I want to hear your stories of community quilting
Dear fellow quilters/crafters
Your quilting story could be featured in an upcoming quilt book I am researching (not due for release until 2011). The book will touch on community and quilting and I would love to hear from you.
Please email me whipup[at]gmail.com if you have ever…
1. made quilts for charity
2. organised a quilt drive for your local community/church or larger organisation
3. participated in or organised a quilt swap, (or quilt block swap), virtual quilting bee or quilt-a-long
4. belonged to an ‘in person’ quilting group where you get together regularly to quilt
5. made or organised a community quilt / friendship quilt
I would love to hear your stories – there are no boundaries on age or location – wherever you live, whoever you are – I want to hear from you. Email me telling the where and when of your quilting project and I will follow up with further questions.
thanks so much for your help.
Kathreen
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:20 am
Hi Kathreen,
When my dear friend was dying from breast cancer three years ago, I posted 6″ squares to all her friends and asked them to decorate them. When I got them all back my friend and I made them into a quilt for her. It was amazing, I’m so glad I did that. After she died it was on the coffin and the family still has it, it is very special to them. I live in Christchurch, New Zealand (in the South Pacific) I’d love to be part of your book.
Hugs
deb :)
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 am
I help run a quilting group in the Midlands of England. We’re called Rocheberie Schoolhosue Quilters http://sites.google.com/site/rocheberiequilters/ We meet 6 times a year and have over 100 members. It’s a fantastic bunch of ladies and I’m in awe at the amount of talent to be found.
October 23rd, 2009 at 11:30 am
My cousin’s friend’s 90 year old grandmother lost everything in the midwestern tornadoes two years ago. She emailed all her sewing friends and relatives, and asked them to contribute squares of a particular size, and then she pieced them together. I blogged about it on the Volunteer-Boston blog:
liz’s quilt
I’m sure she’d be happy to share more information about why she was inspired to do the project.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:07 pm
I organized a group of about 30 quilters from http://www.craftster.org to make three quilts for the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s, widow (Terri) and two children. It was wonderful to see so many people across the globe come together to make these memorial quilts for such an amazing family. The quilts were sent to the zoo where Steve and Terri worked in Australia and we received a thank you letter in return.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm
We have an annual multigenerational family quilt challenge that has happened every year for the last 10 years or so. It started as a three generation quilt challenge, but recently has opened up to the quilt guild/group at my grandmother’s snowbird retirement village in Arizona. The family meets there once a year to show off our challenge quilts, reunite from around the country, and decide on next year’s challenge. Last year we had over 15 entries. This year, it will be smaller because three of us third generationers are having babies right when the challenge is supposed to meet. It is amazing to see how we each interpret the challenge and just how different everyone’s quilts turn out. This annual event certainly keeps the family bond going as we all have scattered across the United States. From the three sisters in the First Generation and their friends, to my 16-year old step-daughter (Fourth Generation) who had never quilted before. My mom and her cousin meet for craft/sewing days a few times a year to work on the challenge quilts because one lives in Wyoming and one live in Washington State. If you would like more information, let me know. I have pictures of the last few years’ presentations.
October 25th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I belong to an “in person” quilting group that has met once a week for over 15 years. We originally met in the top of a red barn, with the surrounding area being lovely gardens, gazebo, and fabulous vegetable plot. Many birds and owls lived in the area, hence the tongue-in-cheek name “The Red Barn Hooters” for our group. There have been 12 of us quilting, the oldest in her 90’s and the youngest early 50’s. Our group is wonderful in every way.
October 26th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hello!
I belong to my community quilting bee: The Muir Beach Quilters. We have been together for over 37 years.
We make quilts for raffling to first build our community center and since to maintain and improve it.
We also run a Christmas fair and our proceeds have expanded to fund several carefully chosen charities.
We are a small coastal community north of San Francisco (250 people). If you log on to our fair web site ,
it will give you a good idea about us. I read whip-up daily .Thank-you for being here.
http://www.muirbeach.com/QuiltersFair/
October 26th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
thank you for all your lovely emails and comments – I have tried to email all of you for further information – however please email me with your stories whipup[at]gmail.com
thanks so much
Kathreen
October 26th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
I was recently involved in this project http://thequiltproject.blogspot.com organised and put together by Kirsty of http://kootoyoo.blogspot.com/ in Melbourne, Australia. It’s been really special to be involved in this friendship quilt.
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