AccuQuilt Announces Its 4th Annual Barn Quilt Design Contest

OMAHA, Neb. - March 14, 2013 - PRLog -- (OMAHA, NE) Now in its 4th year, AccuQuilt’s Barn Quilt Design Contest 2013 is set to be the biggest yet, kicking off during National Quilting Weekend (March 16 – 17). Quilters of all skill levels and from all disciplines are invited to submit designs via http://www.accuquilt.com/barnquilt from March 14 – April 7.

The top 100 designs will be selected and posted on accuquilt.com, where finalists will be chosen by public selection and AccuQuilt management. Celebrity quilters Ricky Tims, Alex Anderson and Eleanor Burns—with the help of AccuQuilt management—will then select final winning designs. Official voting will run from April 10 – 17, 2013.

Winners will be announced by quilt celebrity, Ricky Tims, at the AQS-Paducah show in Paducah, KY, April 24 – 27. The Grand Prize winner's design will be unveiled as a 17-foot barn quilt at the AccuQuilt Omaha headquarters during the Barn Quilt Unveiling Event on June 7 with special guest, Ricky Tims. The Runner-Up winner's design will be displayed as a 6-foot barn quilt at the AccuQuilt Omaha headquarters.

What makes this year even more exciting is the chance for over 100 quilters to win a piece of the $8,500 total prize package, its biggest offering yet, thanks to new contest sponsors Baby Lock, TheQuiltShow.com, Pellon®, Tacony Corporation and Riley Blake Designs.

“We’re very excited to see the amazing designs that our quilters will be submitting,” said AccuQuilt marketing director, Lynn Gibney. “Every year this contest gets better and bigger, and this year we are ramping it up even more with the participation of new sponsors and two fantastic prize packages. The events tied to this contest are the perfect way to get to know and support our customers, but really, it’s a ton of fun for everybody.”

The concept of barn quilts began with Donna Sue Groves and her wish to honor her mother, Maxine, and her Appalachian heritage by having a painted quilt hung on her barn in Adams County, Ohio. As friends encouraged her to complete the project, Donna Sue instead suggested that a "sampler" of twenty quilt squares could be created along a driving trail that would invite visitors to travel through the countryside. The first quilt square was an Ohio Star, painted by local artists and installed in 2001 on a building at a greenhouse in Manchester, Ohio. With encouragement from Donna Sue Groves, other quilt trails were started in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Iowa. This simple idea gradually spread to 44 states and to Canada, and the trail continues to grow. Over 4000 quilts are part of organized trails; dozens more are scattered through the countryside waiting to be discovered. Find more information at www.barnquiltinfo.com

For a full listing of contest details, prize package information, and frequently asked questions, quilters can visit http://www.accuquilt.com/barnquilt

About AccuQuilt, Better Cuts Make Better Quilts:
Headquartered in Omaha, Neb., AccuQuilt offers quilters, fabric crafters and retailers a premiere line of fabric cutters, dies, quilting patterns and other quilt and fabric cutting solutions that help quilters quickly and accurately cut shapes for quilting and fabric crafts. AccuQuilt also offers quilters a wide variety of rich educational resources to enhance their quilting experiences. Cutting with AccuQuilt cutters is a natural evolution of fabric cutting methods. "First scissors…then rotary…finally…AccuQuilt for fast, easy, accurate fabric cutting.”