Join MCQA

Do you love color? Do you like fabric? Explore the world of quilting with friends who share your passion. Come to a monthly meeting to see what we’re all about. Download our brochure for more about our guild.

Ready to join? Click here for a member registration form. Questions? Contact the Membership Chair.

Monthly meetings

Gather the first Wednesday of the month with new and old friends to share your love of quilting. While the meeting format may vary, we always have a short business meeting, a break for refreshments, a program to learn tips and techniques, and a “show and tell” so members can share their projects and experiences.

workshops, retreats, and education

Besides the monthly programs at meetings, we hold regular mini-workshops and retreats where members can get together and practice or learn a new technique in quilting. Much of the time, we draw on our own members to share their skills for these events. During a year when we do not have a quilt show, we sponsor a regionally or nationally known quilting teacher to teach a class and display their work in a “trunk show”.

QUILT SHOW

MCQA holds a large, regional quilt show every other year, known as “Autumn Comforts”, which is the major fundraiser for our guild. The first show was held in 1980 at Marquette Senior High School and featured approximately 50 quilts draped over tables and other furniture. In 1982, the show moved to a hotel banquet room where all quilts were hung.

What a difference 40 years makes! We now rent exhibition space at Northern Michigan University’s Northern Center and routinely feature hundreds of finished quilts and quilted items, in more than 20 categories from around the Upper Peninsula. We have numerous vendors, demos, special exhibits, door prizes, and of course, the drawing for our raffle quilt.

Feeling inspired? Become an MCQA member today!

charity work

MCQA quilters make and donate quilts to our community in a variety of ongoing charity projects. One is quilts for Bay Cliff Health Camp. Bay Cliff is a summer resident camp for disabled children located in Marquette County, and MCQA provides quilts for campers. The charity quilt coordinator prepares instructions and makes available our stash of donated fabric and batting for members to take home and sew together the tops. They are then finished either at a bee or by individuals at home. Since the younger campers get to take their quilts home at the end of the season, there are replacement quilts made every year. Similar quilts are provided for other local charitable organizations, such as Trillium House residential hospice and Harbor House domestic abuse shelter. Baby quilts are made by MCQA members for the local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to wrap the tiniest members of our community in love.

Library and Newsletter

The MCQA has a private library of quilting books of all kinds, and subscribes to a wide selection of magazines such as QuiltFolk, Block from Missouri Star Quilt Company, Quilting Arts, Fons & Porter publications, and many more. All are available for free checkout to our members. We also have a lively monthly newsletter filled with MCQA news, tips, techniques, and minutes of monthly meetings. We also receive monthly news from our “sister guild” in lower Michigan, the Thunder Bay Quilt Guild.

friendship groups

Did you know that we have several groups that meet monthly for sewing, sharing, and friendship? Members are welcome to attend any of these groups. This is a great opportunity to get to know MCQA members! Check out more information on the MCQA Members Only page.