The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show
Alliant Energy Center
Sept 8-10, 2022
THURS & FRI: 9 AM TO 6 PM
SAT: 9 AM TO 5 PM
Doreen Speckmann (Oct. 18, 1950–Sept. 18, 1999), was an award-winning quilter and author, who brought humor to everything she did. Doreen created original quilt designs based on playing with a small number of geometric shapes to imaginatively make one-of-a-kind motifs. When pieced together, these building blocks often create the illusion of curves. As many quilters will tell you, curves are some of the most difficult parts of a quilt to replicate. By using two types of triangles she cheekily dubbed “Peaky” (a right triangle) and “Spike” (an isosceles one), she introduced her students to a world of facile curves. Megan is thrilled to be able to share her mom’s quilts after keeping them in storage for far too many years in Doreen’s favorite city in the world, Madison, WI.
Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts
Cedarburg, WI
November 19, 2020–January 31, 2021
Iowa Quilt Museum
Winterset, IA
January 2020 – April 2020
One October in the mid-1980s, Liz Porter and I flew to Texas to serve on the faculty at the annual Houston Quilt Festival—a feather in the cap of any rising national quilt teacher back then; it still is. At the airport, we bumped into Doreen Speckmann, a fellow newcomer and fellow Midwesterner, on the faculty her first time as well. All of us on tight budgets, we shared a cab to the hotel. On the ride, she admitted she was nervous, as she was to deliver an evening lecture. In those days, Quilt Festival took place at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel & Convention Center, and everyone at Festival went to every single event. The audience was going to be huge…
Marianne Fons
Doreen Speckmann 