Quilts and Airplanes

The unveiling of the winners of the Navy Quilts challenge took place in Pensacola, Florida, last week at the National Naval Aviation Museum during the annual “homecoming” of the Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team. Congratulations to best-of-show winner Nita Markos for her quilt “Into the Future” (shown on the left in the photo above). Challenge curator Kelly Gallagher-Abbott of Fort Collins, Colorado, accompanied 80 of the juried and judged competition quilts to Florida for this event – that’s Kelly on the right. Many of the quilts will travel around the country to quilt shows, museums, and airport venues in the next three years. Selected donated quilts will be auctioned at a special event in 2011, with proceeds donated to a scholarship fund for the National Flight Academy (http://www.nationalflightacademy.com/). Other donated quilts will be auctioned online or sold at the Naval Aviation Museum Store in Pensacola.

This quilt challenge was the idea of Charlie Hoewing, wife of Vice Admiral Gerald Hoewing (photo below). Vice Admiral Hoewing USN (Ret) is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Naval Aviation Museum. Charlie, a quilter and museum volunteer, thought it would be wonderful to have a quilt challenge centering around the 100th anniversary of Naval Aviation. Visit www.NavyQuilts.com to see a complete list of winners and for more information on where the quilts will be shown.