Pat Hilts of Columbus, Wisconsin, is best known for her scholarly editions and translations of seventeenth- and eighteenth- century German weaving books. She weaves on antique equipment and has reproduced several historic loom mechanisms for her own use.

She first became interested in antique spinning wheels when she learned to spin on one. She and her husband, Victor, have since done extensive research on spinning wheels and have published three articles about the history of Norwegian spinning wheels in the Midwest, including one for the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Pat also weaves on historic looms and has studied and published extensively about the history of weaving. Several of Pat’s liturgical wall hangings are exhibited by Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Her interest in weaving led her to earn a master’s degree in the Related Art Department of the UW School of Human Ecology.

Pat lives in Columbus, Wisconsin, but spends some of the summer as curator of the Home Textile Tool Museum in Orwell, Pennsylvania.