Special Events
QUILT sponsors a variety of special events throughout the year. By participating in these special events you have a chance to expand your quilting skills, to share your skills with the community and to spend time with other enthusiastic quilters. We encourage our members to participate in each of these special events.
Show And Tell
Each month you are welcome to come before the group and share your latest find, or your work in progress or your completed quilt. This is often the most eagerly awaited event of the evening.
As soon as we adjourn our monthly meetings, members hurry to line up with their Show And Tell for the evening. Members take the microphone and tell who they are and a little something about their quilt. Volunteers hold up the article for all the audience to ooh and aah over. This sharing often challenges us to start a new project or finish one we have already started. What’s Happening?
Show And Tell
Airing of the Quilts
Mini-Lessons
Super Saturday Sew In
Bus Trip
Retreat to the Hills V
Pat Anglin Baby Quilt
Workshop
Educational Outreach
Program
Airing of the Quilts
Years ago women planned extensive spring cleaning projects. Often this included the airing of their quilts after a long winter of use. QUILT has continued this tradition by bringing our quilts to the “Airing of the Quilts” held each spring. We meet at the home of Loneta Blevins where we drape our quilts along her rail fences. It is a colorful sight to be seen for miles around.
We bring our quilts and share a picnic supper. From these picnics the guild has compiled a Guild Cookbook we sell as a fundraiser. At the picnic, we get together to share great food, awesome old and new quilts, and in general just have a good time. This is an open meeting, all are welcome. After we eat we walk the fence and share the story of each quilt. Often there are hundreds of quilts on display as you can see below. Please join us.
Mini-Lessons
Mini-lessons are offered at each regular meeting as well as at the Baby Quilt Workshops. A volunteer member of the guild demonstrates a quilting technique or a block to all who are interested in attending. This is free to members and a large group attends each month. No sign up, just show up. The mini-lesson is held from 6-6:45pm on guild meeting night and is a wonderful source for the new, and not so new quilter, to pick up tips and techniques.
Super Saturday Sew In
Almost every quarter the guild sponsors a Super Saturday Sew In. A member of the guild teaches interested quilters a class for the day. The class is available to guild members for the low price of $10 and a catered lunch is available for $5 extra. It is a day filled with fun, learning and camaraderie. Some of the classes held in the past have been: Miniature Sunshine & Shadow quilt by Mikki Stone, Curved Piecing by Paula Mariedaughter, Machine Appliqué by Sally LeBoeuf, Strip Piecing by Joan Beyette and 1/8″ framing and Seminole Piecing by Dorothy Day. We are always interested in hearing what members would like classes on.
This is a great way to meet other quilters in a small group setting. We usually meet at the Jones Center in Springdale or Carroll Electric in Bentonville or Peace Lutheran Church in Rogers. Super Saturday’s are better than a Super Bowl!
Bus Trip
Over the past two years Quilters United In Learning Together has sponsored two bus trips. These trips can be to any destination a group of quilters wants to visit. The 2003 event was a trip to St. Charles, Missouri for the Outdoor Quilt Show. We made many stops along the way, most always at quilt shops. Last year the guild sponsored a trip to the Wichita Quilt Show in Wichita, Kansas. So far these trips have been two day, one night get-a-ways but we are always open to suggestions of where you would like to go.
We come back with lots more gear than we left with, including many happy memories of the event and new friendships. It is a great way to get to know other members of the guild (particularly if you share a room with them!)
Retreat to the Hills V
This year we will have our fifth annual Quilt Retreat. If you want to get away from all of the things that keep you from quilting… then, RETREAT… to the Hills. Year five is perfect for you to join in this adventure! Our Retreat is a weekend packed full of quilting, friendship, and fun activities. What could be better? Maybe great food! (Oh yeah! There will be great food, too!) Spend the weekend, from Friday evening, October 21st thru Sunday afternoon, October 23rd at the Ozark Natural Science Center. http://onsc.uark.edu
ONSC is located in Madison County, Arkansas between Huntsville and Eureka Springs. It is the perfect place to find yourself isolated for a relaxing experience. Participants will be housed in the climate-controlled cabins and activities will take place in the beautiful lodge and educational building. What a great place to hang out with fellow quilters and sneak in a few stitches. There will be four scheduled workshops (to be announced later), six marvelous meals and two nights lodging for $150. Maximum number of participants is 50, so sign up soon! Please contact Sheila Bayles at [email protected] for additional information and/or your registration form.
Pat Anglin Baby Quilt Workshop
Baby, oh Baby – February is time for our annual Pat Anglin Baby Quilt Workshop. Every year members gather for the Guild’s big community project workshop. We spend the evening making baby or youth quilts to give to children in crisis. Pat Anglin, in the mid 90s, saw the need to supply charitable organizations with baby quilts. The members of QUILT voted to sponsor the project and committed to devote a meeting each year to making baby quilts. Several years later, after Pat’s death, the project was given her name to honor her commitment.
This year we will be starting early and working late. We will be meeting again at the Mt. Comfort Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. (Take Fayetteville exit 65 off I 540, turn west (away from town), go 1.3 mile on Mt. Comfort Road, turn right into church parking lot to Fellowship Hall.) This will be our February meeting and the Fellowship Hall will be available on February 24th from 1:00 pm until 9:00 pm.
This year’s door prizes are provided by Patchwork Emporium and Nora’s Quilts. There is no time limit to work, so show up when you can and stay until 9:00 if you like. New members are welcome and encouraged to attend.
Bring your traveling supplies: sewing machines, extension cords, power strips, ironing boards, irons, cutting mats and rotary cutters, as well as basic sewing supplies. There will be lots of donated fabric to choose from, but additional fabric donations are always welcome. Bring the kids! Crayon blocks will again be available for our children to do their part for their community. Don’t forget to bring a snack or drink to share. For additional information you can e-mail Carol Parrish at [email protected] or Kathy Garringer at [email protected]
In 2003 – 2004 our guild members made over 300 baby quilts that were distributed to local charities like the Junior League for the It’s My Bag Project and for the Children’s Advocacy Center. Our members also helped with making over 100 quilts for 4 AR Kids at the Arkansas Sheriff’s Ranch.
Educational Outreach Program
Last spring, the Junior League of NWA contacted QUILT, asking us help them in a project called “It’s My Bag.” The Junior League donates backpacks or gym bags filled with personal items for children who enter area shelters. As part of our educational outreach program, the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classes of R. E. Baker Elementary School in Bentonville were asked to make blankets and crayon block quilts that the Junior League then added to their bags.
Working with Mrs. April Olson, Baker Art teacher, and volunteers from QUILT and the Junior League, the second and third graders made crayon blocks. The blocks were assembled into 16 quilt tops by QUILT members. About one month later, Baker Elementary fourth graders made a total of 84 fringed fleece blankets for the project.
As hoped, the lessons of this project went beyond the artistic activity. In October, a third grade student was killed by a drunk driver. His classmates, who had been a part of last year’s quilt project at Baker, asked if they could make a quilt for the slain boy’s family. Pouring both grief and compassion into their work, the children again made crayon blocks with Mrs. Olson. The quilt was finished by guild members Sharon Holladay, who sewed the top and bound it, and Sue Shadlow, who donated the machine quilting. The children carried forward the love and compassion that they learned goes into every stitch of a quilt.