Each year, the Weavers Guild sponsors eleven awards in the Creative Activities Department of the Minnesota State Fair. These prizes reward excellence in weaving and spinning. In 2021, we also sponsored a 12th award to celebrate the item best representing the mission of WGM (“to preserve and advance the arts of weaving, spinning and dyeing”). The winner received a one-time only award of $80 plus a handmade rosette to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Guild. The award was held over from the cancelled State Fair in 2020.

We are proud to announce that the Rosette for the 80th Anniversary award was won by guild member Nancy Preckshot. Nancy’s item was handspun, hand dyed, and handwoven and it is clear to see why she won the award celebrating these three arts (image above right). She refers to it as her “20 year” blanket because Nancy began working on it years ago, meticulously transforming it into a blanket step by step.

We are thrilled that 11 of WGM’s 12 rosettes were awarded to members of our guild. Thank you to everyone who entered and represented our guild with such high quality craftsmanship, style and creativity.

Congrats to the following guild-sponsored award winners!

Nancy Preckshot: Best represents the mission of the Weavers Guild of Minnesota, in honor of WGM’s 80th anniversary in 2020.
Karen Mallin: Best use of color in a woven or rya rug.
Karen Mallin: Best “first” woven or rya rug.
Dan Breva: Best use of texture in woven wearable items.
Geri Retzlaff: Best use of color in woven wearable items.
Riley Kleve: Best use of texture in woven non-wearable items.
Karen Mallin: Best use of color in woven non-wearable items.
Judith Preckshot: Best overall woven item.
Arlene Monk: Best “first” woven item.
Nancy Preckshot: Best fine-weight handspun yarn.
Beth Friedman: Best medium-weight handspun yarn.
Kendra Holmes: Best bulky-weight handspun yarn.

See the work of many members who entered in the State Fair–including Nancy Preckshot’s 80th Anniversary award-winning piece–at WGM in our post-State Fair exhibit in the classrooms.

WGM sponsors these prizes to encourage participation in the MN State Fair and to bring heightened awareness to the creativity and quality of the items that are entered. As the largest annual event in Minnesota–with more than 2 million attendees every year–it is thrilling to see the arts of weaving and spinning represented. We encourage all guild members to consider entering their items in next year’s fair. Learn more and start planning your entries for 2022: https://www.mnstatefair.org/competitions/creative-activities/