February 18, 2025
Quilt Guild Spotlight: Faithful Circle Quilters of Downers Grove, Illinois
The Faithful Circle Quilters have woven a vibrant tapestry of community, creativity, and service for half a century.
Their story is one of growth, adapting to change, and a shared passion for quilting that has enriched both their own lives and the lives of those around them. Keep reading to learn more about their rich history in their own words!
Founded in 1974 by a local quilt teacher, the guild has grown from a handful of quilt students to a vibrant and talented group of 200 quilters, with a wait list of 25. The meeting space has grown as well, from a local grade school to the back room of a blacksmith shop and a library meeting room to a church sanctuary that provides seating for 200, with current technology for remote presentations by national speakers, videos of members’ tips and tricks, and well-prepared audio-visual slide shows.
We are proud of a diverse membership that includes life-long members from the startup years as well as new members, a mix of award-winning quilters, some newbies, and everyone in between. We are known in the area for a large well-attended quilt show presented every two years. It includes 300-400 quilts and an Opportunity raffle quilt jointly made by up to 60 members. The raffle quilt is often shown at Paducah and Houston and has won several awards.
The guild is an active organization with enthusiastic volunteers willing to share time, talent, and resources. We have a “can-do” culture with an answer or tutor for any quilting question, monthly speakers, numerous workshops and sew-alongs (both in person and online), an up-to-date website, a monthly newsletter, and a good-sized library. We support numerous local charitable and service organizations with regular donations of quilts, pillowcases, Christmas stockings, NICU hearts, preemie caps, and dog beds. Our monthly show and tell is awe-inspiring.
We thrive on creativity, surviving the Covid years by adopting Zoom and guaranteeing to help members learn it. This kept our guild active and whole during a challenging time.
We regularly celebrate our anniversaries, with the 20th anniversary at a hotel growing into an annual weekend retreat for 90 members, and the 50th anniversary in 2024 marked by a Quilt of Valor project in which a challenge to make and award 50 QOVs resulted in 150 quilts.
We have organized numerous overnight and weeklong trips. One of the most memorable was a long weekend at Missouri Star where we rented the entire retreat center for 32 members. We shared a few hours with Jenny as she told her story, enjoyed the local restaurants, and traveled the stores. What a wonderful time we had!
Enthusiasm is the key. Enthusiasm, hard work, continual learning, sharing, friendship, and love of the craft. That’s us. That’s Faithful Circle Quilters. Ever-learning, ever-thinking, ever-evolving.
We are happy to share our story!
Are you in a sewing or quilt guild and would like to be our next featured guild? Tell us about your quilt guild for a chance to be our next spotlight!
We have SEW many exciting events planned for 2025 - click here to see what's in store for 2025, including Missouri Star Academy on June 10-11, 2025 and several Guild Days events for 2025!
#MSQCShowAndTell
Published by Danae M.