1975--OUR BEGINNINGS

So, how does a group like Pioneer Quilters come into existence?  

Since joining these hand quilters over a baker's dozen years ago, I’ve chatted with founding and early members, and here are some of the fun facts that I’ve learned.

Louise Smith was one of the founding members and a major organizer of our group, and was terrific not only at quilting, but also at documenting our history---which is really helping me put this together!

 

Louise, along with Martha Allwander, Dorothy Bettis, and Suzette Shoulders took on the task of calling quilters and telling them about their idea of forming a group to hand quilt together, informing them of the meeting at the Pioneer Museum.

  

Dorothy Bettis, Martha Allwander, Suzette Shoulders, and Louise Smith

They advertised the organizational event in the Register Guard:

They held their planning meeting at the Pioneer Museum (currently named Lane County History Museum), at the fairgrounds on September 24, 1975.   They discussed how they’d organize, meet, etc., along with what to call themselves.  They decided to name the group Pioneer Quilters, inspired by their organizational meeting being held at the Pioneer Museum.

The first quilting meeting was held just a week later, in the home of Bernie Clark, and that also was listed in the Sunday newspaper's upcoming events:

They continued to advertise for interested potential members with a weekly announcement in the Calendar section of the Register Guard, noting any special info for attendees.  As they mostly met in the members' homes at that time, the announcements were very helpful. 

Between those attending the organizational meeting and the first quilting get-together, there were 23 who attended (names listed in the previous post).

I think I can speak for all Pioneer Quilters over the years in saying we very sincerely appreciate the vision, hard work and efforts of our founders to create this very special group, celebrating half a century this fall!