Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Lynne and Marcia's generosity

A week ago today was the charity sew day with my IQ friends.  Lynne organized the day at her church for the group and thought about Iowa Comfort as the beneficiary of the days labor (we had to much fun to call it labor....but I am having a brain freeze this morning so it will just have to stand.)  That act alone was extremely generous....but she wasn't done.  

Let me introduce you to Lynne Mulder again.  Hard at work on her block.



These are the additional quilts she brought with her for donation.



All these quilts need are a label, and they are ready to be shipped to DHS to bring a smile to a child in need.  Thank you  Lynne for your generous spirit!

Within any group there is usually that one person that can bring a smile to anyone's  face, in the IQ circle that person would be Marcia Burt.  She comes up with songs and chants, and I do believe she has been known to due a couple of prank phone calls.  She also has a group that does charity sewing for her local area, but that did not stop her from donating to us.  Here is Marcia.



Marcia brought ELEVEN afghans for donation to the center.....in addition she donated the following tops to us.



Aren't they bright and cheery!  Just like Marcia, I am sure these quilts when finished will brighten someones day! Thank you Marcia for your generosity!  

And believe it or not there is still a lot more to share with you all in the next post, so make sure to come back on Saturday.

Have a great day!


Saturday, August 25, 2012

Start your engines!

I have so much to show you all!  That is could possibly take to mid September to show you all of the quilts and quilt tops that have been donated over the last week.

First lets start with the quilt top that was donated by Leslie Jackson.  Leslie is one of the members of Circle of Friends, that is hosted by Adel Quilting and Dry Goods on the third Monday of each month.... she is also super creative.  She whipped together this little top for us....and it fits right into the Hope quilts project.  This quilt will be donated to the local DHS office, and will be given to a child at the discretion of the social workers.  The project is designed so that a social worker can pick up a quilt to give to a child before they leave the office. So a stock pile of quilts will need to be on hand, so no child will be left out.....lucky for us we have a jump start on the project already.  

Here is Leslie's quilt, won't that quilt bring a smile to a little boy?  She is also putting another one together that is car themed.  

The hope is that these quilts will bring a little comfort to a child, on a day that would otherwise be very trying.... I would bet money who ever gets this quilt will hold it tight!

Switching gears (still keeping with the car theme here...hehehe) I want to tell you just a little about the charity sew day this last Tuesday.

It was a GREAT day, hosted by my friend Lynne Mulder.  We belong to a group of online quilters called " Iowa Quilters" or "IQ" on the website connecting threads.  It is a fun place to connect to other quilters and the IQ group is very active.  Lynne thought a charity sew day was a good way to get several members together for some fun... and boy was it fun....and productive!  

I can't show you all of the pictures in this post but I thought I would show you what my car looked like coming home for northern Iowa on Tuesday.

See all those bolts of fabric.... those were donated by Deb Steere.  She just went to a room upstairs and brought it to use ....just incase we needed it, and then donated it to us.  Thank you Deb!  

That sack in the seat, those are finished quilts that Lynne donated, all they need is a label.  I will show you those quilts on Tuesday.

This was my back seat going home.... all I am going to say right now is that it was NOT that full when I left home that morning.  There are many donations in there that we will break down over the next week or so.

And of course the trunk.  Now I will be honest the trunk was pretty full going up. But see that basket....it is full of completed tops!  All of which will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Well the post is already a long one so I'll cut it off here.  Make sure to come back and watch the reveals.


Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Today is a travel day

I left for northern Iowa this morning for a charity sew day . 

An online quilting friend thought it would be fun to have a charity sew day with the online group.  This group was founded by Melzee from Dubuque, she started a group called Iowa Quilters on Connecting Threads a couple of years ago.  The group is mainly Iowa quilters....but there are also several gals from surrounding states.

Lynne thought it might be fun to get together before the fall harvest and holidays set in....and she suggested that Iowa Comfort might benefit from our sewing today.

I have loaded the car up with a ton of fabric (both the backseat and trunk are loaded) and hope that I will come home with a couple of tops to quilt later.

The one thing that I know for sure is that when this group gets together......people will have sore faces and sides....because there is always a boat load of fun.

Leslie Jackson has donated another top, I don't have it photographed yet, but I'll have it on the blog Saturday.  It is so cute!  It is going to be a hope quilt that is for sure.

Hope you all have a great day!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

And there I go planning again!

You would think a grown woman would have learned her lesson by now.  I just simply can not plan anything at this point in my life..... I set myself up for the fall with my last post.  

I said that I was going to get that last quilt quilted (and I did) and then bound by this weekend..... that's not going to happen.

At least this time when the universe decided to mess with me it was a happy outcome.

