And The Winner is of This Quilt is.....

the sister-in-law of Jessica- "My husband's sister... They lost their dad just four months ago, which tore her up emotionally... then she found out she may lose her scholarship and have to drop out of college, now, just a week or two ago she found out she is pregnant, and her boyfriend is facing jail time for drug charges. She is very scared and worried right now, and I think a beautiful quilt would be like a wonderful hug from her dad..."

Thanks Jessica for nominating her-can you email me so I can get an address to send the quilt to??

Thanks to everyone else who nominated a deserving woman!

Nydia's Birthday Quilt

Nydia
Originally uploaded by jbsmama

Isn't this quilt beautiful? Nydia loves ballet and Lisa did a wonderful job making this quilt in a very short amount of time! Can't wait for her to get it--her birthday is Feb. 9! You can see more of this quilt on our Flickr site.

Some Business

A few items of business for the Wrapped In Hope Program participants....

1. There is now a Flickr Group where all quilt makers can go and post pictures of the quilts they have made for their birthday boy or girl.

2. I have a new group of 12 quilters who have signed up to make a quilt. I am just organizing my information and then I will be e-mailing those ladies with the available birthdays.

3. Very soon, we will have an influx of children from VERMONT! I have found a great pastor and his wife who are working with a woman's prison. We will start by offering this program to about 40 women and see how everything goes. If you have contact with someone who works with prisoners and might want to work with us--please email me.

4. I am getting some great feedback from the families of prisoners--they are all very grateful for this gift--hope to share some words of thanks from them soon!

Nick and His Quilt

Nick-who was the recipient of our first Quilt of Hope-was kind enough to send us a picture of himself with his quilt--mom says he loves it!


Nominations are still open for our second Quilt of Hope--follow the link and leave a comment or e-mail Carin--margaretshopechest at yahoo dot com.

First WRAPPED IN HOPE Quilt Finished!

DSC_0185
Originally uploaded by adamvogelzang

***UPDATE***We have 10 new volunteers! Thanks to those who have answered the call! I'll be ready for more help very soon-so the rest of you aren't off the hook :)

I just finished this quilt today for an 11 year old girl in Missouri who loves horses and the color pink! Her birthday is February 2nd-I think it will make it just in time. I had so much fun putting it together!
I still am looking for 7 more quilters to reach the goal by tomorrow evening! Read here and here if you have no idea what I am talking about :)!

Good News, Bad News

The Good News is......the initial group of 10 kids for our WRAPPED IN HOPE program have all been paired with a volunteer quilter!!! It has been a great week for me personally as I watch the mothers and fathers happily accept help and HOPE from us and I am meeting some very enthusiastic quilters who are excitedly choosing a child from the list and then planning a very special quilt for them--I mean really, does it get any better than this???

The Bad News...(which is really good news) is that I have run out of volunteer quilters--and I have a growing list of children once again. In the next 48 hours I would love to see 10 more quilters join the ranks! Don't worry if you don't have time right now--because the best part of this program is that you can choose a child with a birthday in August or September and you are off the hook for a few more months!!! Please leave a comment if you can be one of the 10!!

Our Next Quilt of HOPE

Our next Quilt of HOPE is up for nominations! Do you know a WOMAN in your neighborhood, church, or family that could benefit from the warmth and comfort of this beautiful quilt?
This quilt measures 58" X 74". It was donated to us during our HOPE SQUARED program and we thought it was so special that we set it aside for this program.
So, just like last time, if you know someone please leave a comment with a first name and a brief description of the situation. You can also e-mail your nomination to Carin margaretshopechest@yahoo.com . I will pick a winner on FEBRUARY 1st-and as always SPREAD THE HOPE!
A FEW REMINDERS:
* Please only recommend a woman that you have an address for (or could get an address for)
*The quilt will be directly sent to the woman.
*More than one recommendation per person is great-just leave a separate comment for each woman.

 
 
 
 

A Winner of the First Quilt of HOPE!

Congratulations to Nick-our first Quilt of HOPE winner! Wouldn't you know that this quilt was meant to belong to Nick--read what his mother wrote: "I would like to nominate my 11-year old son, Nick. 4 years ago he was diagnosed with a very rare form of epilepsy. This past fall we found out that there was some brain damage due to the prolonged seizures. I am so proud of him, he is in the 4th grade and does receive some special services but has come so far. His FAVORITE homework to do is his geography homework. He was so proud because he passed his 1st Social Studies test this fall with flying colors, he had to memorize all the state symbols for Wisconsin. When I saw this quilt, I immediately thought of him."
He should have lots of fun studying the map of the United States on the back!


Well, that leaves us with 9 little boys who didn't win the quilt. That stinks doesn't it? We are FRESH OUT of boy quilts here at MHC--if we had any left over from our HOPE SQUARED project I would send one to each of the nominations.....How about this--I am going to list the boys that were nominated below because who knows maybe someone out there has an extra boy quilt lying around or would like to make one for one of these little guys. If that is the case, e-mail me margaretshopechest@yahoo.com and I will send you the mailing info.

