establish
documentation of an important part of quilting history. A selection committee was formed from a cross-section of the quilting
community to study nominations for future Honorees. That first committee consisted of: Mary Graunbaum (TX), Rachel Maines
(PA), Bets Ramsey (TN), Joyce Gross (CA) and Isobel Ann Smith (Canada).
Immediately after the announcement of the first Honorees in 1979, the nominations began to pour in. In the early years, each
new Honoree was recognized at a special luncheon at CQC and a souvenir booklet prepared that gave a brief history of the
contributions of that year’s Honoree(s). Sometimes the award came posthumously: Dr. William Rush Dunton, Jr., Ruth Ebright
Finley, Lenice Ingram Bacon, Anne Orr, Florence Peto, Bertha Stenge, Carrie A. Hall, and Rose G. Kretsinger. At other times
Honorees were present for the ceremony: Marguerite Ickis, Gail van der Hoof, Jonathan Holstein, Grace Snyder, (unable to
travel due to poor health), Jean Ray Laury, Bonnie Leman (unable to travel at last minute due to emergency), Cuesta Benberry,
Mary Barton, Jinny Beyer, Patsy Orlofsky, Jeffrey Gutcheon, Carter Houck, and Donna Wilder. And so the tradition would
continue. With each new Honoree, the CQC delegates understanding of their quilt heritage expanded, and word of The Quilters
Hall of Fame began to migrate beyond the bounds of CQC into the larger quilt world. Indeed, many changes occurred in the
quilting community almost simultaneously with that first 1978 CQC gathering: Bonnie Leman (1982 Honoree), founder and
editor of Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine in 1969, helped compile and write the standard rules judging quilt shows in 1976; Joyce
Gross (1996 Honoree) of Mill Valley, California, began publishing Quilters Journal in 1977; Quilt National in Athens, Ohio, was
founded in 1979 by Karey Bresenhan (1995 Honoree) of Houston, Texas; Barbara Brackman (2001 Honoree) self-published the
first version of her quilt pattern dictionary, also in 1979, which would prove to be the guiding star of many of the State
Documentation Project to follow; in 1980, the American Quilt Study Group (AQSG) was formed by Sally Garoutte (1994
Honoree) in Mill Valley, California, to promote and publish serious research in quilt history; and North Carolina Public Television
produced its first-ever televised how-to series in 1980 featuring quilt teacher Georgia Bonesteel (2003 Honoree). This gives you
just a little taste of the incredibly fertile, productive period in quilt history immediately before and following the bicentennial in
1976.
Dreams often converge in serendipitous ways that can change the landscape of one’s own vision. In July 1991 two dreams
merged at the West Coast Quilters Conference in Sacramento, California: Hazel Carter’s vision for The Quilters Hall of Fame and
Rosalind Webster Perry’s vision concerning the legacy of her grandmother, early twentieth-century author and quilt
entrepreneur Marie Webster. When Hazel and Rosalind met, the former was inducting the 1991 Honoree, Marie Webster, into
The Quilters Hall of Fame, and the latter was present to receive that honor in her grandmother’s name. Their paths most likely
would not have crossed in life otherwise. A most unexpected event took place at that ceremony. Within thirty minutes of their
meeting, Rosalind, who had only months earlier rescued her grandmother’s Marion, Indiana, home from demolition, asked Hazel
if she would like to use the house as the permanent home of The Quilters Hall of Fame. With Hazel’s fearless yes, a whole new
chapter in quilt history began.
How does one create a museum out of a condemned building? With lots of elbow grease! Grassroots America swung into action
once again. Hazel first took her dream to the delegates of the Continental Quilting Congress while Rosalind approached the
citizens of Marion via an article in the local paper. A core group emerged out of those first efforts that have been that backbone
of the restoration of the Marie Webster House all these many years. Eventually the Marion group would officially organize as the
Friends of The Quilters Hall of Fame became a non-profit organization in 1992 with a Board separate from its original parent, the
Continental Quilting Congress. The significance of the Marie Webster House was officially recognized in 1993, when it was
placed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Indiana Register of Historic Sites and Structures. It has also been
designated a Landmark of Women’s History and declared a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service; the only
one which honors a quiltmaker! In 1992, Amy Emms, M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire designating an award given by the
Queen for her service to quilting) was the first Honoree to be inducted into The Quilters Hall of Fame from its new location in
Marion, Indiana.
The Friends of The Quilters Hall of Fame (FQHF) has raised and donated over $35,000 through their own local Marion efforts
of organizing opportunity quilts, bake sales, merchandise sales, National Quilting Day events and the fees from the annual
Celebration seminar. In addition, more dollars have been garnered from quilters around the world. The FQHF has also been
awarded donations from national quilt-related organizations, as well as the Build Indiana Fund, the Indiana Department of
Commerce, and Grant County businesses and community groups. But it’s the countless volunteer hours of core Marion people
like Phoebe Smith, Debi and Scott Shepler, Madonna and Richard Fowler, Jean and Rex Chambers, Joyce and Wilbur Hostetler,
Sue and Bill Munn, Sharon Felty, Cindy Beck, Mary and Norman Cheek, Julie Spangler, Elinor Briggs, Marguerite Cox, Jean
Strawser, Carolyn Goebel, Wanda Pratt, Ruth Pearson, and Ann Calland, to name but a few, that is the real success story.
Fulfilling such dreams can often be an uphill battle, but they kept their shoulders to the wheel and didn’t give up. This is
grassroots American at its best.
In July 2004 the restored Marie Webster House officially celebrated its Grand Opening as a museum. Having seen the
organization reach its goal of establishing it headquarters in the restored Marie Webster House, its founder then stepped down
and passed the baton of leadership on. The fulfillment of each step of this vision is reminiscent of the teamwork exhibited by
Hazel Carter and her family when they made their bicentennial quilt those many years ago. Following generations of tradition,
these modern-day quilters and their friends came together to plan and organize, piece their path, and add their stitches to help
create a glorious finished product: The Quilters Hall of Fame Museum. The story of The Quilters Hall of Fame will never
actually have an ending. Instead, it will continue to be added to as new events unfold and new chapters get written as new
generations of quilters step forward and leave their mark.
Orlofsky, Patsy and Myron. Quilters in America. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974.
Other Sources: Archives of the Continental Quilting Congress and phone interviews with Hazel Carter and Rosalind Webster
Perry in February 2003.
All rights to the text and information in this article are reserved by Karen B. Alexander. Readers may print the file and save it
digitally. Readers may not forward the file or post the information on any websites or bulletin boards without written
permission. You may quote up to four sentences without permission and refer to information if proper attribution is given.
Please use the reference: Karen B. Alexander, The Founding of The Quilters Hall of Fame, from The Quilters Hall of Fame
website http://www.quiltershalloffame.net.
Contact Karen B. Alexander: karenquilt@gmail.com write to P.O. Box 681, Marion, Indiana 46952. A version of this story first
appeared in "Once Upon A Quilt" an anthology of quilt stories edited by Margaret Aldrich and published by Voyageur Press,
October 2003. Karen was elected president in November 2004 and took office in July 2005.
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