Started in 1988, the Hoffman Challenge has grown to be a premiere traveling quilt, clothing, and doll collection. The quality of entries and a growing number of exhibit requests have led us to establish additional traveling collections. Currently, twelve collections travel coast-to-coast within the USA and to several Canadian locations.

This year the Hoffman Challenge is celebrating its 24th Anniversary. The Challenge started with 94 enthusiastic quilters, and in some years, the number of entries has grown to more than 700. In addition to the three quilt categories (pieced, appliqué and mixed technique), new categories include clothing (wearable art), accessories, and dolls. While the majority of the entries come from the United States, a wide variety of international entries are received. Each year, the top entries are grouped into traveling collections and visit quilt and fiber shows, seminars, quilt shops and quilt- and doll-makers guilds nationwide and in Canada. For more information about the schedule of these events please visit our Exhibit Schedule.

2010 was Julie Breidt’s first year as the curator of the Hoffman Challenge. She is preceded by Kelly Gallagher-Abbott’s eight years as the curator. Margrit Hall managed the Challenge between 1998 and 2001. Prior to Margrit, the curators and founders of the Challenge were Betty Boyink and Holice Turnbow. Visit the Curator Page to learn more about Julie.

Many talented fiber artists have taken part in the Hoffman Challenge. Click on one of the fabrics below to see more about that year’s challenge, or click on Past Challenges to see all of the fabrics selected in our 23 years of presenting these collections.

Selecting the fabrics for the annual Hoffman Challenge is a challenge in itself! Although all of the Hoffman Fabrics are famously inspirational, we must narrow the selection.

Some of the criteria used are: