The Vaal Triangle has a small but vibrant and modern guild and we invite all quilters in the area and beyond to contact us.
Areas - Sasolburg, Vanderbjilpark, Vereeniging, Meyerton
Meetings - Once every quarter
Chairperson:
Ronel Fick
082 560 3042
SAQG regional rep:
Elsa Brits
016 973 3205 (c) 083 287 7446
Media contact:
Elsa Brits
083 287 7446
Click on photos to view enlargements.
The Vaal Triangle Guild is a bi-lingual guild which was founded in 1995 under the leadership of Suzette Ehlers, one of the first quilt Teachers and Accredited Quilt Judges in South Africa. Many of our members were also founder members of the GRG for Quilters, and still belong to GRG as well.
Meetings are held quarterly for our 50 members and the current membership fees are R110 per annum, which includes the quarterly newsletters. Visitors are welcome and pay an entrance fee of R30.
We have big plans for next year! We are going to have an exhibition in Vaal Mall for the first time. We want to introduce quilting to the greater public, partnering with all the sewing machine brands who want to participate.
The Vaal Triangle Quilters’ Guild will be bringing the Guild to the public on 22 – 24 March 2024 at the Vaal Mall, Vanderbjilpark. Quilters will be sewing all kinds of quilt related items.
The theme will be Shwe-Shwe.
Meeting dates:
17 February – Exhibition planning meeting (QuiltSew)
23 March - Vaal mall exhibition
4 –9 July - National Quilt Festival (Pietermaritzburg)
21 September - Friendship meeting
23rd November - Friendship meeting
Inspirations Days: Every 1st Saturday of every month at QuiltSew
Outreach programmes
Ladies took to the ‘street’ in March 2024 and with the help of Brother machines and QuiltSew, Vereeniging exhibited the SAQG Travelling Exhibition quilts in the local Vaal Mall.Brother also gifted the guild 20 half meter pieces of schwe -schwe fabric and the “African Ladies” project was started.It was decided to make several wall hangings which will be given away to brighten up drab surroundings of many child protection areas as well as the Vredefort Hartshuisies in Vredefort where poor people are housed.
Judy Roux and Elsie Burger are very busy with training young children to make quilted items, and each child made a bag for Mother’s Day.
Billy Graham said,” God has given us two hands, one to receive and the other to give with.” And this so aptly describes the Vaal Triangle Quilters. Their hands are always busy and their hearts full of kindness for those around them, especially the less fortunate.
“Lewenslig Sentrum” for handicapped adults provides training, stimulation, and care. Many of these people have been abandoned by their family and live permanently in the home.
Fifty pillowlike doll or teddies were made to bring comfort to the loveable and some shy patients.
It was a humbling and heart-warming experience to see their smiles on receiving their very own and unique “Saartije”
“To educate girls is to reduce poverty”, according to Kofi Annan, seventh Secretary -General of the United Nations. A very true statement indeed. In South Africa many teenage girls miss school as a result of the lack of personal sanitary supplies. There are organizations working hard to change this situation for our girls and we applaud them. The Quilters felt that the girls needed a pretty but discreet little bag to put their sanitary supplies into. Quilt Sew Shop together with Juki sewing machines, donated material and made sewing machines available to the quilters to sew these little bags. Some quilters sewed at home too and this resulted in 500 beautifully made little bags ,specially packed with sanitary ware. Judy Roux who is also involved in teaching primary school children how to use a sewing machine, has been taking these little bags to schools in the Vaal Triangle. They have been greatly appreciated and certainly will make girls feel more comfortable.
