Capital Area Modern Quilt Guild

One of my crafting resolutions this year was to find some sort of crafting community.  I love quilting, but sometimes hours of sewing in my basement feels pretty isolated.  I tried a knitting meet-up group shortly after moving to Harrisburg, but it wasn’t a great fit for me.  Though everyone was lovely and friendly, since knitting is not my primary craft and I’m not always knitting something, I felt pressured to find knitting projects just to go to the group.  More pressure and more projects weren’t my goal.

I needed some quilters!  So I tried to make some connections through the Modern Quilt Guild online, but I wasn’t having any success.  Luckily another Harrisburg woman found me online and contacted me, looking for other young quilters to form a Modern Quilt Guild!  How awesome it that?

So, Megan and I will be launching the Capital Area Modern Quilt Guild this August.  If you are in the Harrisburg, PA area please consider joining us, we would love to have you.  Anyone is welcome- Harrisburg, Hershey, and West Shore (Carlisle, York and Lancaster people, too, if you’re willing to drive a bit).  If you know any Harrisburg Area quilters, please help us spread the word and make this an awesome guild!

Pennsylvania Anabaptist Quilting: Today

Although I had the opportunity to donate two quilts to the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale last year, as a relative new comer to the Mennonites, this weekend was the first time I got to experience a relief sale first hand.  I LOVED it.  Right here in Harrisburg at the Farm Show Complex the Pennsylvania Relief Sale gathered everyone from Amish and Old Order Mennonites to MC USA and Brethren in Christ for hundreds of quilts, fantastic food, cheap vintage fabric, and lots of hand made and fair traded goods for sale.  How could you not love that?  I bought cheese, doughnuts, and soup, got some gifts at from the Ten Thousand Villages booth, and ate awesome food from Lao eggrolls to PA Dutch sausage, all of which was fabulous, but I spent most of my time enthralled at the quilt auction.  Really, I could have watched all day.

With over 300 quilts up for auction, choosing a favorite was a real challenge, but here are some of my top choices.  (If I did have to choose just one this would be my favorite, but it sold before I could get a photo of it.  It’s hard to see on the website, but it’s darling appliqued birds nuzzling on a branch)

Auction in Progress
Cross Stitched Star by the Millwood Mennonite Sewing Circle

Double Wedding Ring by Rebecca Sharp

Ellen's Stars
Pieced by Ellen Ressler, Quilted by Mae Stoltzfus

Can you believe that those nine patches are pieced? Incredible!

Hershey Heritage Whole Cloth Quilt by Mt. Joy Mennonite Sewing Circle

Incredible Quilting

Grandmothers Flower Garden, maker unidentified

Some fabulous feed sack fabrics

Spring Bouquets
Pieced by Rose Wiebe Haury
Appliqued by Helena Dueck
Quilted by MCC Volunteers

Incredible Tiny Applique

Vintage Feed Sack Delectable Mountain by Janet Runion Patton

Tiny Piecing

Vintage Dresden Plates

Vintage Rail Fence

Vintage Triangles (HSTs never go out of style, do they?)

I know, lots of photos, but really, there were just so many fantastic quilts!  Best of all, the money from all of the quilts, food, etc goes to Mennonite Central Committee and the wonderful work that they do.  Want to check out a sale yourself?  You can find one near you here.