Tori Benz Hillstrom entered her quilt in Arizona State Fair and won Best of Show and First Place. The quilt was replicated from an 1876 Centennial Sampler Quilt. She talks that she naively joined a group of 18 quilters in Friday Harbor, Washington that replicated the amazing quilt. Two years later with much skill building, the top was complete. She unabashedly approached nationally acclaimed machine quilter, Karen McTavish, and was so excited when she agreed to take the quilt to a whole new level with her machine quilting.
Tori, a new resident two years ago to PebbleCreek, has become an important leader in the group with her quilting knowledge and skills. She began her quilting journey in January 2014 in Friday Harbor, Washington. She learned to use a sewing machine in junior high forty years previously. After retirement, she contacted the local Family and Consumer Science teacher and learned how to use her machine with other middle school students after school. At that point, she was referred to the local quilt guild. The talented and generous women of the guild taught her along the way as they replicated the quilt, each working on their own quilt project. Tori has also taken classes from well known fabric leaders such as Yoko Saito and Jen Kingwell this winter.
When living in Washington, she entered quilts in the county fair as well as the Minnesota quilt show. She won ribbons in all of them. She has enjoyed the shows and continues to learn and grow in the quilting community. She related that quilting is a team sport. Everyone from shop owners, pattern makers, teachers, quilting friends, and family contribute and support you in your quilt vision. Last spring, she took this philosophy and lead a sampler support group. This was an opportunity for PC quilters to create sampler quilts or finish those many blocks that had been made over time. We look forward to her continued leadership in sharing her talents in the organization and wish her congratulations for outstanding knowledge and skills!