Ideas for celebrating National Quilting Day
Hang your quilts outdoors on National Quilting Day
Join thousands of other quilters who will be sharing quilts outside their home on National Quilting Day to educate and inspire their neighbors. Consider putting a sign near the quilt with information like title, maker, year made, history or how people can connect to your favorite quilting resources. Post your photos and tag them #nationalquiltingday2023 to share.
Make it a service day
Share your Quilting skills
Offer to teach a simple quilt project to a school, 4-H, scout, or other youth group, or spend the day passing along your love of quilting to your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or neighbors.
Save Quilt Stories
Organize a quilt history day or a quilt documentation project. Invite members of the community to share their quilts and documents the quilts for your state documentation project. If you don’t have a state project, work with other quilters in the state to start one! A good place to start is with your local or state historical society, or search the internet for quilt documentation projects.
Mark your calendar for the third Saturday in March!
The Quilt Alliance and the National Quilt Museum are proud to be the coordinators of this special day! Check this page often for fun and meaningful ideas for celebrating National Quilting Day, graphics and posters you can use to publicize your own NQD events and a home base for this important day to honor and promote quilting! See below for the history of National Quilting Day.
Label and Share: Two great activities for National Quilting Day 2023
Label a quilt!
Keep your quilt’s story from fading away by adding a simple label. If you need some tips, follow this simple guide to documenting your quilt.
Share a quilt!
Inspire and comfort your neighbors this weekend by displaying a quilt outside your home or in a window. Take a look back at 2020 National Quilting Day displays here for inspiration. Post photos of your display on social media with the tag #nationalquiltingday so the Quilt Alliance can share them on Instagram and Facebook.
National Quilting Day graphics
Download this free graphic to post on your blog, social media page, website, etc.
National Quilting Day 2023 Posters
Download free NQD 2023 posters to fill in details for your quilt shop, guild or group celebrations.
Choose standard poster or one with a customizable panel.
Click below to download a pdf or png file.
Standard posters:
Letter pdf (8.5″ x 11″)
Legal pdf (8.5″ x 14″)
Tabloid pdf (11″ x 17″)
PNG (800 x 1033 pixels)
Posters with customizable panel for adding in your own details.
Letter pdf (8.5″ x 11″)
Legal pdf (8.5″ x 14″)
Tabloid pdf (11″ x 17″)
PNG (800 x 1033 pixels)
Document your quilts
This National Quilting Day, we encourage you to document your quilts. Add those labels you’ve been putting off! Visit our Three Key Steps to Documenting a Quilt guide to get started. Interview a family member or friend as part of our Go Tell It! project. Or have a documentation day at your group or guild. Watch Go Tell It! recordings made on National Quilting Day at the International Quit Museum from 2014-2017.
Download a free quilt pattern to celebrate National Quilting Day!
Click on a partner’s name below to view their free downloadable patterns and projects:
Moda Fabrics
Aurifil
eQuilter.com
Handi Quilter
AccuQuilt
StudioE Fabrics
Henry Glass & Co.
Windham Fabrics
Make It Simpler
Indygo Junction by Amy Barickman
National Quilting Day 2019 Kickoff Event
The kickoff of National Quilting Day 2019 was held at The National Quilt Museum on Saturday, March 16th, 2019. The public were invited to attend this special event at the museum in downtown Paducah, Kentucky on National Quilting Day. The event is free and visitors were invited to stay and enjoy the museum galleries afterward.
The History of National Quilting Day
In 1989, the Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society organized a “Quilters’ Day Out” on the third Saturday of March to celebrate the rich tradition of quiltmaking in Kentucky. In 1991, National Quilting Association officers were so enthused with the concept and success of “Quilters’ Day Out” that they voted to take it to a national level.
The first National Quilting Day was observed in 1992 and since then it has grown into a global celebration for all quiltmakers and quilt lovers. Helen Storbeck, one of the founders of National Quilting Day, wrote in The Quilting Quarterly, “Groups of quilters were encouraged to hold special events, publishers and shop owners were invited to sponsor promotions especially for quilters and it quickly became a grassroots endeavor with quilters in every part of the country participating. In the first year of National Quilting Day, quilters in other countries asked to participate. They were welcomed with open arms. As our feelings of a community network has evolved to include a world community, it is only appropriate that quilters and quilt lovers everywhere united to give recognition to the special art form.”