Castle Country Radio had the opportunity to talk with Charlotte MacKnight, founder of the Sunrise Quilters on all things quilting and the group’s upcoming quilting retreat at the Tavaputs Ranch.

We opened by having MacKnight explain the origins of the Sunrise Quilters,” It came about as an idea in 2018 when I approached the Jensen’s at the Tavaputs Ranch and asked them about organizing a quilt retreat. And since the word tavaput means sunrise in the Ute Indian language, Sunrise Quilters at the Tavaputs was born.”

Next, we talked about the instructor for the group’s upcoming retreat, Karen Caduff. “ She attended the Judy Niemeyer paper piecing technique workshop in Montana, where she became certified to teach those patterns to the public … The pattern we’re doing looks intimidating, but with Caduff’s instruction you’ll walk out with an attitude of “I can do this.”

In doing research for this interview, I learned that there is an extreme variety of quilting methods and techniques, so I asked MacKnight to go a bit more in-depth with some of the styles that are offered, as well as what style they’ll be learning at the retreat. “At the retreat, we’re doing a foundation paper piecing quilt, but there are so many different varieties. There’s pieced quilting, patched quilting, there’s collage quilting, the list goes on and on.”

When asked if there was anything she’d like to leave the public with, MacKnight said the following,” I think quilt retreats are very inspiring. You walk away with new bonds of friendship and seeing what other people have learned is very inspiring. I’d also like to encourage people to come to the Castle Country Quilters Quilt show this Saturday, June 1 in the Price Events Center.”