Local quilters guild supports members and the community
For Karen Evans and Robin Bisig, quilting is more than just a hobby; it’s a community.
President and vice president, respectively, of Stringtown Quilters Guild, Evans and Bisig are carrying on the 34-year legacy of this Northern Kentucky organization.
Stringtown Quilters Guild, founded in 1988, began with just 27 charter members meeting at the Florence Christian Church. Since its inception, the guild has grown in membership, activities and outreach.
Quilting is Passion
Evans has been quilting for 28 years. She started quilting when she found a magazine at the craft store.
“[I] thought I could make a quilt for my new home,” Evans says. “It was harder than what I thought it was going to be. So I ended up having to take a class. And then of course, when my daughter came along, then it kind of took a back burner to costumes and all of those things.”
When Evans’ daughter went to college, she decided she wanted a group setting to quilt. She found Stringtown and, five years later, is still loving and serving the guild.
Bisig credits her mother for getting her interested in quilting. Growing up, Bisig says her mother made everything she wore—including her wedding dress. Twenty years ago, Bisig’s mother started picking up quilting, so it felt natural for Bisig herself to start quilting once all her children left home.
“I’ve been a part of the guild for three years now … it’s just a fun group of people that have common interests and are very supportive of everybody regardless of level of ability. We have people that have won national awards, and we have people that have been quilting for a month and everybody’s supported and encouraged,” Bisig says.
Community Outreach
Stringtown not only enriches the lives of its members but the community and region as well. To date, Evans says the guild has donated over 1,000 quilts to charities, organizations and individuals who need them.
For many years, Evans says, graduates of the Brighton Center—a social service agency—received a quilt upon completion of their program.
“We have had the recipients of those [quilts] come back to our meeting in tears of what that quilt meant to them to put [in] their new apartment,” Evans says.
Each year, the guild chooses a new charity or organization to which to donate quilts. In years past, Stringtown has supported the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati, Benchmark Family Services, Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, Care Net Pregnancy Services and many more.
“This year, we just voted at our last meeting that our quilts for the year are going to go to LifeSet, which is an organization that supports youth that are transitioning out of foster care—often with little to no support or resources … as they complete their program, they’ll get a quilt,” Bisig says. “I think that’s one of the really important things that we do. It’s not just about getting together and having fun. Doing the charity quilt is also fun, but also it’s a way to give back to the community.”
