Guild History

Royal City Quilters’ Guild has a decades-long history in Guelph, Ontario. On March 12, 1991, sixteen local quilters met to discuss forming a quilters’ guild for Guelph. They established the first Executive committee and held their first meeting at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, April 9, 1991 at the Delhi Recreation Centre in Guelph. Twenty-nine women attended as Evelyn Lane led a discussion on membership fees, meeting places, forming the new Executive and suggestions for further meetings. An excellent Show and Tell of members’ work followed the business portion of the meeting.

In March 2006, the Guild unveiled their spectacular Guild quilt. The idea for the quilt arose during a brainstorming session of the Executive in June 2004. Work began in earnest after Isobel King, Maureen Kay, Sharon Beach and Sue Keuhl completed the design. Members created the blocks and assembled the quilt followed by Nancy Johnston’s quilting. For more details on the design and construction, please refer to the May 2006 Newsletter. 

RCQG members have contributed to community projects across Guelph including:

• The “Comfort and Love” project at St. Joe’s
• Quilt to hang in the Palliative Care Unit at Guelph General Hospital
• Quilts for clients of the Guelph-Wellington Care & Treatment Centre for Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence and Memory Quilts for the Birthing Unit at Guelph General Hospital
• Quilts for tenants of three Home for Good facilities in Guelph. See Guelph Today coverage.
• Quilts of Valour

From time to time, the Guild has invited residents of Guelph and surrounding communities to attend a quilt show. The quilt shows featured a variety of quilts and other textile arts produced by Guild members. A display of challenge pieces; a tea room; and a vendor area complemented the quilt display. 

In March 2020, Royal City Quilters’ Guild responded to the COVID global pandemic by transitioning to virtual meetings. Our efforts were published in Guelph Today and the Autumn 2020 issue of the Canadian Quilter magazine. As a result, we attracted members from across Canada. Two years later, we considered the challenges of holding hybrid meetings so local members could attend in-person while others watched the meeting via livestream. We implemented the hybrid meetings we envisioned for the 2022-2023 Guild year but attendance at the in-person component was disappointing. Currently, we offer a mix of both virtual and in-person experiences for Guild members.

For more information about RCQG history, please visit the newsletter archive of the website or the archive collection at the Guelph Public Library.

Selected historical artifacts