1. "my 6 year old nephew just had emergency brain surgery on saturday, he got the ventalator off last night, but this morning seems to be depressed. That quilt sure seems like it would cheer him up!"
2. "Ares, he's 5, and he's my grandson's half brother. His parents are the type that appear on Super Nanny, not good, at all. He and his two brothers and one sister, are well fed and clothed, but that's about it. When Ares is visiting with my grandson, he's entranced by my sewing and quilting."
3. "I have a 9 year old friend, Colton, that I would like to nominate. Last summer, he fell, and hurt himself. He wasn't healing right, and after further tests, determined that he had leukemia. He's been going through chemo and tests, and more chemo since then, and tomorrow is going to have a bone marrow transplant. It's been a long journey for Colton and his family. His mom posts on Caringbridge every night, and Colton always has a prayer at the end of her post. His bone marrow donor is in Europe, and the bone marrow is coming in tomorrow evening. He has a 30 day stay at Children's Hospital in Seattle."
4. "Jonathan, Ruth, & Timmy-siblings whose house burned down in Maryland in early December. They are living with their parents in a neighbor's basement."
5. "My two year old grandson has an inoperable spinal cord/brain tumor. He was diagnosed in August. Presently, Logan is undergoing chemotherapy, as he is too young for radiation therapy. This will be a 15-18 month course of treatment at which time he will be old enough to be considered for some radiation trials. He is a happy, fun loving, little boy."
6. "I would like to nominate my step son for this. He has a disease called Battens Disease. It is always fatal and so far, the tests haven't been conclusive as to if he has late infantile or juvenile. The age rages for both are different but his doctor says between 10-15 years of age. He's currently 8 years old and this would be perfect for him."
7. Matthew who got a new kidney last week.
8. Matthew-a two year old who has a seizure disorder.
9. 3 year old Josh who as cancer.

I'm not trying to pressure anyone into this I just wanted to put it out there and see if there is any interest.

A New Year, A New Project

wrappedinhopeblogbutton
Originally uploaded by adamvogelzang

For me, a new year brings with it New Direction, New Goals, New Hope.
Never has that been more true here at Margaret's Hope Chest than now.
We have a unique opportunity this year to serve a population that I believe is UNDERSERVED here in the United States--children of prisoners. The statistics are staggering....RIGHT NOW there are 1.7 million U.S. children with a parent in prison. Here is a link to more sobering stats.
Many of you are aware of The Angel Tree ministry. These people understand that having a parent (or two) in prison puts a terrible amount of stress on the family unit-financially, mentally, and physically.
MHC started wondering about birthdays....is anyone out there making sure that these children are getting a birthday present from their incarcerated parent. We started thinking of all of the wonderful volunteer quilters who came out of the woodwork this fall and helped us collect over 400 beautiful unique quilts. We started wondering if those quilters would help us again and if new volunteers might be found.
Turns out that the answer to my first wondering is.....sort-of. There are very few groups (that I could find) out there who are helping these families with birthday gifts.
So, as we suspected, there is a great need. And how did we respond? By creating WRAPPED IN HOPE-a birthday quilt-giving program for children of incarcerated people.
RIGHT NOW-we are looking for volunteer quilters who will choose one child and make a unique quilt (based on information provided by the parent) for his/her birthday.
Will you help us? Right now, I have list of 15 precious children from Texas, Virginia, California and Michigan who could benefit from being Wrapped in Hope. Leave a comment or e-mail Carin if you are ready to join!

Some Real Perty Things

Have I told you that I have taken the ENTIRE month of January off from the actual act of quilting? I am allowing myself to do "quilty" things-like organize my fabric, plan future projects and read quilt blogs....but I am not allowed to open my sewing machine. So far, so good. Good thing there are so many perty things out there to distract my attention...





like these snowflakes that my daughter Anne and I have been making after all of the other kids are being tucked in and prayed with upstairs. It's a two step process--first make your papers (or buy them I suppose but that wouldn't be near as cool :)) by painting entire sheets of whilte paper with paint--using different brush strokes gives them that Eric Carle look. Then you cut out different shapes and play around with them until you find a pleasing combination. Try it-preferably with a child of your choice!



-----------------------------------------------

And how about this super cute notebook I found at Michael's yesterday for $1---I am a collector of all things HOPE so it had to come home with me!

Don't Forget!

Don't forget to nominate a deserving little boy to receive a quilt~ Click here and leave a comment!

Let's Get Organized!

We have been overwhelmed (in a good way) with fabric donations over the past two months and "fabric central" aka my mom's basement was not looking good. Ouch.
Enter my beautiful sister Amy and like magic-we have a new organized fabric collection again!
Now, we can actually locate the fabric we are looking for without getting lost in a shin-high pile of pinks, purples, and plaids!
Plus, my dad is a much happier Margaret's Hope Chest supporter!
Thanks Amy!

QUILT OF HOPE CONTEST!

In 2010 we are starting something new here at MHC. Every two weeks we will feature one amazing quilt that we will give away on this blog. Any blog reader who knows of someone who might benefit from the quilt of HOPE shown should leave a comment or e-mail Carin with a brief description of the person you thinking of and their situation. Their name will be entered into a drawing and at the end of the two week period I will randomly pick a "winner". And so, without further ado, our first quilt
of HOPE!

Front of quilt:
 

Back of quilt
 

The quilt measures 48" by 48".
For this quilt we are taking suggestions for a BOY who could use a quilt of HOPE. Is there a boy in your community, school or church who is going through hard time right now? If so, leave a comment (or e-mail me at margaretshopechest@yahoo.com) with YOUR contact information, his first name and a brief description of why he could benefit from this gift. Then come back on JANUARY 18 and see if he "won"!

A FEW REMINDERS:
* Please only recommend a boy that you have an address for (or could get an address for)
*The quilt will be directly sent to the child.
*More than one recommendation per person is great-just leave a separate comment for each child.

**FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS OR SHARE IT ON YOUR BLOG--TOGETHER WE CAN SPREAD HOPE-ONE QUILT AT A TIME!**

Happy New Year!

 
A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Margaret's Hope Chest friends-both old and new from my family! (that's my husband Adam and my four kids...and me of course!)