Co-Founder, Andi Reynolds - Keota, Iowa
SSQA President (1999-2001)

In 1995 I was the show co-chair of Quilters Unlimited of Tallahassee and its president. In honor of Florida's sesquicentennial (150th birthday), I asked our guild to invite quilts from all across the state, instead of showing our local work. Although the show was spectacular, the process of finding other guilds was excruciating. I wanted to create a central clearinghouse for information about guilds and shows, and was considering a commercial newsletter when Marilyn Dorwart, owner of Quilters Marketplace in Delray Beach, suggested I get together with Susie Murray, who wanted to start a statewide guild. In a series of letters and phone calls - great, funny, sad, LONG phone calls, we set the stage for the first organizational meeting to explore the possibility of creating a statewide guild. My interest in creating a statewide guild was to connect Florida's guilds and quilters and to share information.