Pieced Together

You know that RITALUCK is a real thing, right?  Sometimes it even surprises me.

For example:  

Last month, my book club read "Simple Truth" by Carol Bodensteiner.  

Carol invited us to attend a Writer's Workshop in Washington, Iowa...and then we discovered there was a big Quilt Trail in that area, which all makes for a jam-packed Day Trip...!
 
A week later,  I went to the Wisconsin Quilt Expo and my friend Deanna Springer introduced me to the woman who made the documentary about the American quilt square trail movement...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?   But, I was sad I couldn't actually SEE the documentary that night (because I was on a bus trip and we were leaving at 5 PM)...

BUT THEN -- Julianne sent me a note,  and it turns out she's unveiling the documentary IN IOWA -- NEXT WEEK -- at the Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset...

So -- c'mon down, girls!!  I'LL MEET YOU IN WINTERSET..!!

Here's the Press Release:
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“Pieced Together" is the first documentary film about the American quilt square trail movement. Directed by Peabody Award-winning veteran of ABC News, Julianne Donofrio, “Pieced Together” tells the story of how one woman’s love for her mother changed the American landscape and saved her life after job loss, breast cancer, and multiple health concerns.

The film will be screened at the Iowa Quilt Museum in Winterset, Iowa on September 25, 2018,

The film begins at 6:30.

Tickets  cost $15 and are available at the door,

The film runs 53 minutes.

Donna Sue Groves had an idea: pretty up an old barn for her mother Nina Maxine, a celebrated quilter, by hanging a wooden square painted to look like a traditional quilt block. A community organizer by trade, she thought why stop with just one square? So Donna Sue got together with her neighbors in Adams County, OH and created a driving trail of squares hung on barns to attract tourists looking for a day trip who might stop and spend money on gas, food, or crafts made by local artists. The first quilt square, an "Ohio Star," was hung on the Lewis Mountain Herbs  Everlastings farm in 2001; the idea sparked a grassroots phenomenon and a new form of American public art.

Donofrio stumbled upon her first quilt square in Tennessee in 2009, and learned of Donna Sue Groves through a “pink” web page created by the quilt trail organizers in Garrett County, MD. They were raising funds for Donna Sue who had lost her job and was battling breast cancer.

“I guarantee you, that had it not been for the quilt trail community, that I would not be here today,” says Donna Sue Groves.

Now over 40 U.S. states and parts of Canada have quilt square trails. There are more than 260 trails and countless squares found on barns, garages, and fences from California to Tennessee to Prince Edward Island. Donna Sue never planned on creating a cross-country community but it is this very community of friends and strangers that is helping her put the pieces of her life back together.

“I feel honored to witness and document what will one day be a chapter in our American history,” says Director/Producer Julianne Donofrio.