Activities and Projects

A 2011 Challenge Quilt — by Barbara Hoagland

Our activities and projects are designed to keep us informed, educated, and inspired. We want our meetings to be occasions when we can see and admire the work of other quilters, whether national “celebrity” teachers or our own members. The out-of-town teachers we invite to our guild challenge our creative skills, as do the teachers we study with at national quilting events. Our talented local quilters provide mini-workshops and other teaching opportunities at our meetings, in addition to the classes taught at area shops and community centers. Guild members work on many projects, both philanthropic and personal.

Recent Outreach

During February 2022, guild members brought quilts to several branches of the Leon County Public Library. They showed the quilts to children in story hour who were hearing the book Show Way about quilts guiding slaves to freedom.

The Lake Jackson branch of the library set up a station (see photo) for patrons to try their hands at making paper quilt blocks. We’ll be inviting them to the Guild before you know it!

Year-round activities

Sit-n-Stitch

See Sit-n-Stitch listing
Since Quilters Unlimited now has over 200 members, these groups provide an opportunity for quilters to become better acquainted and to share knowledge and skills in an informal setting. Members can contact our Sit-n-Stitch coordinator for more information on how to join one. Sit-n-Stitch groups meet on various days of the week and with different frequency. Most meet in a member’s home and work on individual projects, while some meet at a specific location and work on a service project, e.g., quilts for Big Bend Hospice. Another group makes quilts for the children residing at the Tallahassee Coalition for the Homeless, using fabrics brought to the Guild Meetings by the Sew For Hope.

Block of the Month

Each meeting our membership is invited to create a pre-selected block for that month. If they bring the block to the meeting, they qualify for a drawing to win all the blocks created by other members in the same pieced pattern. There have been many wonderful quilts made by winners.

Baby Quilts

We continue to contribute approximately 200 baby quilts per year to the Newborn Intensive Care unit at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. These 17″ x 25″ quilts fit the small incubators and are used for several purposes, including being given to the families when the babies are ready to go home, and for bereavement. See more information about this project and directions for making these quilts.

Quilts for Critters

Some of our members make “Kitty Quilts” for the cat cages at the Animal Shelter. View more Kitty Quilt Information.

Periodic Activities

Challenge Quilts

Each year, the Guild offers a challenge whereby Guild-Members can formally demonstrate their creativity, technical accuracy, and ability to get across the message of the theme in accordance with certain rules. Detailed information about Challenge Quilts

Opportunity Quilt

Each year, the Guild creates a quilt that will be raffled off to raise money to support Guild activities. View more Opportunity Quilt information and pictures.

Trips

Show Trips and Shop Hops offer opportunities to expand our quilting horizons, to form and cement friendships, and to increase our fabric stash. QU has a bus going to the Quiltfest in Jacksonville, Florida, in September.

Workshops

The Guild tries to host two-to-three workshops a year that are taught by well-known Quilting instructors. View information on planned workshops.

Quilts of Valor

Many of the members make quilts for wounded soldiers through the Quilts of Valor program. These are typically shown to the whole Guild in July, before sending off to the QOV program.

Previous Philanthropic Activities

QU members respond to philanthropic community needs in many ways. Every day individual members quietly stitch love and compassion into quilts that a recipient will embrace with thanks and hope.

Domestic Violence Awareness Quilt” has been made for the Department of Corrections (DOC) by one of our Sit-n-Stitch groups.

We have provided quilts to Capital Area Healthy Start Coalition. These are signature quilts made for grieving families that have lost an infant, or had a pregnancy loss, and the families sign squares in their honor. The quilts are on display in various segments of the community, and at the Healthy Start Coalition office, and at their annual “Walk to Remember”.

We have given to the Tallahassee Memorial Hospital emergency room tote bags for victims of violence.