Have you thought about meeting others and having fun by being a WSQ volunteer?
The benefits of being a volunteer are numerous. Volunteers have fun, are involved in the quilting community, and are constantly engaged in meeting others through social events.
Current Volunteering Opportunities
The Publicity Committee
We need people to assist the team. Advisors and mentors help you learn what to do. No need to reinvent the wheel: publicity done in the past just needs repeating. Graphic design and marketing skills are especially needed.
Retreats & Bus Trips
Do you enjoy event planning? This is the job for you! Collaborate with other like-minded members to plan retreats and other fun events for WSQ members.
Our Committees
Charity Central was founded in 1995 after a request for quilts from Sally’s House, a safe house for children who are not allowed to take anything from their homes because they have been exposed to meth amphetamines.
The response from our WSQ-SC members was heart-warming, and the project has taken on a life of its own.
We now donate quilts to over 25 charitable organizations. In 2011, our Mountain of Quilts topped 931 donated quilts. A committee meets each October to divide and deliver the quilts collected at our annual quilt show. Many of these were designated as raffle quilts for such organizations as Spokane Guild School and Ronald McDonald House.
Organizations we donate to include:
Camp Good Times (Cancer kids)
Cancer Care
Sally’s House
Crosswalk (Teens)
Salvation Army Safe House
Daybreak (Teens)
Sean Stanelun Fundraiser
Faye’s House/Because There Is Hope (Women in breast cancer treatment)
SHMC Oncology Unit
Shriner’s Hospital (kids to teens)
Guilds School (little kids)
Spokane Valley Partners
Hospice Vanessa Behan & Santa Express
Martin Luther King Center
Victory House (Veterans)
Our Place Women’s Crisis Center
Quilts of Valor (Soldiers)
Wrap A Smile (kids)
We collect donated fabric, batting and various other craft items throughout the year. Our Mountain of Quilts team creates kits that are distributed to WSQ members. We announce at our guild meetings when we need people to machine quilt or donate additional batting or fabric for backing.
We appreciate all of those who have donated their time and materials and hope you will consider volunteering for our Mountain of Quilts.
Every September WSQ rents a booth at Spokane’s Interstate Fair. By doing so, we reach hundreds of people to tell them about quilting and about WSQ. We also raise money by selling raffle tickets for special quilts made by our members.
The Chair of this committee recruits members to staff the booth. In addition to selling raffle quilts, we tell people about the quilt show, talk about quilting as a hobby, answer lots of questions and get to chat with the public. WSQ buys each volunteer a ticket to the fair, so admission is free for the people that staff our booth. Sign-up for the fair volunteers occurs at our April and July meetings.
Love quilting books?
Stop by the WSQ-SC LIBRARY!
We have about 700 quilting books available for members to check out from our WSQ Library. Stop by to meet your librarians and to browse through the collection at the next membership meeting.
Comments or suggestions? Or if you have quilting books or magazines to donate, we’ll pick them up! Please e-mail or telephone your WSQ librarians, Linda Dickens (328-1370) and Beth Camp (863-5536).
WSQ LIBRARY RULES
You may check out up to 4 books if you are a WSQ member
and if you have no overdue books.
Books are due at the next WSQ meeting, OR use our DROP OFF BOX at Cozy Quilt or The Quilting Bee.
Library items not returned within two meetings are considered overdue.
Members shall pay the retail value of any lost book/s.
WSQ has been awarding the fair ribbons since 2003. We first started our awards in 2003 with 5 fairs: Coeur d Alene, Colfax, Davenport, Deer Park and Spokane.
We expanded to 8 fairs (2007): Coeur d Alene, Clayton, Colfax, Colville, Davenport, Rockford, Ritzville, and Spokane.
In 2014 we added Moses Lake & Republic for a total of 10 fairs.
The board expanded our awards to 1st place money & ribbon and in addition 2 more ribbons for each fair (2nd and 3rd place winners). As of 2015, we have eliminated the 3rd place ribbon.
Come celebrate along with friends for a fun-filled day of quilting, eating and activities.
All Are Welcome — WSQ member or not
Bring a project to work on — space for sewing machines is available. Call Cindy to arrange for a quilting frame to baste your quilt. Bring a power cord for your machine.
Bring potluck food & a plate & utensils. Coffee & tea are provided.
Show and Share a finished or unfinished quilted item.
We have door prizes including the ‘early bird’ and ‘die hard’ door prizes.
Make the block for the block exchange.
Are you looking for a group that will challenge you and encourage you? Please click on the link below to find our list of Small Groups. These small groups may have openings. Find one that fits your schedule and join the fun.
The yard sale is held once a year in late March or early April.
It is a not-for-profit for WSQ but meant to offer current WSQ members a place where they can sell quilt related items and keep the money they raise.
The only expense for the participants is a nominal table rental fee, all expenses are paid by WSQ such as building rent, advertising, set-up and clean-up.
All volunteers will receive free entry for all three days of the show.
Washington State Quilters (WSQ) has been able to put on a quilt show every year only because the members of WSQ, along with their friends and family, have been willing to volunteer. That participation has been the key to the Show’s success. In addition to a Quilt Show Committee of about 30 members who begin working on the next Show while the current Show is in progress, the WSQ Quilt Show needs about 300 volunteers every year. There is something for everyone to do. For this year’s show, anyone who volunteers will receive free entry for all three days of the show. Many of our members sign up for multiple shifts each year simply because they have fun working with other quilters. Not all of our volunteers belong to WSQ: some have family members in WSQ, others are neighbors and friends. All are welcome.
Positions:
Public Relations: Experience not needed. Just a willingness to help.
Set-Up for the 2019 show will be on Thursday, October 17th. Very early in the morning an LCD will lay out the frames on which the quilts will be displayed, the chairperson will distribute sheets, sleeves, pins & row folders and sort the quilts as they’re dropped off. Setting up the Show requires about 80 to 100 volunteers. One benefit —seeing the room come to life as the quilts go up.
Cashiers sell tickets to the Show and need to be comfortable handling money. About 42 volunteers are needed.
Hostesses are a very important part of the Show and about 136 are needed each year to greet people at the door, answer questions and show quilts on the floor, sell tickets for our annual Raffle Quilt, assist vendors and featured speaker, give information on membership and sell fundraising items.
They also explain that the blocks displayed for the following year’s raffle quilt have been made by WSQ members and explain voting procedures to visitors who wish to vote for their favorite blocks.
Floor Quilters Throughout the show, about 35 Floor Quilters will be needed to work on a quilting project of each volunteer’s choice and explain the techniques used to interested visitors. Floor Quilters also set up a small frame to demonstrate quilt tying and allow those who are interested in the technique to have some hands-on practice. The quilts tied during the Show are donated to charity.
Demonstrations Assist To assist the people giving talks by hanging up quilts, giving out handouts, and other needed tasks. At the same time getting to enjoy the demonstration themselves. Select your spot early.
Stash CheckersTo give volunteers a secure place to put their belongings while working at the Show, Stash Check needs about 25 people.
Boutique And let’s not forget the 36 people needed to run the WSQ Boutique where members are able to sell the quilted and quilt-related items they’ve made.
Ballot Counters tally the votes cast by visitors to the show. They work in two teams of three and up to half of the volunteers on each shift may be members of WSQ. About 18 ballot counters are needed each year.
Take Down Last, but certainly not least, are the 80 volunteers needed to Take Down all the quilts and distribute them to their owners at the end of the Show.
Volunteer Now
Have an idea of which committee you would like to volunteer on? We would love to have you as a part of our team!