Photo supplied, Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital
This undated photo shows “Baby Born,” Chris Manning’s last project for the Holiday Quilt Show before her death in 2023.
SALT LAKE CITY — Ultrasound imaging is one of the best tools in the diagnosis and treatment of an unborn child.
This year, proceeds from the annual Holiday Quilt Show and Auction, hosted by the Intermountain Foundation, will help bring a new state-of-the-art fetal ultrasound imaging machine to the Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital.
The show will be Thursday through Saturday on the mezzanine level at Little America Hotel, 500 Main St. in Salt Lake City.
“Each year hundreds of talented, dedicated volunteers give countless hours of their time, talents, and resources to create beautiful handmade quilts to benefit others,” said Meredyth Armitage, executive director of Intermountain Foundation in the Salt Lake Valley, in a press release. “By participating in the Holiday Quilt Show and Auction, the community will help rewrite the life stories of untold numbers of children and families.”
Chris Manning was one of the volunteers and board members of the event who gave her time and talent to the quilt shows for decades. Unfortunately, the Bountiful resident died of cancer last year. According to her obituary, she curated and showed her quilts and textiles locally and received multiple awards.
“She was honored to quilt and to present the official state gift to His Holiness the Dalai Lama on his first visit to Utah,” the obituary states.
Manning’s husband, Brent Manning, said the couple’s second granddaughter weighed less than 3 pounds when she was born and stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit for a long time.
“The idea of doing something to help newborns was really important to her,” he said in the release.
Manning designed her final quilt, entitled “Baby Born,” after receiving inspiration and permission from a children’s book author. The quilt features rows of swaddled babies, with some smiling or sleeping and others with their eyes and mouths wide open. Some also have giant curls on their foreheads. Shortly before her death, Manning divided 60 fabric baby figures among her friends, who completed her creation.
“Helping bring Chris Manning’s vision for ‘Baby Born’ to life has been a profound honor,” said Judy Reese, chair of the Holiday Quilt Show and Auction volunteer board, in the release. “This quilt represents more than just fabric and stitching. It embodies Chris’s passion and her unwavering commitment to our cause. Knowing that this beautiful work was her final project has made completing it alongside the Silver Mine Quilters Guild and dear friends even more special. With each embroidered face and every stitch, Chris’ spirit and dedication live on.”
The Holiday Quilt Show and Auction began in 1983 and has become one of the last remaining all-handmade quilt shows in the country, according to Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital. Over the years, the event has raised more than $4.5 million to provide health care across the state and beyond. The funds also have supported medical research and education and advanced the science of medicine.
The Grant Scott Bonham Fetal Center at Intermountain Primary Children’s Hospital is the most highly specialized fetal care center in Utah and the Intermountain West, the press release states. It features maternal-fetal medicine specialists to help pregnant mothers, in-utero fetal surgeons to help unborn babies, neonatologists specially trained to care for newborns, and pediatric specialists to address the baby’s various needs before and after delivery.
The show, featuring 76 quilts, will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. A gala dinner and auction will close the event at 6 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at the door or online at holidayquiltshow.org. The cost of the gala and auction are $150 per person or $1,500 per table and will be held in the grand ballroom of the hotel.