Being a Quilt Angel

I am so excited to be getting ready to head to Houston tomorrow (Monday 10/25) to go to the 2021 Quilt Festival! My first class is Wednesday, a mystery progressive quilt, the first of three classes. The Festival opens at 5pm on Wednesday

The first time I went to the Quilt Festival was October 2018. I had found a new non-profit that was going and was going to have a booth, and they were looking for volunteer’s to work. This sounded like fun, and I got to get in for free because of volunteering. While looking at all the classes that I could take, I was a little overwhelmed. So I decided to volunteer as a Quilt Angel as well.

You ask what is a Quilt Angel. A Quilt Angel is a volunteer that helps with the Quilt Festival. There are different options and jobs that you can do, but the best part is you get Priority registration for the next year for classes. What that means is you get a week to register for the classes you want, before they open registration for everyone. You most likely will have no issues getting registered for the classes that you want to take. So in 2018, I volunteered as a Quilt Angel for six (6) hours and in 2019, I got to register for my classes early, and got every one that I wanted.

A Quilt Angel can volunteer by walking around all the beautiful quilts hanging, and you wear white gloves, and can lift the quilts so people can view the backs of the quilts. You get to talk with the creators of the quilts, and get to share this information with others later. This is so fun, as you get to really look at the quilts and check them out. Remember you normally don’t touch the quilts, so being able to show the backs, or pulling them closer for a better view is fun.

The first year 2018, there was a winning quilt top that I talked with the creator, and it has like 5,000 tiny, I mean tiny flying geese. like 1/4″ x 1/2″. And she stated that she did paper piecing for all those tiny flying geese. She used copy paper, so thick paper, and would sit and watch TV while she pulled off the paper. It was amazing. (wish I had gotten a picture of her quilt.)

2019 my favorite quilt was A Lifetime of Memories, by Karen Swiech, of Ashford, Massachusetts. She created the mosaic to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of her parents wedding, April 27, 1957, using 5,184 family photos. Karen stated that her family love to look at the pictures, and find themselves and reminisce.

Learning the history of the quilts are so much fun, and to get to share that with people is a blast. I love to hear the stories of the quilts by the creators.

This year (2021) I am going to be volunteering before the festival starts, on Tuesday. I will be helping to hang quilts and get the signs in front of the quilts setup. I am so excited to see what I get to do. I will update afterwards.

If you want more information about being a Quilt Angel, check out https://www.quilts.com/volunteer/.