It’s called Airing of the Quilts. That sounds like part of a vigorous spring house cleaning. It’s not. Quilts are “aired” one day a year as part of the Iowa Quilt Festival. Quilts are draped over fences, cars, church pews and even the county courthouse; they appear at area wineries and cideries. The “aired” quilts — hundreds of them — are provided by Iowa’s quilt guilds and others with private collections.
The “airing” is hosted each June by the Iowa Quilt Museum in the town of Winterset, about 40 miles southwest of Des Moines. The museum is housed in a historic building on the south side of Winterset’s courthouse square, a square that is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The museum was the long-time home of department store JCPenney.
The organization’s mission is “to promote the appreciation of the American quilt and the art of quilting” through displays of quilts and information about quilt history. It welcomes quilters, quilt lovers, history buffs and all appreciators of American art and culture.
Winterset is also the county seat for Madison County so, yes, “aired” quilts also appear at a couple of the 19th century bridges for which the county is famous. The next “airing” is set for June 6, 2026, immediately after three days of festival lectures and workshops, plus retreat time for really devoted quilt makers.
The other 364 days
Through Aug. 3 this year, the museum showcased “Tiny Pieces, Vast Visions,” assembled by four quilters displaying their own work.
The quilts, rightly deemed art, ranged from representational (one an homage to Caitlin Clark and her basketball teammates at the University of Iowa) to the decidedly abstract.
Across the collection, the skill at speaking with tiny pieces of fabric shone through (“tiny pieces” were the quilt pieces; the quilts weren’t tiny).
One exhibitor, Irene Roderick, a trained painter, called the quilts “utilitarian painting.” And, boy, those “brushstrokes” were good — yielding images of nail polish dribbling down one quilt, lines that swirled freely across another “canvas” and an eye-popping variety of kaleidoscopic images on other quilts.
This show closed in Iowa but will appear next year at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Mass., April 14 to June 27.
There was a one-day hiatus before the Iowa museum’s successor show opened on Aug. 5. The new exhibit, on through Nov. 30, is “Mama’s Got the Blues: Nineteenth Century Indigo Quilts.”
For this display, Julie Silber, quilt collector, dealer and appraiser, lent a personal collection of 19th century creations. Although revealing skill and discipline, these works rely on more traditional quilting styles, not the singular inspiration of individual quilters. And there is no kaleidoscope of colors; all is blue and white.
The two shows illustrate the range visitors can find at the Iowa Quilt Museum. Further, all quilts in the gallery are loaners. The museum does not collect.
The facility, which draws roughly 8,500 visitors annually, is open daily except the biggest holidays. Given the breathtakingly short breaks between exhibits, there’s a show to see almost any day of the year. Besides, the curious can even get a sneak peek when a new show is being mounted.
Why Winterset?
Although quilt making is a worldwide phenomenon — with America’s earliest traditions deriving from Europe — the craft is seen in the U.S. as integral to national identity. A few towns claim to be the quilt capital of the U.S or even the world.
Nowadays, some 9 million to 11 million (mostly) women in the U.S., routinely make quilts, according to 2024 research by the Craft Industry Alliance. At least 20 quilt museums operate across the country, including another in Iowa at Kalona, the largest Amish settlement west of the Mississippi.
But the thread that ties Winterset to the phenomenon dates to 1976 when Marianne Fons and Liz Porter met in town at a quilting class. Over the years, they taught classes, then wrote best-selling books, with the “Quilter’s Complete Guide” (1992) the best known.
The books led to a how-to program on public TV and the launch of “Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting,” eventually the world’s largest circulated quilting magazine.
They sold out in 2006 (the magazine still publishes). Porter relocated, but Fons remains in Winterset and later agreed to spearhead fundraising for the museum. She still serves on the board.
JCPenney
Winterset is a town of approximately 5,400. A county seat, its layout mimics the 19th century template for many of Iowa’s county seats, with the courthouse as the town focal point, sitting on a square, surrounded on all sides by low-rise commercial buildings.
The former JCPenney building, now the museum’s home, is one of about four dozen such low-rise structures encircling Madison County’s 1876 limestone courthouse.
JCPenney owned the building for 66 years (1931 to 1997). The store name is still embedded in floor tiles seen when entering the museum.
But the building is about as old as anything gets in Winterset. Construction started in 1856, and over time, the building served a wide array of commercial purposes and even, briefly, as a church.
The Iowa Quilt Museum, a nonprofit, purchased the building in 2015 and launched operations a year later.
The small, two-story structure provides a surprisingly spacious gallery, only 24.5 feet across, but 56.5 feet deep. Its tin ceiling, at nearly 15 feet high, is “especially well-suited for showcasing large-scale works and creating dramatic, museum-quality exhibits,” according to museum director Melody Reels.
The high ceiling accommodates a mezzanine at the back and, on that elevated perch, permanent exhibits include curious-looking old sewing machines and light boxes telling the story of quilting.
The museum survives on entry fees ($5 to $12), donations, grants and fundraisers. Fundraisers this year have included making and selling barn quilts, actually wooden squares painted to resemble quilt blocks. Purchasers display the 2X2-foot pieces on barns, garages, homes, etc.
Handily, the Piece Works Quilt Shop, selling fabric, patterns and other quilter supplies, sits a few doors away from the museum.
Just off the square, the Quilts of Valor Foundation opened its national headquarters in Winterset in June this year. Quilts of Valor, a nonprofit created in 2003, awards handmade quilts to service members who have been “touched by war” and has awarded more than 400,000 to date. The headquarters is open to the public on weekdays.
The National Park Service lists the Winterset Courthouse Square Commercial District on the National Register of Historic Places. It seems appropriate that a quilt museum, celebrating the antique as well as the new, should land on this square.
Side dish
Madison County’s bridges must be seen. The tourist welcome center on Winterset’s courthouse square has maps of the Covered Bridges Scenic Byway plus other materials for tourists. This year’s Covered Bridges Festival is October 11-12.
In-town sites are: the John Wayne Birthplace Museum and the white frame house where he was born in 1907; a monument to Winterset-born and -reared George Stout, the true-story inspiration for the George Clooney character who rescued artworks from the Nazis, in the 2014 movie “The Monuments Men;” and a pocket park remembering the former slave and renowned scientist and inventor, George Washington Carver, who lived in Winterset just before gaining admittance at Iowa colleges.
On the edge of town, the Madison County Historical Complex is a collection of period buildings assembled on the grounds of the 1856 Bevington-Kaser House — actually a mansion.
Finally, the original Red Delicious apple was discovered in Madison County in the 1870s. The tree died in 1940 so there’s nothing to see, but this is just one more tasty nugget of info about a charming corner of the Corn State.
Nadine Godwin is a New York-based freelance travel writer. She is the former editor in chief and current contributor to the trade paper, Travel Weekly; editorial director of BestTripChoices.com, and author of “Travia: The Ultimate Book of Travel Trivia.”
Featured Photo: Quilts arrayed across the pews in Winterset’s First United Methodist Church, during the annual Airing of the Quilts.
