Bloomington Quilters Guild
at a glance: January 2026

OUR Next MEETING is Tuesday, January 6, 2026.

Time: 6:00 PM Social Hour
6:30 pm Meeting start

PROGRAM: What Happened to My Charity Quilt?

Location: Congregation beth shalom
3750 E. 3rd Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47401

January 2026 Meeting

What Happened to My Charity Quilt?

BQG members in charge of collecting and distributing your donated quilts will speak about the local organizations that gratefully receive them and pass them on.

Following up the presentations about our Guild and its charity quilt donation efforts, we will view the profoundly moving & inspirational 2025 short film, “The Quilters”. Even if you’ve seen it before, on Netflix, come watch it on the big screen & share the experience. Or watch it for the first time with your BQG friends! 

February 2026 Meeting

The Road to Shibori by Sue Cortese

Via Zoom, Sue Cortese will talk about her journey into Shibori, the Japanese manual-dying technique. She will also touch on the history of indigo and shibori.  She will end with how she incorporates this into fabrics and patterns in her art quilts. She is best known for creating sewn compositions with her dyed fabric and quilting them since 1995. Her work has been displayed in quilt shows and art museums around the country.  She is currently a Regional Rep for SAQA and serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges. Her website and blog can be found here SELC Fabrics - Home

She is presenting workshop classes on dyeing and sewing at the March IHQS. The Shibori class is sold out, but the “Basic Fabric Dyeing” and “The Ins and Outs of Handstitching” still have openings.

Sew Day

Saturday, January 10th at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church from 9:00am-4:00pm. Come whenever you can and stay as long as you like. Bring your machine and all your gear OR just bring hand sewing OR just come to chat! We collect $5 to thank St. Mark’s for the use of their lovely space. Bring your lunch (no peanuts or red beverages) or plan to go out.

annual Quilt Challenge for 2026

The challenge for this year, issued by Legene White, is “Mother Nature in Pieces.” Create a project of any size and any technique with Nature as your theme. Use colors or patterns or textures to interpret what Nature means to you. Voting by guild members will be at the June 2nd meeting.

WE ALWAYS WELCOME NEW MEMBERS!

As you interact with friends and attend events around the area, be sure to mention BQG and invite folks to visit our Guild Meetings or try out a Sew Day. At our next meeting, pick up a couple of BQG Bookmarks to hand out as a helpful promotional tool.

Community Quilts

What a generous group of people our guild members are! We continue to collect and distribute quilts to social programs throughout the Bloomington community. This month there have been 35 quilts donated to various organizations in the Bloomington area. This brings the total for this year to 222 quilts. Check the Community Quilts webpage to see where all the quilts go! This page also gives some indication of the sizes that are needed for each of the organizations that have received quilts.

WINTER 2026 Retreat

The 2026 Winter Retreat will be at McCormick’s Creek State Park from Saturday, January 31, 2026 to Tuesday, February 3, 2026. Registration is closed but see the links for more information. Winter Retreat information. Download the PDF for the full story on reserving rooms.

Fall 2026 Retreat Save the Date

Next year’s Fall Retreat will be at Waycross from October 8-11 (Thursday through Sunday).

Quilt EVENTS - HELP us keep up to date!

We try to put up notices of quilt shows and exhibits on to the website, although we have been a little lax on this recently. If you know of an event, please send mail to news@bloomingtonquiltersguild.org so that either Karen or Kris can update the page.https://www.bloomingtonquiltersguild.org/upcoming-quilt-events

The Indiana Heritage Quilt Show will be held March 5-7. There are several workshops this year and registration is open!

The show is accepting quilt entries until Feb. 9, at 8PM. There is still time to create a challenge quilt inspired by a song.

x