The Simi Valley Quilt Guild was started over 30 years ago. With approximately 150 members, they meet the 2nd Wednesday of every month at the Simi Valley Senior Center.
The guild’s main philanthropy group is called, “Quilts in Force.” It is always ‘in-force’ sewing for others. Originally, the group made quilts for the Simi Valley Police Department to use in incidents where children were involved. The goal now is to provide warmth and comfort to anyone in need whether it be from illness, fire, lack of resources, loss of a loved one, or other cause.
On their website, they post a poem dedicated to their members who have passed away but who are not forgotten:
Our family is like a patchwork quilt, With kindness gently sewn. Each piece is an original With beauty all its own. With threads of warmth and happiness, It’s lightly stitched together, To last in love throughout the years, Our Family is forever.
(author unknown)
Walking in the atrium on Friday of Road 2017, no one could miss Simi Valley Quilt Guild’s Opportunity Quilt on display. Member Beth Bastian said they “wanted something bright” and that was certainly what they created.
All members in the guild had a chance to work on the quilt, receiving packets to work on various blocks. When completed, it was sent to a non-member gentleman to quilt. The drawing for the quilt was held at their regular meeting on February 8th. Proceeds benefited Pets for Vets and the Samaritan Center of Simi Valley, a homeless support center.
Road to California appreciates their partnership in supporting local quilt guilds like the Simi Valley Quilt Guild.]]>
These four friends live in the Chicago area and belong to the 
At Road 2017, Jennifer O’Brien from Sew Craft taught a $5.00 Lecture Class, Machine Quilting on your Featherweight. The first thing that the students learned was, yes, you can machine quilt using the small but mighty Featherweight. In fact, the principles are similar to any machine quilting project.
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Work began in mid-December, 2016, to plan out the exhibits. Debby reported that her goal for the displays was to organize the quilts by category. Within each category, Debby worked with size, colors and themes to highlight each quilt.
At that time, all Debby had to work with were the pictures and dimensions of all the quilts accepted for the contest. It took Debby and her daughter, Jennifer (Matt’s wife), approximately 30 hours to organize and map out the 255 contest quilts. This was all just preliminary work until the winning quilts were chosen (the day before Preview Night) and adjustments would have to be made to the original plans.
During the judging, Debby was present so that she could have access to each winner’s information. When the judging was completed on Tuesday, Debby re-mapped the winners’ booths and fine-tuned the rest of the booths. 
Levonne signed up Angela for sewing classes and Angela thought they were “really fun.” In her classes, Angela has made a purse, pin cushion, neck pillows, and a skirt. Angela grew up watching her grandmother quilting. Since she was three, she would sit on Levonne’s lap and watch. Angela started quilting on her own 2 years ago. Her first quilt was queen size!! She has her own Brother machine and will inherit her grandmother’s Brother embroidery machine one day. Angela is currently interested in longarm quilting and has been practicing. Her dream is to own a Gammill machine one day. When 
