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Heartland Quilt Guild of the Eastern Shore will celebrate its 40th anniversary with an ice cream social on Oct. 2 at Calvary Baptist Church in Denton. Outgoing Vice President Kay Butler will give a PowerPoint presentation on the guild’s history.
The guild was established to bring together people interested in quilts and quilting. Butler is one of two members who have been around since almost the beginning. She said she missed the first meeting by three months, but once she moved here as a teacher and learned about the group, she has been a member ever since. Only charter member Victoria McConnell has been a member longer.
“It was a wonderful group with a lot of older members,” Butler recalled of the founders. They welcomed young mothers like Butler, and “they made us baby quilts.”
Heartland Quilters originally met at Calico Cut Ups, a fabric store on Market Street in Denton, and comprised mostly Maryland members. From Calico Cut Ups, meetings moved to Maple Village in Greensboro, then to the Episcopal Church in Denton, then the former Choptank Electric building, and most recently to Calvary Baptist. The guild has ranged from 30 to 85 members over the decades, with 65 members currently, about 80% of them from Delaware.
“We have some incredibly talented members,” Butler said. These days most works are machine-quilted, and members have numerous “UFOs” (unfinished objects). They all share a love of quilting.
To become a member, one needs only an interest in quilts and quilting and to pay $25 in annual dues, Butler said. To help pay for programs and expenses, each month someone volunteers to put together an “opportunity basket” of goodies to be raffled at the next meeting, and the group raffles a quilt annually. Tickets are $1 each or six for $5. This year’s quilt winner will be drawn at the December meeting.
An active group, Heartland offers a variety of programs and workshops, including a speaker or class at each monthly meeting. They have hosted quilt shows and Shop Hops. Heartland also sponsors a four-day Sew Camp at Ridgely Volunteer Fire Company, Christmas in July at the Caroline County Public Library, and regular overnight retreats at Camp Pecometh outside of Centreville.
The guild has two Quilts of Valor groups; one of them sews at the Fiber Arts Center, which also hosts classes taught by Heartland members. Butler has taught a Harriet Tubman Quilt class twice, as well as Stitching Stories of Freedom.
Butler and several other members are also quilt historians, and the guild has hosted displays at the Preston Historical Society, the Queen Anne’s County Historical Society, and the Oxford Museum.
Officers for the next year include President Holly Siebach, First Vice President Gennis Morris, Second Vice President Lorelei Semple, Treasurer Brenda Zimmerman, and Secretary Joyce Sinclair. For more information, check out the Heartland Quilt Guild of the Eastern Shore Facebook page, contact one of the members, or attend a meeting.
Doors for the 40th anniversary celebration meeting open at 6:30 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church, 1120 Market St., Denton. Program begins at 7 p.m.
