Descriptive Summary
Creator: Azalea City Quilters Guild, 1980-
Title: Azalea City Quilters Guild Collection
Dates: 1980-2009
Quantity: 12.5 cubic feet
Abstract: Scrapbooks, minutes, and newsletters, as well as photos, slides, and negatives.
Accession: 07-07-475

Organizational History
On June 16, 1980, a group of twenty-seven women from the Mobile area gathered at the local Quilts and Calicos Shop to organize a quilting guild. Members chose the name Azalea City Quilters Group as the official name of their organization at the group's second meeting. Membership in the group had increased to thirty by December 1980. Five years later, 100 members were enrolled. Membership reached 200 at the turn of the twenty-first century, and in August 2007, the Azalea City Quilters Guild had 269 members.

As membership in the ACQG increased, so did the guild’s activities. Within a year of its founding, members began participating in quilt exhibitions sponsored by museums around Mobile, variously known as the "Pride of Mobile," "Serenade of Quilts," or "Festival of Quilts." Those exhibitions continue today.

In addition to its quilt shows, the Azalea City Quilters Guild has also been involved in many other activities. For most of the guild’s existence, ACQG members have organized trips to regional and national quilt shows. Workshops have also been popular events for the guild. In addition, since the mid-1980s, the organization has made a quilt each year to donate to St. Mary’s Home in Mobile. Other charities helped by the ACQG include the Child Advocacy Center, the Ronald McDonald House, and Project Linus. In addition to its regular meetings, the guild has also spun-off several other groups, including one that meets in the evenings and a Thursday-morning group.

The guild is a member organization in the Gulf States Quilting Association, and in May 2003 the Azalea City Quilters Guild became an incorporated organization.

Scope and Content
Consists of organizational records, correspondence, photos, and scrapbooks created by the Azalea City Quilters Guild, as well as newspaper clippings, quilt show programs, quilt patterns, and other memorabilia collected by members of the guild. In addition, has organizational material detailing the planning behind the group's activities. Additions to this collection are made on an annual basis.

Arrangement
Divided into 14 series: 1. Organizational Rules (0.1 cubic feet); 2. Legal Documents (0.5 cubic feet); 3. Minutes, 1980-2009 (0.5 cubic feet); 4. Annual Officers' and Chairs' Reports, 2002-2009 (0.5 cubic feet); 5. Charity Projects, 2004-2006 (0.1 cubic feet); 6. Membership Lists, 1988-1999 (0.1 cubic feet); 7. Newsletters, 1980-2009 (0.5 cubic feet); 8. Correspondence, 1992-2009 (0.1 cubic feet); 9. Photos (0.5 cubic feet); 10. Negatives (0.5 cubic feet); 11. Slides (0.5 cubic feet); 12. Scrapbooks (7.5 cubic feet); 13. Memorabilia (1 cubic foot); 14. Quilt Shows (0.55 cubic feet).

Access Restrictions
This material is open for research.

Use Restrictions
None

Preferred Citation
Azalea City Quilters Guild Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL.

Guide prepared by: Regina Kanne

Guide updated by: Carol Ellis

Guide last updated: 2011/10/26

Series 1: Organizational Rules
Azalea City Quilters Guild Constitution, By-Laws, and revisions of said documents, arranged chronologically.

Series 2: Legal Documents
Azalea City Quilters Guild tax-exemption documents and Articles of Incorporation, arranged chronologically.

Series 3: Minutes, 1980-2009
This series is arranged chronologically and contains the minutes of ACQG General and Board meetings.

Series 4: Annual Officers’ and Committee Chair Reports, 2002-2009
This series is arranged chronologically and consists of the annual reports submitted to the Guild by its officers and committee chairs at the end of each fiscal year.

Series 5: Charity Projects, 2004-2006
This series includes correspondence and other information relating to the Azalea City Quilters Guild’s charitable projects.

Series 6: Membership Lists, 1988-1999
Consists of the ACQG’s annual phone books from 1988 to 1999, as well as officer lists from 1993 to 1995 and a 1993 handwritten membership list. These items are arranged chronologically by type of material.

Series 7: Newsletters, 1980-2009 [Bulk 1991-2009]
This series includes most of the issues of Nine Patch News, the Azalea City Quilters Guild’s monthly newsletter. The first issue is present (July 1980) but only a few others from the 1980s were found. After 1991 there is almost a complete run. This series is arranged chronologically.

