Thousands Of Quilters Coming To St. Cloud For Classes, Competition

ST. CLOUD - Quilters from all across the upper Midwest are coming to town for the 36th annual "Minnesota Quilters Show and Conference".

It's expected to draw between 8,000 and 10,000 people to the River's Edge Convention Center in downtown St. Cloud.

St. Cloud Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Julie Lunning says prizes will be awarded for the top quilts in each category., "About 25-30 different categories, and there's really big prizes - $1,000 to $1,500 for each top quilt in each category. There's a lot of money. And some of the most amazing art I have ever seen. What these people can do with fabric just blows my mind."

Lunning says the quilt show will bring a lot of extra traffic to local businesses, "Conventions like this mean so much to our local economy. And people who live here don't always realize that when we have big events like this - this one particular piece of business - we'll see about $1.2 million in visitor spending."

The quilt show rotates between St. Paul, Duluth, Rochester and St. Cloud. It was in Duluth last year.  The two previous times it came to St. Cloud was in 2006, and 2010.

The quilters move in to the convention center tonight (Wednesday), and the show runs through Saturday. It is open to the public, but there is a fee to get in.