New Quilt Kits

 

 

I have selected the next two quilt kits that we will be assembling for volunteers to piece. The first one is called "Block in a Box", and the second is called X's and O's. We hope to cut 10 patterns of each quilt. Think of all of the fabric we will use up....
I am also toying with the idea of the first annual "Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Retreat". I was inspired by an article in my Better Homes and Garden quilting magazine. I am thinking August....two days....one night.....I am still thinking. Let me know if you are interested.

A Unique and Useful Gift

Maybe you struggle with finding the perfect gift for the person who has everything. here is an ingenius birthday/end of the year gift my Aunt Marcia received a few weeks ago. This is an excerpt from an e-mail she sent me:
"This week was our last in kindergarten--what a wonderful class I have been blessed with...
As a surprise the room moms arranged for the children to bring "gifts" on the day we were having a Kindergarten Kafe--it was to be a birthday celebration (my birthday is in August)...:
65 pieces of fabric (and they told me of their selection)
20 spools of thread
6 pkg of needles
3 scissors (1 is a pinking shears)
1 tape measure
2 marking pencils
I cannot think of another birthday celebration that I have enjoyed!!!

Love
Aunt Marcia"

Her class is aware of Margaret's Hope Chest and all of the supplies she received
will be used to make more quilts! I haven't seen the fabric yet but my mom tells me it is cute, cute, cute. Thanks so much for this creative donation!

One or Two??

Should these make one quilt or two seperate quilts? Initially, I thought the first quilt would be the pieced backing for the square quilt (or vice-versa). But now that I look at them, I wonder if they should be two seperate quilts. What do you think? Anyway, I had fun creating these using a Moda jelly roll. If you don't know what that is just google it. Fun and easy to use. Not a whole lot more going on as I am spending most of my time preparing for a move back to the Grand Rapids area for the summer. By late June we should be in full swing-finishing off the 20+ quilt tops we have created and finding more creative uses for the loads of donated fabric. Can't wait!

New Quilt Tops

Hey Everyone! My mom and I have been busy quilting over the past two weeks! We have finished 11 quilt tops for MHC! The slide show to your right shows them all. It's amazing how much you can get done tandem quilting. She was the pinner and ironer and I was the sewer. This summer we have to get serious finishing all of these tops. If any blog readers want to finish any of these tops just let me know. They can be tied or quilted (by hand or sewing machine).
In the last few weeks we gave one quilt to the Morren family who all (mom, dad, and four boys) survived a devastating house fire. They received a quilt that had angels quilted in the corners because surely, there must have been angels protecting their family that day.

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.