Wednesday morning my sister got a call form Iowa City that her and her husband needed to come to the hospital.  This was 2:00 am, they had a liver for him!  He had his surgery on Wednesday afternoon....and I have been staying with her until yesterday afternoon... so no working on Iowa Comfort stuff the past several days.  My brother in law appears to be on the mend.... I am so happy for both of them.

Here I go jinxing myself, but I will try to get that binding on that quilt later today.... my euphoria about being all caught up is short lived.  I know I have another donated quilt top waiting for me at Jacques shop.  I'll pick it up today. 

I have a busy week ahead of me..... I will have lots of pictures next week.


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Just a quick note

I am still working on those scrap pieces of fabric.  I find it odd to see how a grocery sack of scraps can condense down to such a small amount of organized fabric.  I am on my third grocery sack, and I have less than a gallon size bag of slivers that did not make it in to a square, brick or strip.

Today I loaded my last quilt top for Iowa Comfort, by tomorrow it should be off the longarm and ready for me to bind this weekend.

This will be the first time since January that I have been all caught up.  I figure that it will last about a week.  An online quilting buddy has organized a charity sew day, and Iowa Comfort will reap some of the rewards from that day.  Adel Quilting and Dry Goods also has an evening of service scheduled that will benefit our group.

I may try to get one more community sew day scheduled in late September early October, to get us through the holidays.  At the community prep day, I mentioned that it might be after the first of the year.....and you would have thought I had kicked a puppy!  So I will try to get one on the books before everyone gets busy with the holidays, and I get busy with customer quilts for Christmas. 

Alright the post is already beyond a quick note.  I will tell you about the charity sew day on my next post.

Have a wonderful day!


Saturday, August 11, 2012

Stripping in De Soto

Remember this photo from last week?  Yes that was some of the fabric that I still needed to cut down into pre cut strips, bricks or squares.

Well I have spent pretty much every night this week with my cutting mat and rotary cutter working on that pile of  fabric.

I am still not done with it, but I thought I would show you how far I have come.

This is where I sit at night working on that pile of fabric....one piece at a time.
Here is a pile of some of the finished strips sorted by size.

A friend of mine sent me a picture of a scrappy quilt, and I knew that it would be the perfect project for all of these strips....don't you agree?
I hope to make a couple of full size quilts from those strips in this pattern for the center.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend!


Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Hope quilts

As promised today I have information on the goals for next year. 

We will of course continue to take all orphan quilt tops that anyone is looking to find a new home for.  Today I had someone ask if they needed to provide the backing and batting for those donations. No you don't.  I have customers that pay me to quilt their quilts. Those fee's buy backing and batting material for the comfort quilts. 

The most exciting news is the Hope Quilts.  With the help of a friend at the Dallas/Madison Dept of Human Services, we have found a way to help the youth of those counties.  Next year the focus will be on quilts for kids that need a little bit of comfort.  These quilts will be dropped off at the local DHS office, and the social workers will have access to the quilts and can deliver it to a child in need at their discretion.

The Director did ask if we would would consider making a few additional quilts for adults.  They occasionally need to remove an elderly person from a home.  I think we can do that also.

The Hope Quilts should be from baby/toddler size to a good size lap quilt.  40 x 40 - 60 x 60...and all sizes in between.  You get the idea, hopefully they will be bright or bold.....but we will take them all.  A good example of the type of quilts I am hoping for are on Adel Quilting and Dry Goods blog yesterday....the featured quilts are the ones made by Donna Grove.

I am also going to try to create some wheelchair quilts for the local nursing homes.  I am hoping that the local high school seniors might be interested in this project. I have a lot of flannel that would work wonderful for this project.

So the goals are lofty for next year....and I know we are going to bring a lot of comfort to our community.


Saturday, August 4, 2012

Pics from our community day

On Tuesday afternoon, I scheduled a rather last minute community prep day.  


This day was to just sort fabric donations by color and size.  Icing on the cake would be if we could start cutting down some of the smaller pieces into precut pieces.


We finished the first two, and started on phase three.  Take a look at our afternoon.


Celia was hard at work putting large cuts of fabric on bolts that was donated by Adel Quilting and Dry Goods.
Deb was hard at work sorting and measuring the stack of blue fabrics.


Donna was my first volunteer of the afternoon.  She helped bring in the sacks to be sorted.  Sorted a little over half of the sacks by color.. and helped sort by size before she had to leave us.


Kathy was busy sorting fabric also...love the tape measure around her neck!


Dian was working so hard that I could not catch her sitting still..... my apologies Dian.....but I could not leave you out of the post.
Here is a shot of some of the fabric that I still have to cut down into precut sizes for future use in quilts.


I want to thank again all of my helpers for coming out and helping me organize the donation fabric.  It feels so good to not look at those sacks on the closet floor!


News coming on Tuesday about next years goal for Iowa Comfort... so stop back then.