Quilt Gardens celebrates 15 years in Elkhart County

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. -- Quilt Gardens celebrated 15 years in Elkhart County at the Essenhaus Conference Center in Middlebury on Tuesday night.

The Elkhart County Convention & Visitors Bureau honored organizations that have helped bring the Quilt Gardens to the area for over a decade.

Quilt Garden events started in 2008 as a collaboration between the Elkhart County CVB and cities across the county to create an attraction that would bring visitors to the area.

Projects like the Quilt Garden are credited with making tourism a multi-billion dollar industry in the state of Indiana and supporting more than 200,000 Hoosier jobs.

There are 17 gardens in Elkhart County boasting over 1 million flowers, and 25 hand-painted murals also line the Heritage Trail.