When I moved back to Florida three years ago, I was not sure how I would get used to retirement or how I would find new friends. I need not have worried. Century 21 Verna Mae Eady Real Estate, Inc. had just the right little place for us and Verna Mae and I liked each other so much she invited me to join her quilting group, the Springhouse Quilter's Guild. After a few months of one day running into the next, I took her up on her offer and found, not only an enjoyable way to use my time, but a new family of friends as well. I have become reacquainted with my home state, fallen in love with the Dixie-Gilchrist-Levy tri-county area and have been welcomed into the arms of so many new and supportive sisters-in-quilting!
At Springhouse Quilter's Guild in Trenton, Florida we "measure" our success by the smiles on our faces, "cut" to the basics in teaching our beginners, "sew" each project with care, "sandwich" our lives in between our quilting events, "quilt" each stitch with love, and "bind" ourselves together in friendship, caring, sharing and a growing determination to acquire a home of our own.
Founded on February 8, 1992 by Mary Jo Hefner, Lois Schroeter, Onnie Mae Colson and Betty King, membership has grown steadily over the years to the 78 we gladly enfold today. Three of our founding members are still members today, with Mary Jo Hefner being our 2001 president. Several of our members meet separately in our evening group, the Night Owls, but generally follow the same meeting plans and projects as the daytime members.
Our meeting places have changed from time to time as we have grown. Each year Springhouse quilters make one or two raffle quilts to benefit our hosting organizations. We greatly appreciate the Otter Springs Resort, Shriners, Fanning Springs City Hall, Woodmen of the World, and Donnie Voting Precinct organizations which have donated space for our use along the way, but the urge for a "home of our own" has become stronger and stronger.
Lois Scott, our 1999 and 2000 president, took the lead recently in seeking out, soliciting and acquiring 2 ½ acres of land near Trenton as a donation from Mr. and Mrs. Luther White of White Construction Company in Chiefland, Florida. Boy, are we excited! Our Building Committee can finally begin making fund raising plans, seeking grants, and visualizing our "someday" home. And the vision's getting brighter every day!
We are already accustomed to working hard to meet our goals including making the yearly raffle quilts, and community projects (such as making craft items, gifts, lap robes, sleeping mats, bibs and aprons for area nursing homes, and making cruiser quilts for the Sheriff's Department and Another Way to disburse to distressed children).
We encourage community awareness of quilt making and hold beginner quilting lessons regularly for new members and other interested parties such as the Gilchrist County 4H club. The 4H summer sewing camp has been taught by Springhouse Quilter's Guild volunteers since 1999 and we've thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of imparting our love of quilting to these enthusiastic young ladies!
In an effort to get more children involved, last fall we held a Mother/Daughter Night (and included granddaughters, nieces, nephews and friends) in our Night Owls group. The boys and girls who attended that event were new to sewing, but eager and enthusiastic. What fun that was! We taught them the "Foldy Log Cabin" block that evening and many of them finished their
projects into pillow covers at home afterward. Learning to work together with our families, friends and communities is a lifelong endeavor, but one we gladly undertake.
Our business meeting on the second Tuesday of each month includes (besides business of course) distribution of a newsletter, a block-of-the-month, and participation in a charm square exchange. We have a quarterly block drawing and quarterly pot-luck luncheons (And we do look forward to those meetings!...Yum!). Our Show and Tell sessions bring ooohs and aahhhs and our cameras are clicking away to save those memories of our completed quilts and quilted items.
The second Tuesday of each month is our scheduled monthly workshop where some form of quilting is taught by either guild members or paid instructors. We have learned everything from chatelaines, to small wall hangings, to full size quilt patterns, to how to judge a quilt, and much, much more. It is always fun, always informative.
Each new member is expected to take the beginner quilting classes offered by the guild. Six quilt blocks are taught along with quilting techniques, how to put a quilt together (sandwiching), and, finally, binding. You are expected to make a small sampler (lots of different blocks as opposed to a quilt that only uses one block pattern repeated over and over) wall hanging from those six blocks. Personally, I found I could not stop at six and ended up with a 20 block, full size sampler quilt.
In the process, I learned that I really could use a lap hoop and thimble if I tried, and tried, and tried, and that I really could quilt smaller stitches if I tried. Eventually, I even learned to use a stationery frame. I also learned that sore fingertips are to be expected and that any blood you may get on your quilt from needle pricks can be most easily removed by your own saliva. Quilters wear their sore and callused fingertips like a badge of courage and courageously keep right on quilting!
One of my first assignments in the guild was that of producing the yearly membership booklet. Since I enjoy typing, learning the computer and working with graphics, this was an enjoyable task. The membership booklet was well received and quickly followed by the program booklet for our first quilt show.
We were, at that time, using the Woodmen of the World building as our meeting place. It was small, but large enough to hold a roomful of beautifully displayed quilts, all lovingly pieced and quilted by our guild members. Quite a few nationally known companies donated items for us to use as door prizes at the quilt show. We also held demonstrations throughout the day of different quilting methods for any visitors who wanted to participate.
I even sold my first quilt at that show! It was a "mystery quilt" we had made that year. We received the instructions a little bit at a time at each business meeting for several months and the mystery was that we really didn't know how the finished quilt would look until it was finished!
When I was asked to take on the position of guild secretary for the year 1999, I did not feel I could do a good enough job since I still was not able to accurately match the names and faces of guild members. However, with the promise of lots of help and forgiveness of my mistakes, I took the job anyway. I quickly found that I really had no idea how the previous secretary managed to get those monthly business meeting minutes onto just two sheets of paper!
It was also in 1999 that I began work on our guild web page. I have continued with that project ever since and it has been well received by everyone who visits us for a virtual tour of our guild activities at http://www.svic.net/lyliston/quilting.htm.
Last year I was membership chairman for the guild. Actually, it was a shared position. When one of us could not be there, the other filled in. That arrangement worked quite nicely. After all, most of us are retired "old ladies" and like to travel about with our hubbies! The membership
chairman accepts membership applications, makes sure that everyone signs in at all meetings, and awards a door prize at each business meeting. Since the yearly membership booklet also falls under the duties of this position, I continued to do that as well. The latest change in officers and committees placed me taking photos and writing newspaper articles as publicity chairman for 2001. We are in a rather rural area here in north central Florida and at the point where Levy, Gilchrist and Dixie counties meet. Our membership is pulled from all three counties; therefore, we like to have our publicity articles displayed in all seven of the little weekly newspapers which cover the tri-county area.
To deliver to the three closer ones, I spend an hour on the road going from town to town, riding alongside the historic Suwannee River, down country roads lined in brightly colored wildflowers, passing cattle on the small farms either grazing or lying lazily in the shade of broadly branching ancient oaks, and field after field planted in one of the areas largest crops, pine trees. Even though I grew up "southern", I still sometimes feel like an outsider when I find myself among so many folks who have lived here all their lives in such close-knit yet widely separated communities. I wave to folks in their yards and call "Hey ya'll!" to the few I've come to know along the way. I may have been a wanderer, but they have warmly and graciously welcomed me back home again. I have to admit, too, that I am ever so thankful to be home at last, back to my roots and reconnecting with the real Florida. That is also where our quilting guild wants to be now, not "home again", but "home at last" in a building we can call our own where we will have room for our meetings, workshops, and classes, and room to expand for our ever increasing membership. I cannot imagine that our dream will not come true. With the dedication and enthusiasm shown by all of our members, we will push on toward our goal... one stitch at a time!
