This article is about Heritage Quilters Guild. Unfortunately, due to the word count limitation, it wasn’t possible to fill you in on all aspects of this topic. But to our best knowledge, we summarized our hard earned research material that was worth 7,000 words, into 1,000 words only. This was to ensure that you get to read nothing but the finest postulates of different important things attached to Heritage Quilters Guild.
So, let’s get to it:
Who Founded Heritage Quilters Guild, and Why?
Questions such as, who came up with the idea of founding the Heritage Quilters Guild, or is there only one guild in the whole wide world, often arise in the minds of eager quilters. Well, to tell you the truth, in the beginning there was only one guild, but soon enough, the tradition spread all over the world – so much so that currently, there’re Heritage Quilters Guilds all over the globe.
We focused on the River Heritage Quilters Guild in order to give you a general perspective of how it all started. Long ago, in the late 80s, 1989 to be specific, there was a group of people who were interested in preserving the quilting culture. So what they did was that they held a couple of meetings in Cape Public Library; just to share their ideas and see why they were so much interested in quilting on an individual level.
Word reached out and some women from Kentucky also showed interest in joining the River Heritage Quilters Guild. Usually, they’d sit together and discuss a mutual goal for the guild, under the direct supervision of Ms. Sherry Hazel. You can pretty much guess who she was. Anyway, by the time the guild was formulated into a proper shape, these women were already down with the following sub posts in the guild. (This was the time between the months of March and July 1989):
• Nominating Committee
• Membership Programs
• By- Laws Updates
• Newsletters
• Special Projects
• Janitorial Tasks
How Did They Manage Primary Expenses For Running The Guild?
That’s a good question, which some up you have been quivering to ask by now. In order to keep the guild’s finances running, they established a primary account or savings system. Every member of the guild was supposed to chuck out $3. It doesn’t seem like a lot of money currently, but back then, only 34 people paid their dues. By June 1989, new officers were nominated and selected by the Guild members. Since more than 40 people were now paying dues, this factor was taken as a sign of progress and huge motivation for all the individuals who were associated with this body.
Rumor has it that the Heritage Quilters Guild tradition became so popular that the fine ladies in Baltimore and some other major locations, already started thinking of founding their own guilds. Some of them did that, while others simply found peace with such ideas. Anyway, coming back to the River branch of this main guild, you’ll be amazed to know that during their first summer season, tons of people showed interest in joining the guild.
Since most of them were those women who didn’t know much about quilting, the guild’s officers invited them in for a $12 membership fee. Seeing to the fact that they’d be learning from their experts, $12 didn’t seem like too much of a fee. Everyone was just trying to focus on the first summer challenge of the guild, i.e. make a charm quilt with the help of using 4 inch fabric pieces only.
What Did They Do With These Quilts?
Every single piece of quilt, which was considered a beauty from its own unique perspective, was either sold or auctioned off. As a matter of fact, in February 1990, the River Heritage Quilters Guild held its first silent auction, which was later on followed by a dinner. The proceedings of this auction were mainly donated to the wellbeing of the local Sheriff’s Department. This decision was made by the mutual consent of all the active members of the quilters’ community.
Here at this point, you can get the general idea that the guild’s main interests were to support their local communities, as much as possible. One of the most active members of the Heritage Quilters Guild, Ms. Judy Robinson, alongside her 3 other colleagues, made 4 fabulous quilts that were donated to Lt. Bud Proffer. These kind hearted women just wanted to make sure that these quilts could come in handy during any unforeseen emergency situations.
The First Birthday of Heritage Quilters Guild:
After an entire year went by smoothly, in March 1990, it was time to celebrate the first River Heritage Quilters Guild anniversary. By then, already a staggering number of donations were being made to the guild, while more and more members were willing to join this noble cause every other month. The main officers of this super friendly guild saved some money and started donating books to different schools, and the local libraries.
In addition to donations and anonymous funding projects, the guild members also celebrated the first anniversary by exchanging gifts. Everyone seemed really happy at the fact that they were preserving the tradition of hand quilting, while contributing their fair share of the good deeds to the society.
The Present Shape and Future of Heritage Quilters Guild In General:
Followed by the popularity of River Heritage Quilters Guild, many other guilds such as Star Supporters Quilt Guild etc. are on the horizon. Presently in the modern online world, quilting is considered to be a dying art. The statement might seem offensive to those who’ve always carried on the tradition of hand quilting, within a long generation of family trees, but as we look at this thing from a bird’s eye view, it has become so much automated.
Corporation and markets who manufacture quilts, they just follow a mechanized procedure, where machines do most of the work. In fact, if you take a look at how quilts are made in the modern world today, you’d be amazed to see that quilters only have to do 1/4 th of the entire bidding – Quilting is now taken as more of a hobby, rather than anything special per say.