Spun Gold Awards

Since 1999, Textile Center has honored artists and advocates for their lifetime dedication to fiber art through the Spun Gold Awards.

Sandra Brick will soon celebrate her 30th year as a teaching artist for Textile Center, and she is among our most popular instructors. One of her nominators, Debbie Johnson, wrote: “Sandra has given tirelessly to the fiber art community over decades, willing and wanting to share her knowledge with others so they too can grow and build their own artistic path in our world of fiber art.”

When we founded our National Artist Advisory Council in 2016, Pat Hickman was among the founding members, serving with Carolyn Halliday, Carolyn Mazloomi, Mary Giles, and Tracy Krumm. Pat has spent her life teaching in the field of fiber art, and is an internationally acclaimed artist, with many of her works in permanent collections around the nation. In her nomination, Carolyn Halliday states: “Described as a ‘beacon for so many emerging artists,’ she continues to make herself available to Textile Center staff as needed in her endeavors to sustain excellence in the field of textiles.”

Karen Weiberg is a life-long advocate for fiber art in our community, and she owned Three Kittens Yarn Shoppe, a thriving full-service knitting and needlework store, for nearly 25 years, selling it and retiring 20 years ago this fall. After retiring, “Karen told me that when she found Textile Center, she knew she had found where she belonged,” her nominator Meg Duncan writes. “Karen has volunteered on the board of directors (for Textile Center) multiple times, teaches needlework classes, and volunteers in the library every Wednesday. She is always wanting to learn new techniques for fiber art and shares her knowledge with everyone.”

Past Spun Gold Winners:

1999
Paul O’Connor – Weaver
Ellen Wells – Textile Art International Gallery Owner
Elsa Sreenivasam – Artist & Teacher
Margot Siegel – Fashion Reporter

2000
Helen Kelly – Quilter
LaVern Bell – Sewer & Teacher
Homa Amir-Fazli – Teacher

2001
Charlene Burningham – Beader, Weaver, Quilter & Teacher

2002
Gladys Raschka – Quilter

2003
Lila Nelson – Weaver

2004
Walter Nottingham – Teacher
Ruth Waukazo – Beader & Teacher

2005
Gini Corrick – Surface Design & Clothing Design

2006
LaVonne Horner – Quilter
Marliss Jensen – Master Dyer & Surface Design
Lotus Stack – MIA Textile Curator
Nancy MacKenzie – Artwear & 3D Sculpture

2007
Anna Smits – Weaver & Teacher
Wilma Gary – Quilter
Thelma Buckner – Quilter

2008
Donna Pauley – Needleworker
Joan Skalbeck – Dyer
Karen Searle – Knitter, Teacher & Publisher

2009
Norma Kenny – Quilter
Mary Temple – Weaver & Teacher

2010
Marj Ford Sethna – Weaver

2011
Susan Stein – Quilter
Diane Fitzgerald – Beader

2012
Paula Pfaff – Weaver
Margaret Miller – Weaver & Founding Textile Center Executive Director

2013
Becka Rahn – Surface Design & Teacher

2020
Carolyn Halliday – Knitter, Teacher, and founding member of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council
Nancy Mambi – Textile Center Librarian
Mary Skoy – Weaver & Teacher
Ginny Smith – Owner of Ginny’s Fine Fabrics

2021
Carolyn L. Mazloomi – Historian, curator, author, lecturer, quilter, mentor, founder of Women of Color Quilters Network, and founding member of Textile Center’s National Artist Advisory Council

2024
Rose Allen – Quilter, Teaching Artist, and former Minnesota Quilters president
Jody Slocum & Mary Anne Wise – Founders, Cultural Cloth (Maiden Rock, WI) and Multicolores (Guatemala)

2025
Mary Mortenson – Textile Center Shop Shop Artist, Dyer, 2021 Jerome Project Grant for Emerging Fiber Artists grant recipient
Linda McShannock – Past Textile Center president, former Board Member, and former museum collections curator and textiles specialist at MHS (25 years)