The Hillsboro-based Westside Quilters Guild is Oregon’s newest group for quilters, quilt collectors, quilt historians and self-proclaimed “fabric-holics. Steve Rice, owner of Sharon’s Attic Quilt Shop in Hillsboro, put out a call on his business newsletter last year and quilters came from throughout the region to help form and join the guild, said Jean Lasswell of Hillsboro, the group’s first president. For the past year, the Westside Quilters Guild has put together bylaws, obtained nonprofit status and stitched more than 100 quilts that have been donated to victims of the Vernonia flood last year. Local quilt shops - Sharon’s Attic, Furever Friends and Crazy 4 Quilts - also donate materials and supplies. The new guild has been drawing on its own expert members for programs (guild member Patty Dobbs of Hillsboro will teach appliqu頴echniques soon), but Lasswell expects to draw speakers from throughout the metropolitan area as well as famous quilting gurus traveling through. The guild has been showing up at more and more of Hillsboro’s art events, including the popular First Tuesday Art Walk held each month, not only showing their work and promoting the guild, but selling tickets for quilts made for causes such as Alzheimer’s disease.

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