See why our members love IQI.

About Us

Come discover quilting creativity and fellowship along Lake Michigan and a bit west by joining our quilting guild. Illinois Quilters Inc. (IQI) has members from the south side of Chicago north into southeast Wisconsin.

The diversity of skills, interests, and passion for quilting that our members share is what makes IQI so enjoyable — there’s something for everyone!

We meet the first Thursday of most months, with a speaker or another program.

Doors open at 6:30pm and meetings begin at 7. The lecture by our quest speaker is followed by a short break. You have time to browse our extensive library and check out books (our guild has the largest quilt-book collection in northern Illinois).

After the break there are committee reports, information about future events, and the always-popular member quilt show-and-tell. The meeting closes with a door prize giveaway. There’s plenty of time for visiting.

IQI is a not-for-profit organization, and our dues and raffle quilt ticket sales fund our library and program costs. Members help make one raffle quilt each year and sell (or buy) 25 tickets to support the guild. Six tickets cost $5.00 or are $1.00 each. The raffle quilt is taken to other guild meetings during the year and tickets are sold there. The guild also shows the raffle quilt and sells tickets at some other guild meetings in the Chicagoland area.

IQI presents a quilt show in The Fine Art of Fiber (FAOF) annually at the Chicago Botanic Garden. This outstanding venue offers an extraordinary space for showing and viewing member quilts and also features the work of area needle workers and weavers. Three guilds work cooperatively to host this stunning show during the first full weekend of November. Each guild member may automatically have one quilt in the show, with additional pieces accepted as space allows.

Other yearly events at IQI include our Raffle Quilt, two retreats in October and January and potlucks in June and December. Please join us!

Portrait of actress Phylicia Rashad

"Any time women come together with a collective intention, it's a powerful thing.

Whether it's sitting down to make a quilt, in the kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens."

— Phylicia Rashad

HOW TO MAKE A QUILT

Quilters designing a pattern

Design a pattern

Hands measuring a pattern

Measure it

A lady cutting a paper pattern

Cut the pattern

Cutting fabric with scissors
Cut the fabric
Using a sewing ring to stitch a quilt section
Sew a section
A woman holds a a pattern section
A finished section
Using a sewing machine to combine sections of a quilt
Combine sections
Holding a finished quilt
A finished quilt