Taken from the NQA newsletter…..

National Quilting Day is a special holiday, set aside to celebrate quilts and quilt makers – past, present, and future. It gives us the opportunity to reflect with pride on the traditions of quilt making and the contributions quilt makers have made to their families and communities for many generations.

The National Quilting Association, Inc. began sponsoring National Quilting Day with a resolution passed by members attending the 22nd Annual Quilt Show in Lincoln, Nebraska, in June 1991. The third Saturday in March is officially designated as National Quilting Day, but over the years, observance of National Quilting Day has unofficially been expanded to the whole month of March!

A Brief 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 quilt making in Kentucky. In 1991, the NQA 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 quilt makers 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.”

For the 2014 National Quilting Day project titled Stash Attack, visit http://www.nqaquilts.org/nqd or for ideas to plan a National Quilting Day celebration, see http://www.nqaquilts.org/nqdideas/.