As a quilter myself, as well as a librarian, I love to see quilts in libraries! I have traveled around the country, visiting all kinds of libraries, and am frequently pleasantly surprised to see quilts on display.

And I’m clearly not alone in this! Check out some of these great library (and library-adjacent) programs, and consider bringing some quilting to your library!! (If you do this anywhere in the area of CMLE, I will come by to admire the quilts, or to bring my done-ten-years-from-now-maybe quilt to work on with your group!)

• The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County WHAT’S NEW · CELEBRATING QUILTS: LOVELAND BRANCH LIBRARY’S 3RD ANNUAL QUILT SHOW
  Suspended from the ceiling of the Loveland Branch are over 50 examples of work created by local fabric artists. The display includes traditional quilts as well as quilted and embellished clothing. All types of quilting are represented, including hand, strip, and paper piercing, as well as hand and machine quilting. This non-juried show gives quilters of all levels the opportunity to display their work. The exhibit will remain on view at the branch throughout the month of May and a number of related programs will take place throughout the month.
• The Norfolk Library: Thirty-two women from Norfolk and surrounding towns contributed thirty-nine quilt patches for the Norfolk Library Associates- sponsored quilt. Each appliquéd or embroidered patch is the product of someone who knows and loves Norfolk. Put together, they stitch an imaginative portrait of our town. These women and others contributed to the quilting, completed in the library as a communal activity. Eve Thew fashioned a replica of the library. Nancy Eckel produced the Battell Chapel and Colleen Gundlach created the Congregational Church. Several quilters worked on more than one square. Debby Tait was the champ with shares in seven. Kathryn Noles made three; Mary Ford-Bey, Dorothy Pam , Gloria Gourley and Sue Frisch each made or took part in two, and Ruthann Olsson lettered both the script on the central village green patch and the miles signs text. Quilters: Rebecca Eaton, Madeline Falk, Pat Harms and Leila Javitch worked on quilting, as did many of the women who contributed patches.
• Lake City Library pieces together programming with Quilting basics workshop
  “LAKE CITY, S.C. – A patchwork of fabrics and a few tools are all that Vera Cooper Martin required to host a beginners quilting class in Lake City last week – that and a lifetime of quilting-making that she first learnt as a young girl from her grandmother.

  Martin, who exhibited several of her memory quilts at the Lake City Public Library in early February, was invited back to host a class as one part in a series of activities designed for the adult members of the library.

  Martin had those attending the class work in pairs to create small lap quilts from nine nine-inches squares of cotton fabrics.” (Read the rest of this article at the link above!)

• Sew-Quilt-Create
  Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library
  Saturday, March 11, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm

  Program Description

  Quilter Heather Kojan kicks off our day-long sewing-quilting-creating retreat with her presentation, “From Traditional to Modern: My Quilting Journey” and a trunk show. Additional activities include vendor sales, your choice of hands-on classes, plus project “show-and-tell” and Q&A session with quilters and shop owners.

  Supplies for class projects are provided. Sewing machines, along with basic sewing supplies and thread are required for two of the classes, noted below. Registration is required for afternoon classes only.  Lunch is on your own; library café will be open as an onsite option.

• Morrill Public Library Quilt Show & Programs
  AccuQuilt Demonstration and Quilt Club Organization Meeting
  June 18 at 6:30 pm
  Get some hands-on experience with our AccuQuilt fabric cutting machine with scrap fabric provided by the Library! We will also discuss interest in organizing a Quilting Club at the Library. Bring your ideas for program topics and the best dates/times to meet. If you are unable to attend but still interested in participating in a Quilt Club, please call us at 785-742-3831 or e-mail morrill@hiawathalibrary.org. Quilt Show
  July 16 to August 1
  Quilters are invited to display their handiwork during our July Quilt Show. The “People’s Choice Award” winner will receive a $25 Gift Certificate to Sunflower Quilt Shop. Entry forms available at the circulation desk or click here to view and print.
• Programming Idea: Community + Quilt = CommuniQuilt from Web Junction!
  In 2014 and 2015, the Boston Public Library (BPL)and Saquish Foundation offered librarians the chance to apply for special grant funding for programs serving older adults. While many grant recipients focused solely on adults 55 and up, at the Mattapan Branch, I teamed up with Teen Librarian Caren Rosales and we broadened our scope to create intergenerational programming that would bring elders and teens together. Our first collaboration in 2014 was an oral history project. While there was a lot of interest, record-breaking snowfall that year had a serious impact on our program schedule and reach. The CommuniQuilt, our second collaboration, proved to be much more fruitful thanks to smart marketing, abundant refreshments, and a blessedly mild winter.
• West Chester Public Library: Quilting@the Library – making “Quilts for Kids”,  for dates and times see below:
  Next meetings: Wednesdays, May 24, 1pm – 4:30pm; June no meeting; July, 26, 1:pm – 4:30pm.  Join in for an afternoon of fun (bring a friend!) transforming fabric into quilts that comfort children in need:  children fighting a life battle with an illness as well as children of abuse.  All that is needed is your sewing talent, your sewing machine (if you can bring one), quilting gear like rotary cutter, mat, pins, etc. and the desire to help a child in need.
  Experienced machine quilters can pick up a kit to make a quilt at home filling it with lots of love as they sew and returning the completed quilt at a future meeting.  Want to learn more about quilting? This is a great time to practice and get tips from experienced quilters.

• Quilts and Human Rights by Marsha MacDowell et al. University of Nebraska Press, August 2016. 232 p. ill. ISBN 9780803249851 (pbk.), $39.95.
  Reviewed September 2016 Kathy Edwards, Associate Librarian, Emery A. Gunnin Architecture Library, Clemson University, kathye@clemson.edu

  In American culture, the handmade quilt has long been a freighted signifier of home comforts, domestic economy, and “women’s work” in the private realm. In Quilts and Human Rights, four quilt scholars from the Michigan State University Museum subvert that notion mightily, demonstrating that, for over two hundred years, thousands of women across many cultures have used their quilting skills instrumentally, to assert themselves as citizens of the wider world, capable of organizing to address human rights abuses and agitate for social change at home and abroad.

• Calvert Library Goes Quilt Crazy Is there a National Quilt Month?  If there is not, then there should be and it should be May because that is when the Calvert Library is showcasing some very special quilts and quilt events.

• Library Artwork and Quilts Three quilts hang from the second and third level balustrades. “The Eagle Has Landed” quilt has been on loan from award-winning local quilter Sue Clark since shortly after 9/11/01. One Bicentennial Quilt depicts scenes of Hamden; the other Bicentennial Quilt depicts scenes from the Whitneyville section of Hamden.

• Make a Library Books Quilt Block for NaNoWriMo: November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). This year, more than 295,000 writers have pledged to write an entire novel in just 30 days!

  Inspired by their commitment to creativity (and speed!), I have decided to carry this nod to novels into my quilting, and write up a simple library books quilt block tutorial. Because even if you can’t write the great American novel, you can whip up several of these blocks from colorful fabric scraps, and make a huge dent in your stash. You can even create an entire quilt with book-inspired blocks using the “Book Club” pattern from The Modern Quilt Workshop by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. But first, let’s get started with this quick tutorial!