Although it may seem antiquated to some, quilting is alive and well in The Woodlands thanks to The Woodlands Area Quilt Guild, a nonprofit that uses its members' love of quilting to educate and give back to the community.

Formed in 1994, the Quilt Guild will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year and has grown from 71 members to 279, past president Debbie Shelton said. The group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month at the South Montgomery County Community Center. The guild hosts guest speakers and workshops, and members work on quilts for various donations and events, Shelton said.

"I think the ladies were all quilters and just wanted to get together as a group and share ideas and come together to socialize as women," Shelton said.

In addition to monthly meetings, the organization alternates every 18 months between a quilt show and an auction, which benefits a local cause, Shelton said. The most recent auction Oct. 5 featured 55 quilts made and donated by members, which helped raise more than $4,000 for The Rose, a nonprofit breast cancer research organization.

Member Venetta Morger said the guild spends as many as 20–160 hours per quilt, working during three workshops per month throughout nine months to complete several quilts. However, the majority of the quilts were donated by members or crafted by bees, groups of members within the guild who get together to craft quilts outside of regular meetings.

"The workshop committee decides on nine to 12 quilts we want to make that we can get the guild to make in the process coming up to the quilt auction that will bring in the members and get them invested in making these different quilts," Shelton said.

The guild also has provided as many as 186 quilts this year to local organizations, including the Montgomery County Women's Shelter, Vitas Hospice, the Michael DeBakey Veteran's Hospital, Quilts of Valor Foundation and Camp for All. The group provided handmade gifts to more than 100 seniors at the South Montgomery County Community Center and raised $1,500 for needy families in the community and $3,555 for the MD Anderson Ovarian Cancer Quilt Project.

The next major event for the guild will be the quilt show in April 2015.

"Our mission is encouraging, education and bringing people in," Morger said. "There's a lot of young people who are busy raising a family, and quilting takes time and dedication. So we always try to do outreach to get people interested in doing it."

Woodlands Quilt Guild, 2235 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, www.waqg.org