2022 Silver Thimble Award
Annette Bracken

The Silver Thimble has been awarded in the Utah Quilt Guild since 1997. These winners have been chosen for their outstanding efforts to encourage, promote and preserve the art of quilt making in Utah. 

Annette Bracen and her husband, Brent, have 4 children, all of whom live out of state.  Ann, Julie, Jill, and Matthew.  She was raised in Rexburg, Idaho as her father taught at Rick's College (now known as BYU-Idaho).  She graduated in home economics, taught in Grantsville.  She has 2 sisters and 2 brothers.

Besides quilting, she enjoys other needle arts and working on family history.  She is a frequent college student taking language courses in German and French and art classes Annette served as the president of the Southridge chapter in 1990 and 1991. In 1992, she began at least a 2-year term as the Great Salt Lake area rep. In those days, the Salt Lake area was one area, not 2 like we have it now. It was a big job as they met monthly at the Salt Lake County complex. This consisted of Show and Tell and some sort of program. The Guild librarian would also bring a huge selection of books from the Guild library for people to check out. Each chapter took turns providing refreshments for the evening. They also had Spring Workshops where classes were offered, first on one day but then expanded to 2 days. The area rep would hold a monthly meeting with all the chapters under her jurisdiction. Oh, those were good times!!

She assisted in the documentation project which resulted in the book Gathered in Time in the early 1990s. - 
 
Annette has judged numerous quilt shows. She has taught quilt classes at Spring Workshops and Quilt Fest. Quilt Fest responsibilities have included: being in charge of the quilt show, table favors, and helped with the Vendors.

Then, of course, is her term as Secretary, President, etc. Annette was the president during 2020 which was a crazy year. When it became necessary to cancel Quilt Fest in person, she created a Remote Fest for the guild to enable the continued education and sharing of beautiful quilts, even if we were not meeting in person. Then in 2021 with a lot of uncertainty, she led Quilt Fest, incorporating many of the activities that had been planned for Quilt Fest 2020, and made sure that we observed CDC guidelines to hold a wonderful in-person event. 

Congratulations Annette on your selection as the 2022 Silver Thimble Award winner