history

Lake and Mountain
Quilters Guild

Guild History

The initial meeting of the Lake and Mountain Quilters Guild that would welcome all levels of quilters in our tri-county area was held in April 1987. The original elected officers were President: Cheryl Kurey, VP: Pat Brown, Secretary: Marge Edie, Treasurer: Debbie Hudson, Program Chair: Laurel Horton, Newslettter: Wendy Stegall, Hospitality: Jennifer Borg, Plublicity: Carol Grewe, Librarian: Linda Harral, Telephone Committee: Mary Gustner and Ann Hall, and Historian: Claudia Holcombe. Janice Cobb was responsible for obtaining our tax expempt status. Sara Ballentine, Judy Grant, Joan Jackson, Virgina Apostolik, Carol Ramsey and Lib Turner were also involved in the formation of our wonderful guild.

One early Guild project was the development of our logo by Marge Edie, Mary Ann Bagwell and Jennifor Borg. It captures the essense of the guild name in illustrating the lake and mountains of our corner of the state and serves as a useful visual to identify us in print and media applications. A second project was designing and producing a quilt representing the history of the area. A grant was obtained from the National Quilting Association resulting in the "Grant" quilt. It is a collage of history, events and culture in the Golden Corner. Included are motifs depicting the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel, Clemson University and the African-American College that was once located in Seneca. The quilt now hangs in a prominent spot in the main branch of the Oconee County Library in Walhalla, SC.

From a small beginning, our membership has grown to well over one hundred members. Over the years, our meeting place has changed as we've grown. We've transitioned from members' homes, to the Lutheran Church in Clemson, to the Chapter House of Seneca Presbyterian Church, to The Blue Ridge Arts Center, to a small meeting room in the Eternal Shepherd Lutheran Church, and finally, in 2002, to our current meeting place in their Fellowship Hall.

Our monthly meetings contribute to accomplishing our purposes of encouraging quilt making and increasing knowledge and skills through the expertise of renowned national and local quilt lecturers with workshops from these same teachers. Monthly Day Bees are taught by our members who generously give of their time to teach what they know. Our biennial quilt shows promote quilt making to the general public as well as serving as a major fundraiser for us. There, too, we've needed to expand from the original show venues at the Oconee Extension Offices, to The Blue Ridge Arts Center, to the Seneca Senior Center, to St. Luke's Methodist Church in Walhalla, and lately, to the Shaver Recreation Center in Seneca.

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