Material Girls Quilt Shop, Wichita KS Featured in
Better Homes and Gardens® Quilt Sampler® Magazine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Lori Eggers 515/284-2874

Local Quilt Shop Featured in
Better Homes and Gardens® Quilt Sampler® Magazine

DES MOINES, IA – Material Girls Quilt Shoppe, a quilt shop in Wichita, Kansas, has been chosen as one of the 11 featured shops across the United States and Canada for the Fall 2012 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 15 years. Quilt shops submit a detailed application on their history, business promotions, charitable work, teaching schedules and design philosophies. A panel of quilt experts led by Jennifer Erbe Keltner, group editor of American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine, narrows down the applications to 10 featured shops for each issue. The team also selects an "encore" shop that was featured in a past issue to revisit. The names of the selected shops are kept secret and unveiled at spring International Quilt Market.

Competition to be included in Quilt Sampler is keen. Nearly 3,000 quilt shops are
eligible to apply for this year’s honor. Material Girls Quilt Shoppe 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 September 4, 2012. 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 other nine shops featured in the Fall 2012 Quilt Sampler include: Lone Star House of Quilts in Arlington, Texas; Olive Juice Quilts in Onalaska, Wisconsin; Pendleton Quiltworks in Pendleton, Oregon; Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop in Fox River Grove, Illinois; Quilt Beginnings in Columbus, Ohio; The Quilted Forest in Forest City, Iowa; Scottie Dog Quilts in Eureka, California; Sweet Home Quilt Co. in Conyers, Georgia and Waterwheel House Quilt Shop in Londonderry, Vermont.

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 Comprehensive Study of the Quilting Marketplace, released in 2003 by American Patchwork & Quilting magazine, reports that the U.S. quilting market is comprised of 11 million households. The
total value of the U.S. quilting industry has grown to an annual expenditure of $2.7 billion. Further research shows that readers of American Patchwork & Quilting spend an average of $1,121 per year on quilting supplies and complete nearly 10 projects per year. This group is overwhelmingly female, well-educated, affluent, and have been quilting for almost twelve years.

For additional information on Quilt Sampler, or for an interview with American Patchwork & Quilting group editor Jennifer Erbe Keltner, contact Lori Eggers at Better Homes and Gardens Crafts Group at 515/284-2874 or at lori.eggers@meredith.com.