| Raintree Quilters Guild of Evansville, IN |
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Raintree Quilters Guild is an educational and charitable organization. The Guild provides
education to its members and to our community and produces quilts to benefit
other charitable organizations and individuals in need.
Member Resources
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Show and Tell: Show and Tell sessions at every Raintree Guild meeting allow members to share their excitement and inspire each other with ideas.
Library: Raintree Guild has a library of books covering many techniques and styles of quilting that members can borrow at any meeting. Quilting Bees: Guild members will find a place to quilt because they are driven. Bees are a gathering of quilters, usually working on their own individual projects together. Participants get to know each other better and share ideas and experience. Newsletter: A monthly newsletter provides information about guild activities and events. Retreats: Members are invited to participate in occasional retreats, although numbers are limited according to retreat facilities. When you go on a retreat you usually travel to another area and stay a few days. There are demos, games, lots of time sewing, plenty of opportunities to exchange ideas and visit with other quilters. |
Karen Hampton (at the right with the microphone) shows her new quilt at Show and Tell at the 6/7/17 meeting.
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Educational Programs |
Photos from Travelling Teacher Classes
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Meeting Programs: At many Raintree meetings the program consists of a local or regional expert who presents a skill or technique or otherwise tells her story.
For more information on meetings click here. Workshops: Hands-on classes about quilt or sewing projects conducted by experienced Raintree members. They usually are conducted on Saturdays and last from a few hours to most of a day. These workshops sometimes charge a modest fee. Traveling Teachers: Once or twice a year Raintree presents a class given by a travelling teacher. These teachers are professional quilters/teachers who teach a specific quilt, style, or technique in a hands-on project. The guild partially funds these presentations, but participants are expected to pay a modest fee. Area quilters who aren't members are invited to join in if Raintree members don't fill the class. |
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Learning by Doing
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Block of the Month: Each month a block of the month is selected and provided to interested members including good directions on how to make it. Participants then make two of those blocks. The next month they bring their blocks back to the meeting. Half of the blocks made by participants are used to make donation quilts. The other half are given to the winner of a drawing of Block of the Month participants. This is a great opportunity to try out a new block and new skills.
Christmas Exchange: Each year members get a fat quarter as a Christmas gift. If they like they can participate in a Christmas Exchange. The Gift Exchange project must use the gift fabric. At the December meeting we exhibit the finished projects and draw who gets to take each home. |
Challenge Quilt: Each year the Raintree Quilters Guild presents a challenge to members. The challenge specifies a theme, style, type of quilt or
colors to get participants to try something new or different. Challenge quilts are "reavealed" at the June meeting are often featured at the next quilt show. Some Christmas Exchange Projects
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Opportunities to Help in our Community
Among the charitable projects that Raintree quilters produce are Service Project
Quilts and Angel Quilts. In addition members organize and volunteer at
community events.
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Angel Quilts: Angel Quilts are small baby quilts which are typically made and given to the guild completed. Raintree Guild then distributes these quilts to grief counselors at local hospitals who, in turn, give them to parents of infants who have died. They are greatly appreciated as remembrances of their child. Quilts of various sizes from 12" x 12" up to 24" x 24" are wanted by the hospitals. Service Project Quilts: The quilt tops for Service Projects Quilts are sometimes donated by Raintree members and other times are assembled from Block of the Month blocks. The Service |
Angel Quilt, 30" x 30", Tesselation Quilt
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Project committee assembles kits with the tops for quilting and/or binding, and members take home the kits to
complete them. These quilts are then distributed to other charitable organizations, who either give them to their clients or sometimes to raffle or auction them as fund-raisers.
complete them. These quilts are then distributed to other charitable organizations, who either give them to their clients or sometimes to raffle or auction them as fund-raisers.
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Event Volunteers:
Bi-Annual Quilt Shows: Raintree members as well as the community are invited to enjoy and learn from the Quilt shows which are held in odd-numbered years. Raintree volunteers serve in many roles at these shows. For more information click see buttons at right Quilters' Day: Area quilters gather on a Saturday in March for a Quilters' Day to celebrate the Quilters' Day designated by the National Quilters Association of which Raintree is a member. This event is aimed at quilters and includes talks, a small quilt show, vendors, door-prizes, and more. |