Series 8: Correspondence, 1992-1999 and 2008-2009
This series, arranged chronologically, contains correspondence addressed from individual members to the guild as a whole, but the series also includes a letter from Senior Citizens Services to the guild. Researchers will find the bulk of the guild’s correspondence, however, in the Scrapbooks series.

Series 9: Photos
Most of the photos in this series, which is arranged chronologically, were packaged in their original commercial photography envelopes. A few sets of images were found together in small gift bags. The majority of them have no corresponding negative. They range in date from 1986 to 2009 and largely depict ACQG meetings and quilt shows. Many of the images are from the 1999 Pride of Mobile Quilt Show. Other photographs can be found in the Scrapbooks series.

Series 10: Negatives
Although the negatives in this series date from 1990 to 2009, the majority of them are dated after 1996. They depict Azalea City Quilters Guild activities and were originally in highly acidic commercial photo envelopes within their corresponding scrapbook. Each photo envelope’s negatives were kept together, arranged chronologically, and filed in separate folders.

Series 11: Slides
The slides in this series were originally in a number of separate slide containers. They date from 1983 to 1998 and show a wide variety of guild- and quilting-related activities, including ACQG meetings and quilt shows, guild trips to regional and national quilt shows, and even one American quilter’s trip to Australia. The slides are arranged chronologically by original container.

Series 12: Scrapbooks
Comprising the bulk of the collection, this series contains the contents of nineteen scrapbooks created by members of the Azalea City Quilters Guild during the years 1980 to 2003. Of these, seventeen are of general ACQG activities, while the other two deal exclusively with two ACQG quilt shows (one documents the 1991 Pride of Mobile Quilt Show and the other records the 1993 show). The ACQG scrapbooks include not only photos, but also correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, and other memorabilia.

Series 13: Memorabilia
This series includes newspaper and magazine clippings, quilt show programs, and quilt patterns saved by members of the Azalea City Quilters Guild. The items are arranged by type of material and then by date within each medium.

Series 14: Quilt Shows
Contains news clippings and photos from guild meetings and quilt shows, as well as a guest book (ca. 1988-1992) from an unidentified ACQG show. The bulk of the material in this series, however, consists of materials relating to the 1983-2005 Pride of Mobile Quilt Shows, including planning notes, correspondence with judges, receipts and rental agreements for show-related supplies and facilities, and reports from various committee chairpersons.

Box 1
Series 1: Organizational Rules (1 folder)
Series 2: Legal Documents (1 folder)
Series 3: Minutes, 1980-2001
Series 4: Annual Officer/Committee Chair Reports, 2002-2007
Series 5: Charity Projects (1 folder)
Series 6: Membership Lists, 1988-1999
Series 7: Newsletters, 1980-2009 [Bulk 1991-2009], Files 1-14

Box  2
Series 7: Newsletters, 1980-2009 [Bulk 1991-2009], remainder of series
Series 8: Correspondence

Box 3
Series 9: Photos (see also Boxes 3-10 and Box 13, Files 1-4), Files 1-23

Box 4
Series 9: Photos, Files 24-39
Series 10: Negatives
Series 11: Slides

Box 5 - Scrapbooks
1980-1985

Box 6 - Scrapbooks
1985-1991

Box 7 - Scrapbooks
1991-1994

Box 8 - Scrapbooks
1994-1995
1995-1997, cover matter and pp. 1-120

Box 9 - Scrapbooks
1995-1997, pp. 121-201
1997-1999

Box 10 - Scrapbooks
1999-2000
2000-Dec. 2001, cover matter and pp. 1-70

Box 11 - Scrapbooks
2000-Dec. 2001, pp. 71-140
Jan. 2002-Aug. 2003

Box 12 - Scrapbooks
1991 Pride of Mobile Quilt Show
1993 Pride of Mobile Quilt Show

Box 13 

Series 13: Memorabilia
ACQG, Gulf States Quilting Association, and other quilt show programs; news clippings, etc.

Box 14

Series 13: Memorabilia
Quilt patterns

Box 15
Photo albums (2 total): “Photos Collected Before September 2009”

Box 16

Series 14: Quilt Shows

Subseries 1: Photos and Memorabilia (See also Box 2, Series 6 and Boxes 3-11) [includes guest book (ca. 1988-1992]

Subseries 2: Pride of Mobile Quilt Show Planning Materials