| From its beginnings in March 1985, Gateway Quilters' Guild has been a magnet of creative quilters in Merced, Mariposa, and Stanislaus counties. We meet monthly to share our quilts and their stories, to hear regionally and nationally known quilters tell their sagas, and to learn new techniques in guild-sponsored workshops. We are committed to celebrating and preserving the quilting arts in our community.
We strive to instruct the community in the quilting arts by hosting a biennial quilt show. Our members laugh and work together to "hang" the show. Then on show days, we take turns as docents, ticket takers, and soup servers. All the while, we share our love of quilts with strangers, friends and family. When the show is over, we exhausted-but-happy quilters gather over a potluck supper to recount the show and celebrate our accomplishments. We also applaud the quilts and quilters who were voted "Best" in several categories.
We give to the community by sewing lots and lots of quilts for distribution to needy children through Child Protective Services and other agencies where there is need for a comforting hug. We have also distributed quilts to women trying to make a fresh start through A Woman's Place. To date, well over 500 quilts have been given throughout our community by our own Quilter's Embrace Project. And, of course, these quilts have also been a big hug to the many members who have worked on them.
The Opportunity Quilt has become an annual showcase of our pooled talents and skills. The revenue collected from each Opportunity Quilt allows us to expand our knowledge of quilting and the quilt world, and to pass that knowledge on to others. It also provides the funding for a scholarship given to a Merced College student each year. A retrospective of our collective Opportunity Quilts would reveal an amazing depth of skill and vision.
We are a diverse group...young, old, married, single, widowed, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, cat lovers, dog lovers, gardeners, knitters, readers, Civil War enthusiasts, football fans, global travelers, teachers, homemakers, veterans, volunteers, collectors, Democrats, Republicans, able-bodied, and not-so-able-bodied. We like traditional quilts and contemporary quilts. We make pieced quilts and appliqued quilts. We like innovative techniques and the comfort of tried-and-true. We like our quilts bright and bold, and deep and rich, and soft and breezy. We love our sewing machines, our gadgets, our fabric, and each other. We are rich, indeed!
We are grateful for the vision of Marie Strait and the original 22 quilters who formed Gateway Quilters' Guild. We have a treasured heritage in our 20+ years together, and enough fabric to leave a legacy of quilting and laughing for decades.
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