The Past Presidents' quilt trunk show

Our guild meeting on Saturday was so much fun.  We're a small group, with only a little over 40 members.  On average we have about 30 at monthly meetings.  A few of the ladies had a great idea - to have a brunch and invite past presidents who may not live around here or are no longer members.  And they asked them to bring their President Quilt, containing blocks made by members during their tenure in office. If they were in attendance, they came up with their quilt to show and talk about.  I took pictures and lots of notes. 

The Heartland Quilters Guild began in 1992.  The  very first president in 1992 was a lady named Elaine, who was still very active when I joined in 2011.  She has since passed away, but we do have a couple of ladies in the group who were charter members from that year.  The 1993 president was Louise who has love Sunbonnet Sue patterns for many years.  So it was only fitting that she received Sunbonnet Sue blocks for her president quilt.  Some have lovely little embellishments, and all have signatures. She hand quilted her quilt.  She mentioned that19 of the ladies who made blocks for her quilt that year have since passed away.  

In 1998 the president was Gladys.  Her favorite color is navy blue, and her blocks were all made to look good on a navy background.  

Ruby was president in 2003.  She has a love of butterflies, and her butterfly blocks were absolutely delightful.

Brenda has actually been president more than once.  But the first time was in 2005, and her blocks were made with strips of red (her favorite color at the time), with a signature in the center.  The ladies also provided an extra strip that she used in the border.  She was just learning applique at the time so she put an applique in the center and corners.

2007 was Karen's turn as president.  Her quilt has hearts all over it in bright colors, which is what we still expect to see with many of Karen's projects.

Karen even put a picture of all of the officers from that year on her label.

2008 was Alice M, and her quilt has a lot of sentimental memories.  Her mother had just passed away, and she had inherited all her mother's fabric as none of her siblings sewed.  A friend asked for a piece of fabric to make her something special, so she gave her a flowered piece as her mother loved flowers.  

Most of the blocks - including the one made by the friend - contain florals.  And the buttons in the sashing all came from her mother's stash.

2009 president was Kathy S.  She loves blue and yellow, and her blocks are hats in 2 styles, with a label that said "Hats Off to a Great Year!".  Kathy moved away a few years ago, so it was really awesome to see her again and get to catch up.  BTW - her shirt says Holy Scrap, and she commented that she has no stash at her new home - just ASSETS. 

Deb S was in office for 2010, and her set of blocks were spools.  She has been president more than once as well over the years.  

Brenda was back as president in 2011.  Her quilt is all purses in several styles, and the backing had a fun purse and shoe print.  The appliqued purses were simple shapes but lent themselves to some very clever embellishments by people.  This was the first president's block that I was a part of, as this was the year I joined the guild.

Alice N was president for 2 years in a row - 2015 and 2016.  She loves house blocks, so the first year we made house blocks for her.  When she received them at our Christmas party, she was instructed to NOT put them together because the second year's blocks would blend nicely.  She created "neighborhoods" with her houses.  I really love her layout.

Deb B (we have 6 ladies named Deb in guild) was also president for 2 years, over the Covid pandemic.  Her first act as president was to send out a message to cancel the next meeting. We met outdoors in a park over the summer, and then eventually moved our meetings from the public library to a church.  The first year she received the flowers, as she loves to garden. The second year we did 9-patch blocks the same size.  She added some word sections from a panel.  This quilt makes me think spring.

Maureen came on board in 2022.  She is a Navy veteran, who also grew up on the eastern seaboard.  So a love of the ocean was a good plan.  We got a variety of sea creatures to applique, with instructions to use batiks.  There were whales, starfish, and other random fish and they were simple shapes to applique.

Once she received the blocks, she added people snorkeling to her quilt - one for each member of her family.  Don't you just love how creative these ladies get?

2023 Deb S returned as president and she loves to applique, and loves bunnies.  So the block pattern we all received had a bunny with a little yo-yo tail.  We were instructed to use bright spring colors. 

She loved the bunnies, and added flowers to the border.  One the back she added a unique label because one guild member gave her 2 bunny blocks.  The extra block had a bunny lying down, and words added that said "the only good bunny is a dead bunny!".  It made a perfect label for a fun quilt. 

Brenda was president again in 2024.  She's a good sport to be willing to take that on 3 times.  Her latest set of blocks were 6" Honey Bees in a rainbow of colors.  We received the background fabric with the Lori Holt pattern.  This block is the 6" version of the 12" ones I've been making for RSC this year.  The little ones are so much cuter!!  Brenda has a plan for her bee quilt. 

And that plan involves the beehive block and some flower blocks, also from Lori Holt.  I'm betting she will have it done in time for our 2027 quilt show.  It will be a really fun quilt.

Peggy was president in 2025 and she won't receive her blocks until our Christmas party in December.  So it's still a secret.  My block is finished and handed over to the current officers.

The committee (Sandy, Janelle, Peggy) did a wonderful job planning and organizing this event.  We had a yummy brunch of breakfast pizza and fruit before the trunk show.  Then after seeing all the quilts we enjoyed cake and more coffee while we talked about all the beautiful president quilts, and reminisced about the ladies that were not there.  Some of our past presidents have passed away, some have moved away, and a few had conflicts that kept them from attending.