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 #nationalquiltingday2021 to share.
Make it a service day
Work on a quilt for the Happy Birth Day, Baby! project or for your favorite cause – national projects such as ABC Quilts and Project Linus, or local projects. If you don’t have a local service project, National Quilting Day is the perfect time to start one! Check with police and fire departments, children’s services, nursing or rehabilitation facilities or local hospitals to see if they have a need for quilts.
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 2021
Inspire and comfort your neighbors this weekend by displaying a quilt outside your home or in a window. Take a look at 2020 National Quilting Day displays here. Post photos of your display on social media with the tag #nationalquiltingday so the Quilt Alliance can share them on Instagram and Facebook.
This year, we are so excited to rekindle a project founded by the National Quilting Association – Happy Birth Day, Baby! Individuals and groups are welcome to participate – it’s easy! Make a quilt for the first baby born on National Quilting Day in your local hospital. Find our free downloadable pattern and instructions and full details here.
Download a free quilt pattern to celebrate National Quilting Day!
The kickoff of National Quilting Day 2019 was held at The National Quilt Museum on Saturday, March 16th, 2019. The public will again be invited to attend this special event at the museum in downtown Paducah, Kentucky on National Quilting Day. The event is free and visitors are invited to stay and enjoy the museum galleries afterward. Details for the 2020 Kickoff Event to be held on Saturday, March 21, 2020 will be shared here soon.
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.”