Pamlico River Quilters' Guild

10/15/2026

09/25/2026

The photo was taken by Lucas Possiede. This is Gigi Hadid as a Renaissance Princess in Valentino Haute Couture at Vogue World 2026. It's made of "recycled Venetian quilts and took 1680 hours to be completed by hand." What do you think, quilters??

09/22/2026

You never know where that beautiful quilt you're working on now will be in 150 years...

09/21/2026

Pat Carlson will take your wildlife and/or waterways quilt if you're in PRQG and are interested in showing it. Call her! (She's in the directory)

09/17/2026

There was a decision being made in that mill yard that nobody ever wrote down as business, and it ended up changing what a national industry printed on its packaging. 🌸 Look at the sacks. They are covered in flowers.

Feed, flour and sugar came in heavy cotton sacks, and farm women had been unpicking the seams and using that cloth for dish towels, diapers, curtains, underwear, shirts and dresses long before anybody at a mill noticed. Through the twenties the companies worked out what was happening, and the sacks started coming printed. Florals, checks, dots, stripes, hundreds of patterns, with the brand name printed in an ink meant to wash out so it would not show in the finished dress.

Then something happened the mills did not plan on. The woman decided which feed you bought. A man might have a strong opinion about the corn inside the sack, but if his wife needed one more of the blue sprigged print to finish a dress for a girl who was growing, that is the brand that went on the wagon. Companies knew it. They published pattern books, hired designers, printed little booklets showing how many sacks a garment took, and sized patterns to sack dimensions. A grown woman's dress ran about three sacks.

Think about what that actually means. In a cash poor mountain household where a woman had no wages of her own and maybe no say in what the farm sold, she had her hands on a purchasing decision every few weeks, and there were enough women making that same decision that mills in other states redesigned their product around it. Trading sacks with neighbors to complete a set was a real economy. Women went to the mill in person to pick, and they were not shy about it.

That is not making do. That is a market bending toward the people who actually controlled the buying, and the people who actually controlled the buying were wearing aprons. 🧵 Go look close at old family photographs from the thirties, forties and fifties and count the flowered dresses. You are looking at a woman's judgment, made in a feed store, on a Tuesday.

09/06/2026

COMING September 9th-13th
The Washingtons Unite Quilt, inspired by the 250th anniversary of the United States, will be on display at the Maritime Museum in Plymouth, NC September 9-12th from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Each square represents a Washington County or Parish from across the United States. There will be a special reception on Sunday, September 13 at 3 p.m. open to the public with guest speakers and light refreshments. Please bring a friend, stop by and sign the guest book.

But wait…There’s MORE!
You can also see the Washington County 4H Quilt and many antique quilts from around our county. If you would like to have your family quilt be part of the exhibit, stop by the museum or contact Mark at [email protected] or call 252-217-2204 before Aug. 9th.

09/06/2026