The Beginning of the Sassy Quilters Dynasty

     Starting in January, 2002, a group of women met at the Chatfield Public
Library (http://www.chatfieldpubliclibrary.org/) for the purpose of making the
sesquicentennial, commemorative quilt which now hangs in the Thurber
Building. (Chatfield City Hall http://www.ci.chatfield.mn.us/) They called
themselves the Chosen Valley Sassy Quilters from the play on words of
Sesquicentennial Quilters, thus becoming the Sassy Quilters.

     Designed by local artist Harvey Bernard, the commemorative quilt began to
take shape when the group took a trip to a quilt shop to select fabric.
Chatfield women did the hand embroidery, and the Sassy Quilters did the
machine piecing and hand quilting, meeting weekly at the library. They
presented the finished quilt to the City of Chatfield at the kickoff of the
sesquicentennial festivities on January 4, 2003. With this major project
completed, the group did not disband but decided to form a Chatfield quilt
group and liked the idea of remaining the Sassy Quilters.

     The twelve women decided to tackle the formidable task of organizing and
sponsoring a quilt show as part of the sesquicentennial Western Days
festivities. Along with this, they planned and made another quilt to raffle
off at the quilt show. This second quilt was machine pieced, hand quilted
and hand appliquéd in the pattern of a nine-patch hour glass.
"Quilts Through the Window of Time" was the city's first quilt show. Held at
the newly remodeled Thurber Building, the show had entries from area
residents and their families and friends. It featured over seventy-five hand
made quilts both old and new, such as bed quilts, wall quilts and miniature
quilts. During the show, they had a silent auction of small quilts hand made
by the Sassy Quilters and other area residents. A queen-sized, hand-quilted
and hand-appliquéd quilt was raffled off at the end of the show. Proceeds
from the sales will be returned to the Chatfield Community in the form of
books for the public and school libraries and a donation to the Chatfield
Community Foundation.

     Another project which the Sassy Quilters plan to do annually is to present a
crib-sized quilt to each baby born at the two Rochester hospitals on March
15th, National Quilters Day. Baby quilts have been given every year since
2003 and have been well received by the Quilting Day babies and their
families. The group also participates in quilting retreats and quilting
outings. The Sassy Quilters meet biweekly the year round at the Chatfield
Public Library to work on their own quilting projects as well as community
based projects such as: Veteran's quilts, pillow cases for the Rochester
Women's Shelter, Bundles of Love crib quilts, pillow cases for the Chosen
Valley Care Center, and quilts for Chatfield residents who have lost their
homes to fire. Any Chatfield area resident is welcome to join the Sassy
Quilters.