Riverside County Fair and

National Date Festival

February 12 to March 1, 2026

Volunteer

We will again be helping to hang the quilts for the show in exchange for allowing us to sell our raffle tickets.  Watch for the date and information on how to help with the hanging.

The National Date Festival provides a rich opportunity for the community to learn about the art of quilting, philanthropy through quilting, and our Coachella Valley Quilt Guild. Each year the Guild has a booth in the quilt display hall where we demonstrate aspects of sewing/quilting, and sell tickets for the Opportunity Quilt (which will be on display). We will have a Bernina Machine on site you can use.  We are asking for two people per time slot for a two hour shift.  We will again have the great parking right at the entrance to the date festival, so an easy walk to the quilt location.   

We need you to volunteer to staff the booth (as often as possible) in two hour blocks of time. You will be provided with free entry to the Festival and parking, which is a bargain! Bring a friend, partner, or spouse and meet people. To volunteer, the Sign-Up Genius is live and ready at
Date Festival Volunteer Sign Up. Click on the link and scroll down the page to select your dates and times.  

Please contact Alena Callimanis if you have any questions:  919 606-6164 or [email protected].

Congratulations to Debbi LoCicero for

Best of Show!!!

It was wonderful to see the work of a number our members at the Riverside County Date Festival in both the quilt and the bag category.  Quite a few received prizes as follows:

Best of Show -- Debbi LoCicero

First Place -- Debbie LoCicero, Stephanie Beasley, Cheryl Taylor, Leslie Herbst, Treese Pflum, JudyQ Block (2 First Places) and Debbie Carran (3 First Places)

Second Place -- Debbie Carran, Kathleen Herring, JudyQ Block (2 Second Places), Leslie Herbst, Linda Blake and Treese Pflum

Third Place -- Heather Grocock, Lizette Dalquire, and JudyQ Block (2 Third Places)

Check out the items below.

Thank you for making the Date Festival a success!

There may not have been as many quilts as at past Date Festivals but there were some wonderful quilts made by members and community quilters.  There were quite a few awards given out.  

First Place awards went to:

Judy Block (2 1st places), Treese Pflum, Laurie LaSalle (4 1st places), Cheryl Chandler, Kathleen Herring (2 1st places), Cheryl Taylor and Roxanne Braun.

Second Place awards went to:

Pat Siegel, Treese Pflum, Linda Blake, and Laurie LaSalle.

Third Place awards went to:

Laurie LaSalle and Elizabeth Mitchell.

VP Opportunity Quilt Alena Callimanis did a wonderful job of organizing the volunteers to sell raffle tickets and put up and take down the quilts.  Thank you to Alena and her volunteers!

Date Festival 2023

Thank you to all those who entered items in the fair.  Thank you also to those members (and husbands) who sold Opportunity Quilt tickets at the fair and shared their love of quilting with the public.  

The Opportunity Quilt won a second place ribbon which is wonderful.  Other guild members who won ribbons (that we know about) were Cheryl Taylor, Patti Reyes, Laurie LaSalle and Treese Pflum.  If we missed anyone please let us know, so we can acknowledge you as well and if you have photos, please send them in so they can be posted.