Dressed in patchwork sweaters, carrying hand-stitched shoulder bags and wearing name tags made from scrap fabric, the Alamance Piecemakers Quilt Guild meets every month at the Burlington Elmira Community Center. The group, made up of about 50 women, shares their latest crafts, plans upcoming workshops and discusses new techniques they’ve learned. The guild, for many of these women, is about more than quilts; it’s about kinship and collaboration.
The president of APQG, Kathy Lyday, has been quilting since she was in her 20s, but only recently joined the organization in 2023 after retiring from Elon University as an English professor. Lyday said many other women were also looking for a community after retiring.
“If you’re retired and you miss your job and you miss your work and you miss your colleagues, this is a great place to come because we’re all in the same boat in that sense,” Lyday said.
Lyday said she’s the only previous professor in the group, and the other members of APQG come from a wide range of occupations and backgrounds.
“Connie is a former physician. We have corporate people here, we have former schoolteachers, we have stay-at-home moms and grandmoms,” Lyday said. “It’s a community that you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else except maybe at the Y.”
What unites them, though, is a passion to create.
“We’re all very artistic, and a lot of people in more than one area,” Lyday said. “We have knitters and embroiderers and, you know, crochet artists and people who do cross stitch. We’re all needle artists, and I think there’s just an inordinate amount of creativity around these women and a lot of wisdom.
A typical meeting for the APQG includes a show-and-tell for members to present their most recent work. Susan Hudson has been involved for over three years and said she enjoys seeing the group’s individual work.
“The show-and-tell gives me ideas on quilts I would like to make, or it says, ‘Oh my goodness, that person is making something I could never do. That’s way beyond my ability.’ But I can enjoy looking at it,” Hudson said.
The guild often donates to local groups to provide quilts to those who need them, such as CrossRoads, a social services organization. They also donate quilts to local veterans every Veterans’ Day.
Hudson is a co-chair of the annual joint quilt show with the Burlington Carousel Quilters. The show this year, titled “Art Feeds the Soul,” allows for members’ work to be presented beyond just their own groups.
The quilt show gives contributors the ability to receive feedback on their work and seek inspiration from other creators at the event. Hudson estimates about 100 quilts will be on display.
This year’s show has a special focus on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Members from APQG and BCQ collaborated to make a patriotic quilt with each state’s name embroidered around the perimeter.
The quilt is currently making its way around the community and will eventually end up in the Alamance Historical Museum.
Members of the local community are invited to attend the three-day-long event from March 5 to 7 at the Elon Community Church. Attendance is free, but guests are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item for the Salvation Army.