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The First Annual Panhandle Festival of Quilts was held in May, 1995. It was developed under the Visitor's Committee of the Chadron/Dawes County Chamber of Commerce as a way to promote Chadron and encourage visitors to come to the Chadron Area in the off season of tourism.

One of our local quilters had lived in Sisters, Oregon and thought Chadron should have a quilt show much like Sisters nationally-known show. She and a few fellow quilters pitched the idea to the Chamber and the show was born!

Although Chadron experienced a late spring snow storm the week-end of that first show, the event was deemed a huge success. A visitor who was just passing through spent an extra night in Chadron so she could attend the show to see the antique quilts..... and ended up winning the raffle quilt!

Over the years the quilt show has evolved and changed. The first year the quilts were hung in over 20 businesses throughout the community plus the Chadron Arts Center. As the show has grown tremendously over the years more space was needed so eventually the show was moved to the Assumption Arena, which provided much more room for the growing number of quilts being entered each year.

In the beginning all the quilts entered into the show were judged. But as the show grew this became an enormous task, and it was changed to the viewer's choice method where winners are selected by the votes of the people attending the show. Just ten quilts are now hung in sponsoring businesses during the week leading up to the show.

It started as a weekend show held on Saturday and Sunday, but as attendance grew, it was expanded to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.