Sunbonnet Sue club celebrates 40th anniversary

Published 1:30 am Monday, April 20, 2026

SEQUIM — After 40 years, quilters with the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club share a similar sentiment: they love quilting and their community.

Through food, conversation and a fashion show, more than 100 community members celebrated the club’s 40th anniversary on April 8 at the Sequim Masonic Lodge.

Norma Herbold, the event’s co-organizer, said the club celebrated milestones early on but skipped its 30th and 35th anniversaries, most recently due to COVID-19.

“It was time to have a nice party,” she said. “We wanted to do it because there are some of us who may or may not be around for our 50th.”

For the celebration, a few former raffle quilts from the club’s annual show were on display, and club members also made place mats and centerpieces.

Group photos were taken of club members grouped by the decade they joined.

Joanne Thoma joined six months into the club’s formation, saying she went to buy some materials and was convinced to join.

“I’ve had so much fun,” she said. “It’s inspiring. It’s changed my whole life.”

Thoma said she’s always been drawn to arts and crafts and estimates she’s made thousands of quilts, particularly Joy Quilts for children who need support in difficult situations or transitions.

Some club members who have moved away for various reasons were able to attend, including Marilyn Bosckis, who moved to Lake Stevens in 2017.

“I realized after I left, it was my church,” she said of the club.

“It’s been wonderful to see friends. A lot of people I hadn’t talked to since I left.”

Sunbonnet Sue’s start

Peggy Johnson and Kennie Starzenski founded the group 40 years ago on April 30, 1986, with about a dozen women meeting inside a home with the intent to build camaraderie and quilting education, according to club members.

As more people joined, Sunbonnet Sues moved to larger venues before they cemented their place at the Sequim Masonic Lodge in the early 1990s. They continue to meet there at 9:30 a.m. each Wednesday at 700 S. Fifth Ave., Sequim.

Over the decades, they’ve made quilts through their Community Quilts program for various nonprofits and community organizations to support fire victims, people in need and more.

In attendance at the celebration were several benefactors, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Clallam County Fire District 3, Sequim Food Bank, Healthy Families of Clallam County, Sarge’s Veterans Support, Serenity House of Clallam County, the Sequim Free Clinic, Volunteer Hospice of Clallam County, Captain Joseph House Foundation and Sequim Community Aid.

Mary-Lou Giacomelli, club president since January, said it’s been amazing to see how active the Sunbonnet Sues are since she joined four years ago.

In 2024, the club donated 500 quilts to community groups and about 400 to 24 agencies last year, she said.

“We enjoy making quilts and donating them,” Giacomelli said.

Herbold said they’ve given a lot of quilts away and she knows “many of them have been very treasured.”

Keep growing

Another integral part of the club has been its ongoing classes.

Each year, an education committee helps form a schedule throughout the year for club members to grow their skills in a number of areas, such as machine embroidery.

Herbold, a retired educator, said she joined the club in 1992 and has learned something new every time she’s taken a class. She welcomes anyone to attend, and there is a beginner’s class.

“We have all kinds of classes, and we try to be as welcoming as possible and make sure people are involved in what’s going on,” she said.

Mary Ann Clayton joined the club after she retired as a Sequim teacher in 2009 and continues to run an Etsy shop called lavendersugarplum. She said the Wednesday meetings are her main activity of the week and that, since she joined, she’s picked up some useful techniques, particularly as a member of the Art Quilts group.

Sage Glover is the club’s youngest member, joining in 2013 when she was 7 with guidance from her grandmother Martha Scott, another longtime club member.

Glover, who made a Sunbonnet Sue-inspired cake for the celebration, said the various styles of the quilters helped give her a deep reverence for the art form.

She said older people can be overlooked for their age, but she said club members have so much wisdom to offer.

“I hope more younger people take an interest,” Glover said.

Sue Stednick said when she joined the club in 2018 it was impressive to see so many retired women quilting, including teachers, accountants, business owners, medical personnel and many other past professionals.

“They like to give,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing, interesting and fun.”

Annual quilt show

The Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club held its first quilt show in 1989 at Sequim High School, and over the years it’s been at various venues across Sequim, including Sequim Middle School, Trinity United Methodist Church and Pioneer Memorial Park.

Herbold said the time of year changed from during the Sequim Irrigation Festival to just after school gets out in June to Sequim Lavender Weekend.

Nancy Davis, a club member for many years before she moved to Poulsbo to be closer to family, said the club gave her a “home away from home” and that the annual show is a big deal to put on every year.

“It’s a glorious thing,” she said. “The one outside (at Pioneer Memorial Park in 2022 and 2023) was so wonderful for me personally … It was good for that moment in time.”

In recent years, there’s been a featured artist, including Nancy Wilcox in 2024, Janet Lenfant in 2023 and Bonnie Cauffman in 2022 who receive their own booth to display their works.

The show took a hiatus in 2025, but Vicki Naumann was chosen as the featured artist and had some quilts on display at A Stitch in Time Quilt Shop in Sequim.

This year, the show will return Aug. 7-8 inside two buildings at Sequim Community Church with featured artist Beverly Beighle.

This year’s Raffle Quilt, “Something Blue,” will be on display. Tickets will be available to support the club’s educational opportunities at various events leading up to the show, including the Sequim Farmers and Artisans Market, Coastal, Swain’s in Port Angeles and other venues

For more about the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club, its show, community programs or educational opportunities, visit sunbonnetsuequiltclub.org.

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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.