After two floods, the Hill Country Quilt Guild has given away more than 1,000 quilts — and is ready to give more
The guild’s major public event is its Quilt Show, last held in 2023 and next scheduled for May 2027. The show features professional judging, national vendors, and a handmade marketplace.
Laura Ewen took up quilting 42 years ago because her mother, who was raising 10 children, flatly refused to make her one. If she made one, she would have to make one for every sibling.
So Ewen learned to make her own. She has been making them ever since.
Ewen appeared Tuesday on Lead Live alongside fellow guild member Diana Kane to represent the Hill Country Quilt Guild, a 180-member regional organization that spans from Comfort to Edwards County and meets on the third Monday of every month at Zion Lutheran Church.
The guild describes itself as more than a craft group. The quilting bee — where members bring their sewing machines and work together — functions simultaneously as a creative collaboration and an informal emotional support system.
“Camaraderie, I think, is what really makes a bee in quilting special,” Ewen said, “because we collaborate on ideas… but basically we are all there supporting one another.”
After the 2025 flood, a quilter from Tyler contacted the guild to ask whether they were collecting quilts for survivors. The guild said yes — and then spent the next year collecting and distributing more than 1,000 quilts to flood survivors from Comfort to Hunt. Among the most meaningful: a replacement for a custom graduation quilt made by a Christian Women’s Job Corps graduate that was lost in the floodwaters. The guild tracked down the original maker and had a new one made.
The organization primarily uses donated fabric. Finished quilts go to the Christian Women’s Job Corps, the Comfort Boys and Girls Club, the 3H Ranch, and other charitable partners. Kane — who designs custom nature-inspired quilts — described the philosophy simply: “We want them used and loved.”
The guild’s major public event is its Quilt Show, last held in 2023 and next scheduled for May 2027. The show features professional judging, national vendors, and a handmade marketplace.
“Absolutely not,” Ewen said when asked whether quilting requires a special gift. “You can learn quilting at the age of five or six, or you could be quilting at 96.”
Monthly meetings: third Monday, Zion Lutheran Church. Quilt Show: May 2027.
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