Pins and Needles Quilt Show Spotlights Pahrump Fabric Artists

Violet Touchton’s Summer Road Trip 2025 took Best in Show and set the tone for a quilt show that drew Pahrump’s fabric artists into the Bob Ruud Community Center for two days of competition, sales and demonstrations. With the 2026 theme, American Pride, quilts and needlework pieces lined the room in patriotic colors, stars, eagles and military imagery, alongside floral, geometric and whimsical designs that showed how broad the local craft scene has become.

The top honors also underscored the range of work on display. Zaria Morgan’s Nevada Liberty won Best Use of Theme, Jeannie Kay’s Garden Alphabet earned the Viewers’ Choice Award, Rosemarie Gotowicki placed first in the other quilts category with Rosie, and Dawn La Turco won first in the other needlework category for a non-quilt entry. Shadow Mountain Quilters founder Lynn McDonald added a live demonstration on making fabric roses, giving visitors a look at the handwork that sits behind the finished pieces.

The show is part of a guild that began in March 1994, when six women gathered in McDonald’s sewing room. Membership grew to 12 before the group moved into the much larger Ruud Community Center, and the guild now says it has more than 125 members who quilt, crochet, knit, tat, embroider and weave. The organization marked 30 years as a guild in 2024, a milestone that reflects how deeply it has rooted itself in Pahrump’s civic life.

That history now plays out every week at the Bob Ruud Community Center at Highway 160 and Basin Avenue, where the guild meets on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The show itself carried a low-cost, family-friendly admission structure, with a $5 two-day wristband and free entry for children under 12 and husbands. The guild also says the annual event includes an Opportunity Quilt tied to the year’s theme, turning the show into both a fundraiser and a recurring gathering point for the people who keep traditional needlework skills alive in Nye County.