Stitching 100: Community Quilts Celebrating History, Style, and Story

Suzette Boston leads Stitching 100: Community Quilts Celebrating History, Style, and Story at the Austin Public Library Windsor Park Branch on Saturday, October 17. It's an adult sewing workshop where you'll make a square to be added to a community quilt marking the library's centennial.

The quilt is part of the Austin Public Library's 100th anniversary, celebrating a century since the system first opened in 1926 as a place of learning, connection, and possibility. It's a community project in the truest sense: rather than one person making a piece, the quilt comes together from the individual squares sewn by people who stop by. Your square becomes part of a larger whole that will eventually be displayed, a physical record of the people who contributed to the centennial.

The Windsor Park Branch itself has its own history within that larger story. Library service to the area dates back to the late 1950s, when bookmobiles delivered titles to the Windsor Village Shopping Center. A 1992 bond issue eventually funded the construction of six new branches, and the Windsor Park Branch opened its doors on July 15, 2000. When you walk in, you're greeted by Paul Bond's bronze sculpture Reading Between the Lions, part of the city's Austin Art in Public Places program.

The workshop runs from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM on Saturday, October 17, and it's free. If you've been looking for a low-stakes way to get into sewing or just want to leave your own mark on the library's 100th year, this is a good place to start.