By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
The Rhododendron Needlers Quilt Guild has been going strong for 27 years. A non-profit organization aiming to preserve to culture and history of quilting, as well as an understanding of the art of quilting, members come from 37 towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The group meets once a month at the Norfolk Agricultural High School in Walpole. These meetings are a chance for everyone to catch up, and often a chance to see speakers the group has brought in. Sometimes even nationally awarded quilters come to speak, to teach the group about their style and their journey with quilting.
The Guild hosts a semi-annual fundraiser, which carries them through two years. This year is a fundraiser year, and over the weekend of March 18-19, the Guild held their Quilt Show. Saturday and Sunday, over 150 quilts made by members of the Guild were on display at the Blue Hills Regional Technical School. In addition to wonderful quilts by the Guild members, there is a special exhibit titled “Hoffman Challenge Quilts.” These 40 quilts are part of an annual challenge in which Tobi Hoffman chooses two types of fabric that must be in the final product. From there, quilters are free to use their imagination.
“All of the money that we raise, we’re a nonprofit, so everything we do is for charity purposes or just to rent a hall or to pay for speakers,” Head of Publicity Judy Schmitt said. “We do a lot of charity quilts and we do it for kids, for shelters, for cancer patients, for whatever. We have a project going with Africa. One member has gotten very involved with that and she goes every other year and teaches people in Africa how to sew and they make quilts and then we bring them back here to sell, because they’re fairly unique. The fabrics are so different than what we have here.”
Another project they have undertaken in Africa is making washable pads for women and girls. “They don’t have anything at all and so the young girls would have their periods and they couldn’t go to school, they had to stay home. You get 100 sewers together for a day and there you go. Can you imagine, you’re missing days every month just for that reason?” The group gives back not only to the international community, but to the communities surrounding them as well.
The star of the quilt show is the raffle quilt. This year, it was named “Amish Stars” and it was constructed from more than 200 star blocks made by RNQG members. Over the next six to eight months, the quilt will travel to local store and quilt shows where raffle tickets can be purchased. The winning ticket will be drawn on April 19, and the quilt will then find its home with the lucky owner of that ticket.
The RNQG is currently accepting new members, and members are welcomed at all experience levels.
