Award Winning Quilts

When Award-Winning Quilts was published in December 1980, Effie C. Pforr delivered something the quilting community genuinely needed—a celebration of the artistry and technical mastery behind some of the finest quilts being created at that moment. This book came out at a fascinating time, just as quilting was experiencing a real renaissance in American culture, transitioning from purely utilitarian craft to recognized fine art. Pforr’s work helped legitimize that shift and gave quilters a visual vocabulary for understanding excellence in their field.

What makes this book matter, even now in 2026, is how it captured a specific moment in quilting history while also establishing standards that continue to influence the craft today. The book isn’t just a collection of pretty pictures—it’s a genuine study of what separates exceptional quilts from merely competent ones. Pforr approached her subject with the seriousness of an art critic, examining the decisions that quilters made and why those choices worked. She wrote for readers who cared deeply about understanding the why behind the design, not just admiring the visual result.

The cultural impact of this publication extended well beyond quilters themselves. The book helped establish that quilting deserved the same critical attention and respect typically reserved for painting, sculpture, and other traditional fine arts. In the early 1980s, this was genuinely progressive thinking. Museums and galleries were just beginning to take quilts seriously as art objects, and Pforr’s focused examination of award-winning examples helped make that case with visual evidence and thoughtful analysis.

What you’ll find inside this book:

• Pattern analysis and design principles – Pforr breaks down how successful quilts work compositionally, explaining the decisions behind color choices, layout, and technical execution
• Historical context – The book places these quilts within the broader story of American quilting, showing how contemporary artists were building on and sometimes deliberately departing from traditional methods
• Technical mastery – There’s real attention paid to the craftsmanship involved, recognizing that these aren’t just designs but objects created through painstaking hand work
• Diverse voices – The quilts featured represent different approaches and philosophies, showing that excellence in quilting isn’t monolithic

Pforr’s writing style is clear and direct. She doesn’t use unnecessarily complex language, but she also doesn’t oversimplify. She assumes her readers are intelligent people who care about understanding quilting at a deeper level. That respect for the audience runs throughout the book—she trusts you to notice what matters and to form your own opinions about what makes a quilt truly exceptional.

One thing that resonates with readers even decades later is Pforr’s genuine enthusiasm for her subject. This isn’t a book written by someone approaching quilting as an academic exercise or a nostalgic cultural artifact. She clearly loves these quilts and respects the people who made them. That passion is contagious. When you read through this book, you start seeing quilts differently—you begin to understand how much thought and skill goes into creating something that both works technically and moves you emotionally.

The book’s influence on subsequent quilting literature has been substantial. Many of the award-winning quilts and quilt makers that emerged in the 1980s and beyond—including the celebrated prize winners who gained recognition through major competitions and institutions—were working in a context shaped partly by exactly the kind of serious critical attention Pforr pioneered. The book didn’t just document excellence; it helped define what excellence looked like for a generation of quilters.

Why this book endures:

• It treats quilting as serious art without condescension or pretension
• The quilts themselves are genuinely beautiful and instructive to study
• Pforr’s analysis gives you tools for understanding what makes quilts work
• It captures a pivotal moment when quilting was gaining recognition as fine art
• The standards discussed remain relevant—technical skill, design thinking, and creative vision don’t become outdated

If you’re interested in quilting at any level—whether you’re someone who makes them, appreciates them, or just wants to understand this significant American craft tradition better—this book is worth seeking out. It’s the kind of volume that rewards repeated looking and reading. You might start by examining the quilts visually, then come back to Pforr’s analysis and discover new things about how these artists thought about their work. Years later, you can still open it and have something click into place about a particular quilt or approach that you hadn’t understood before.

Award-Winning Quilts remains a touchstone in quilting literature precisely because it got the fundamentals right: it honored the work, asked serious questions about what makes some quilts exceptional, and helped build a cultural case for treating quilting as the artistically significant practice it is. That’s legacy work.