Pillbox hats, poodle skirts and crop tops were among the fashionable clothing spotted on the red carpet at the Suffolk Quilters Guild fashion show last week.

But these weren’t your ordinary clothing items. The “pillbox hat” was a plastic Easter bucket with medicine bottles attached, worn on the head of Vykki Harrell. The “poodle skirt” was a simple skirt with plush poodles attached. And the “crop top” was an ordinary blouse with illustrations of vegetables attached. Howling laughter abounded as the models strutted up and down the red carpet.

“It’s been a long, hard winter,” president Nena Piner told the ladies before the show. “This is going to be a little bit of comic relief for all of us.”

Indeed it was. Jackie Spiker walked the red carpet with “Capri pants” — pants with Capri-Sun pouches attached — and Beverly Vance sported a mini-skirt and three-quarter-length sleeves, which looked more like an ordinary skirt with images of Minnie Mouse attached and a short-sleeve blouse with 75 cents on each shoulder.

It was all fun and games, but the guild usually is focused on more serious stuff. The 50 or so members are devoted to the art of quilting, as demonstrated during their “show-and-tell” parts of each meeting, where they show off beautiful projects either finished or in progress.

“It is an art that was dying for a long time, but in the last 20 to 25 years, it’s definitely seen a rebirth,” Piner said. “It is really considered to be a form of art.”

Quilts were originally just a way to stay warm, Piner said, but over the years they have taken on more meaning. They’re not only an art form but also a way to pass on memories.

The Suffolk Quilters Guild covers Suffolk as well as Western Tidewater and North Carolina towns to the east, such as Ahoskie, Gates and Murfreesboro.

“We pull from quite a varied area,” Piner said.

The club meets on the first Thursday of every month at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 213 N. Main St. You’ll want to go in the back door off the North Saratoga Street parking lot if you attend. A social begins at 6:30 p.m., with the actual meeting at 7.

A workshop also takes place at the church on the third Saturday of every month, beginning at 9 a.m. and lasting until everyone is ready to go home. Members bring projects to work on while they enjoy the company.

Piner said the guild is looking for more members, especially as it approaches its 30th birthday next year and hopes to take on more projects.

“Part of what we want to do more of is charity work for our community,” Piner said. Members are working on quilts to be raffled to benefit Mutt Strut and the Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention, Piner added.

“The more members we get, the more community service projects we can do,” Piner said.

Membership in the guild is $20 annually, or $10 if joining mid-year. The year starts in June.

Visit suffolkquiltersguild.webs.com for more information about the group.