Happy One Year Anniversary!

Margaret's Hope Chest is officially one year old today. We launched ourselves on April 30, 2007, the two year anniversary of my grandmother's death. I have had many hopes and dreams for MHC over the past year and some have come true while others haven't. It was my goal to give away 50 quilts in our first year. We actually gave away 19. It turns out it is a much harder process to take groups of quilts from start to finish. It also turns out that it is hard to gather a faithful group of volunteers. Despite not reaching our goal we remain positive and sure that this is what God would have us to do. We know that the families that we have given quilts to were in real need of hope. We were honored to share that with them.
Here is a list of who the first 19 quilts were given to.

-Mother of one of the two girls charged with my grandma's murder
-baby in NICU
-baby in NICU
-baby born with Spina Bifida
-a woman dying of cancer
-a man living in a nursing home with Cerebral Palsy
-5 families coming out our abusive relationships
-a woman living in an abusive relationship
-a group home for troubled girls
-a woman living the waiting area of a hospital while her husband was dying
-a family who's father/husband died very unexpectantly
-Children at Risk program (x2)
-the wife of a farmer killed in farming accident
-the grandfather of the farmer killed in farming accident

What I like best about the list when I read it over is that there is so much diversity. We aren't just serving one "type" of hopeless person, we are open to giving to anyone who has a need.
I hope you will continue to pray for MHC. Specifically, we would like to see the formation of a core group of quilting volunteers (not just me and my mom!!). I know I say this alot but if you know of someone who might like to help us please let me know. Also, if you hear of someone who needs a bit of hope drop me an e-mail.
Thanks again for your support and prayers over the past year. God is good-all the time.

The Show Quilt Finished-I Think

 

So here is the quilt that I have been working on for the Grand Rapids Quilt Show in October. What do you think? I could still add another wide border to make it bigger...I like how it turned out. It looks sort-of grandma-ish to me and that is exactly the look I was going for. Now I will enter it into the show and figure out how to quilt it and finish it off.

Still Here

 

Hello everyone! I am still here-and I am still quilting. I was working on a personal project for a few weeks but I have been concentrating on the quilt pictured above. In October there is a quilt show in Grand Rapids and so I am feverishly trying to put together a quilt for Margarets Hope Chest using all donated material. I hope to be able to showcase MHC a bit to 1000's of area quilters. So, I am spending a little more time on this quilt than I do on some of the others. The deadline for entry is July but I don't like to wait until the last minute. I will post a picture when it is finished which will hopefully be in the next week!

I little update on our activity here. We gave 2 quilts last week to the victim witness unit for their program called Children at Risk. These quilts along with many others (from other people) will go to children who have been identified as "at risk" for many potentially harmful behaviors. We pray that these children will get the help and hope they need to stay out of trouble. I have a referral for a family who lost their dad in a farming accident-still waiting for an address. A reminder that we are always looking for referrals. Just e-mail me!

At the end of this month, Margaret's Hope Chest will officially be 1 year young! I will post on that special day and recap our first year of sharing hope with our community.