Guild members Nancy Straub (from left), Linda Harvey, Beckie Fry, Linda Matthews and Kathy Arndt are passionate about quilting. They are part of a membership of 175.
For 25 years, the Red Rose Quilters Guild has produced quilts of all shapes, sizes, colors and designs. Members donate hundreds of quilts to charity.
For 25 years, the Red Rose Quilters Guild has produced quilts of all shapes, sizes, colors and designs. Members donate hundreds of quilts to charity.
They call themselves "fabricholics."
Fabric, you see, is the Holy Grail for quilters.
And as far as creating bewitching stitchery, the members of the Red Rose Quilters Guild are no less passionate about turning the fabric into fine art.
This year, the guild, now 175 strong, celebrates its 25th birthday.
Sipping coffee around a dining-room table, surrounded by examples of the colorful fruits of their labor, several guild members are not at a loss for words as they discuss the group's continuing evolution.
Quilting, they say, is experiencing a resurgence, especially with the proliferation of patterns — many online — fabrics and interest in handmade items.
"I think if you were to ask us what we'd most like to be doing — aside from spending time with our children and grandchildren — it would be quilting," says Nancy Straub, the group's recording secretary, whose Ephrata home is a veritable quilt museum.
Members consider the $20 annual dues a true bargain.
What price can you put on camaraderie?
"There's a connection," says Linda Matthews, who is in charge of the newsletter.
No men currently belong to the group, but they are always welcome, she says.
"Quilters tend to be the salt of the earth," corresponding secretary Kathy Arndt says. "They are good friends, down-to-earth people."
***
Love of quilting — whether done by hand or on a machine — is at the heart of this group, which meets monthly.
Some members had relatives who quilted, while others only started quilting since joining the guild.
Quilters are not quitters. Some projects can take up to two years to complete.
And they don't have to be perfect either.
"Fabric is very forgiving," Matthews says.
The 28 charter members hoped to promote the art of quilting through a program of education and study; maintain the quilting tradition, which has a historic stronghold in Lancaster County; and provide a venue for work and fellowship with other quilters.
Today the guild has met those goals, and then some.
Now part of the National Quilting Association, the guild has grown exponentially and embraced charity work.
Two hundred quilts and more than 200 quilted tote bags filled with toiletries are donated annually to Domestic Violence Services, the Transitional Living Center and Milagro House. Quilts are also given to AseraCare Hospice for Alzheimer's patients.
A total of 209 quilts was given to those four charities in 2007, says Beckie Fry, a guild charter member who is in charge of the charity quilts.
In addition, the guild makes red, white and blue quilts for the Quilts of Valor program, which donates them to wounded veterans at Pennsylvania VA hospitals.
Today guild programs feature national and local speakers, workshops on new techniques and show-and-tell of projects. There is even an annual retreat.
The guild also has community groups — with names like Fabric Friendly Females, in Manheim/Lititz; and The Piecemakers, in Ephrata — reaching out to all corners of the county. In keeping with the Internet revolution, the guild has its own Web site, a Yahoo group and its own logo, designed by Emily Nendza, sister of guild member Marjorie Gearhart.
You don't have to be a quilter to join the guild.
You just have to appreciate quilts, Straub says.
"There's this image of the quilter as a little old lady in a bonnet," Arndt says.
But the membership is very diverse, with quilters ranging in age from their 20s to 80s, Fry says.
She recalls a former guild president who was an attorney — now a judge — and mentions a member who rides a motorcycle.
Enter the new age of quilting.
Why quilt?
"It's relaxing, therapeutic," Webmistress Linda Harvey says.
Many of the members like to give quilts as gifts, Matthews says.
"These are gifts made with love behind them."
FOR QUILTERS
WHAT: