Portneuf Valley Quilters Guild thriving after thirty years

POCATELLO — A group of ladies were gathered together at Alameda Park, knitting and sitting at picnic tables that were spread out at least six feet apart.

This was just a handful of the membership of the Portneuf Valley Quilters Guild. It was 2020, and their regular meetings could not go on as planned.

Sue Reeves, Vice President of the Guild, said that they weren’t exactly proud of themselves, “because we kind of felt like we were cheating in a way,” but she also said they wanted to keep their group going.

“We were determined,” Reeves said. “We got to look at each other. That was a big thing.”

But a question persisted in their minds as they knit together. While they didn’t think the guild would completely end, they didn’t know what would happen to their numbers.

“Even if we had to just start over, we knew we would survive,” Reeves said.

“A dying art”

The Portneuf Valley Quilters Guild started with 18 charter members in 1993. They have a regular monthly meeting, a weekly open sew, and a monthly home retreat.

Reeves describes the guild as a, “group of ladies that like to get together and share our quilting ideas and encourage each other (and) teach each other.”

She said that the guild advocates for quilting because, “it’s kind of a dying art in a way.”

“It just seems that not as many young people are interested in sewing,” Reeves said.

While the membership is primarily made up of 60 to 65 year old women, they encourage men and women of all ages to join them and learn more about quilting.

At the start of 2020, Reeves said they had somewhere close to fifty members. A side effect of having an older demographic primarily make up the club was that when COVID-19 spread to the Portneuf Valley, the future of the quilters guild was put into question.

“A major lifeline”

Once public areas began to close down, the guild couldn’t have their regular meetings. With a lot of their membership being people who were at-risk, they didn’t want to get each other sick.

Reeves said that in addition to the park, some women would go to the Fred Meyer parking lot, “with our diet cokes and park our cars so that we could talk.”

“We were all really missing each other,” Reeves said. “For a lot of the people in our guild that are older (it’s) a major lifeline.”

Once things started to open back up, people came back to meetings and open sews, but not all at once. The moment when Reeves knew the guild was fully back to normal was in October 2022 when they held a quilt show at the Mountain View Event Center.

And shockingly, their membership has gone up. The guild now numbers at 72 people.

“We were gonna really push”

The Portneuf Valley Quilters Guild is celebrating it’s 30 year anniversary.

Also this year, the group exceeded their donation goal of 100 quilts last month. Now, they’re up to 110. In 2022, the guild sent out 60 quilts.

The quilts have been donated to a number of places, including 15 to Maui. They plan to send another shipment to Hawaii soon.

They’ve also donated quilts to local organizations like Family Services Alliance, Compassion and Hope Pregnancy Center and Portneuf Cancer Center, among others.

They haven’t set a goal for donations in 2024, but they will in December when they celebrate the guild’s anniversary.

“A lot of laughter”

Somewhere around 30 people are gathered around tables sewing at an open sew event. They all chat as they work on their art form.

It’s 2023, and the guild no longer has to meet at a park. Instead, they’re at their regular location, All-Star Sages Creek in the Westwood Mall.

The mood is more akin to a party, with people sharing snacks and, “a lot of laughter.”

“People that come into the store wanna come back and see what we’re doing and then we can invite them to get involved with us,” Reeves said. “It sounds like a happy place.”