CC quilter earns top prizes at Iowa State Fair

Ana Blickenderfer earns first place, fourth place with paper-piecing creations

By Kate Hayden | khayden@charlescitypress.com

Charles City quilter Ana Blickenderfer has another set of ribbons for her studio after this year’s Iowa State Fair, taking first and fourth place in two separate quilting categories.

Blickenderfer submitted three items in this year’s contest, taking home a blue ribbon in the Table Runner class for ‘Stormy Seas’ and fourth place in the Individual Piece 144 to 300 inches class, for ‘Feels Like Home’.  

Blickenderfer made both of the winning pieces with a paper piecing technique she has been learning as part of her home business, Sew That!.

“What set the runner apart was the scalloped edges, and the curved paper piecing. It looks a little more difficult,” Blickenderfer said.

Her individual quilt is a ‘weathered windmill’ pattern Blickenderfer has used in a previous piece. Judges called it a “wonderfully graphic” quilt, with high marks for the finishing piping Blickenderfer added along the edges.

“It has a lot of movement because of the fabric placement and pattern in general,” Blickenderfer said. “I had added in piping to the binding. The pattern was supposed to have extra borders, but I decided to leave off the borders and add in the piping.”

The Fabric and Threads division of state fair contests typically sees about 600 quilt entries, Blickenderfer said. It took her about two months to create the table runner, learning the curved paper piecing process as she went, and about three months to create the individual quilt.

“I’ll definitely keep working on paper piecing. I have four more going on right now that I’ll hopefully enter next year,” Blickenderfer said.

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