Quilt Walk 2011

 The second weekend in June is always the Quilt Walk Festival.  For a little background: the first winter Panguitch was settled, the early frosts and snows took them all by surprise.  The wheat was not yet mature and it was too tough to really use.  The pioneers then decided that 7 men would travel over the mountains to Parowan to get flour and supplies.  They encountered snow so deep that they had to abandon their wagon and walk on foot.  This grew exhaustive quite quickly and the men decided that they would spread out a quilt to kneel on and pray.  They found that by so doing, they did not sink into the snow and were then able to walk to Parowan on quilts laid out before them.
  Panguitch has been celebrating the Quilt Walk Festival for 13 years now.  The quilt above was the showcase of the displayed quilts.  It is really impressive!  Each square was about 1 inch wide and the quilter pieced them together to make the Last Supper.  It was amazing! 

 The festival lasts 4 days including a chocolate fest on Thursday night to kick off the activities.  On Saturday we went to the tractor parade.  It was fun to see so many.  My pics were limited, we had picked up ice cream cones from where McKenna works.  Needless to say, between Leighton running into the street to try and get a better look and the tractors, our melting cones, and Leighton's runny nose, my hands were FULL!!!  But we did get a couple of shots of the tractors!

 After the parade they make teams of 7 and race down main street to reenact the quilt walk.  They announced they needed a few more participants and Garrett and Addison jumped at the offer.  Their team came in 3rd place and they were awarded quilt walk T-shirts!

 

 McKenna and I were asked to be in the play the first year we moved here.  I kept it up for 3 years, but McKenna has been in it I think just about every year now.  This year she played a teenage girl with mixed emotions about her papa being called to be one of the men to go over the mountain.  She also sang a solo part in one of the songs about missing their papas.  She is to the far left in this pic.  

Other activities that are included in the quilt walk are a trunk show, tractor pull, quilting lessons, basically anything to do with quilting.  It was a fun weekend and now we are looking forward to the Balloon Festival next weekend!