Loveless has created art quilts for 10 years and entered the competition with a 5-by-20-foot long art quilt mounted on four panels displaying the shoreline of Lake Michigan.

She said it took her about 400 hours, over the course of five months, to complete her prize-winning quilt.

Loveless graduated with a degree from MSU in apparel and textile design in 1982. She said she was inspired by a photo she found of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, adding it was a scene from where she lived in Northern Michigan.

“It’s the third year that I got involved in the competition,” said Loveless. “I thought it would be a great exposure for my gallery.”

ArtPrize is an independent and open international art competition founded five years ago by Grand Rapids businessman Rick DeVos.

DeVos wanted to create an event that would unlock creativity and bring people from different parts of the world to exhibit their art.

This year’s ArtPrize set an attendance record compared to previous years.

Nearly half a million people attended this year’s ArtPrize, and more than 49,000 votes were cast.

Loveless won the largest monetary prize in the competition by getting the most votes from the public.

Brian Burch, ArtPrize public relations director, said anyone was eligible to vote for the art work exhibited, and explained voting takes place in two rounds.

“The first round starts on opening day and ends at midnight on the second Saturday of the competition,” Burch said, and added voting is unlimited during this round.

He said during the second round, the top-10 art pieces are chosen for people to vote on. In this round, voters cast only one vote.

Burch said they still are trying to find a place to exhibit the winning pieces since the usual exhibit place, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, currently is closed because of the government shutdown.

The university is working on getting the quilt to be exhibited at the museum and inviting Loveless for an art talk, said Marsha MacDowell, art and art history professor and curator at MSU Museum.

“It’s wonderful that a Michigan quilt artist … has received this recognition,” MacDowell said.

MacDowell said in a way, Loveless’ ArtPrize win could serve as a recognition of all quilt artists.

MSU has one of the nation’s top research centers on quilts since the 1980s, with one of the best quilt collections in the world, MacDowell said.

“I think that it helped that I took art classes as electives when I was at MSU,” Loveless said. “Now I use fabrics that look like color, so it helps to have an eye for color.”