A Mother's Hope--One Year of Joyful Giving!

  As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others--audrey hepburn

'A Mother's Hope' is one year old!  We have given over 100 quilts to mothers who are attending the Mother/Baby program at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services.   

This is comment that one of the mother's who received a quilt left on our blog.  I can only imagine that there are 100 other ladies who feel similar to this:
"I was in the hospital back then and I have one of the quilts. You are right about the surprise that came when we were told the quilts were not for our babies. As new moms, we were used to giving everything to our babies. I found it refreshing to keep something for myself. It was an important lesson in self-care. It also gave me permission, in a way, to take care of myself. I think not taking care of ourselves properly is what brought us there in the first place.
It is difficult to put into words what this blanket means to me. I am crying even as I type this. What slays me about my blanket is the hand stitching. The pieces are machine stitched, which takes a lot of time, but the front and the back and the batting are all stitched together by hand. This must have taken a very long time. I often think about the woman who made it and her loving hands doing the stitching. Did she do it in the evening after supper while watching t.v.? Or did she sit around a table and have tea with her seamstress friends at a weekly quilting bee? Did she bring it with her to appointments to work on it while waiting, making use of idle time? I imagine it was a combination of all three. The quilt must have taken a long time. To think that a stranger had enough love for me to cause her to invest all that time really just breaks my heart ( in a good way). Thank you. "

I could write 1000 posts about 'A Mother's Hope' and how much I appreciate our volunteers and the time, money and love they put into their quilts, but I think this comment means more.  I love the part where she is imagining who made it. If you want to get involved please e-mail Carin and she can send you the information you will need.
Here are pictures of the many WONDERFUL quilts that have been donated over the past 3 months!!
I think you will agree that each is unique and beautiful and will catch the eye of one of these moms!
Thank you to Sunny, Kathryn, Pam, Carol, Sherry, Brenda, Lea, Ellie, Jody, and Catherine for sharing HOPE in November and December.

Quilt Finishes 2013

Well, it has been a l-o-n-g and busy year for me personally so my quilt production was a little low but I am always happy to go back and see what my quilting year looked like.  These are all the quilts that I finished--as in quilted and bound and ready to go.  I have several tops that I finished this year that are waiting their turn but I guess they will make it into the 2014 group.

I had a few personal quilts that I finished but the majority of the quilts were for Margaret's Hope Chest and have already found their new home. 
I hope you have had a quilting year that you can look back on with a smile!

Finish It Up Friday--A Quilt for Clara

 
I have five children.  Three of those children have completed quilts.  Two of those children have quilts that are 'in process'. This week I finished piecing Clara's quilt. I have had this fabric for well over a year but I could not decide on a pattern for the quilt.  I needed blocks that were big enough to showcase the matryoshka doll fabric.  I finally settled on this kaleidoscope block and am quite pleased with the finished product. It will be quilted by a professional :) and then it will finally be placed on her bed. 

 I am linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday.

Finish It Up Friday--Two More Finishes!

 This week I finished up the bindings on two quilts.  The first is made from a panel of Alexander Henry's 'Once Upon a Time' fabric line.  I had been holding on to this fabric for a couple of years but decided it would make a perfect quilt for our prison ministry.  Like I said last week--we are going to work very hard in 2014 to build up our reserves so that we can participate in as many giveaways as possible. 

The second quilt I finished is my December contribution to 'A Mother's Hope'.  What I love about this quilt is that it was made from all donated material/blocks.  The bright colored blocks in the middle of the quilt were donated and I trimmed them so they would be the same size as the white blocks that I had already cut.  The border and backing fabrics were also donated!  Three cheers for donations!

 Hip hip Horray!!

 Hip Hip Horray!

 Hip Hip Horray!

Doesn't it make my afternoon reading spot look very inviting?  And YES, do find the book 'Chains' by Laurie Anderson and read it.  Excellent choice if you like young adult historical fiction.

I am linking up to Amanda Jean's 'Finish it up Friday'.

Have a wonderful weekend my friends!

HUGE Update Post

 I realize the title of the post is misleading---there is no one HUGE update to report--just a HUGE amount of smaller updates that might make this post a little lengthy.

#1 UPDATE:  As of late last week we have received a total of 678 log cabin blocks!!! Wow, I think we can make at least 11 quilts from those blocks.  Thank you to each who have contributed in small and large ways.  Each block was a step toward the final goal which is to bring HOPE to struggling new moms. 

#2 UPDATE: We have received several beautiful quilts for the Mother's Program from those who signed up for the monthly collection.  I forgot to ask my dad to take pictures of some of the quilts given in the early part of October (sorry) but this group of quilts pictured below will be the next group to be given.

Aren't they great?  Everyone did a fantastic job!  Thank you to our October quilt-makers;                  
1.  Carin                               
2.  Mindy                              
3.  Pam                                 
4.  Diann                              
5. wkelli88                            
6. Anita                                 
7. Amy                                  
8. Sherry  

#3 UPDATE: It has been far too long since we have shared a giving update.  I have loved looking back over what has been a very busy year for our family and seeing that God has continued the work of Margaret's Hope Chest in many different ways.  

33 to local agencies who have needs for baby quilts.

8 quilts to those mourning a loss - Rick, Dominique, James, Willow, Erandi, Pastor Arlan, Ana & parents,

178 quilts to children with a parent in prison - either for their birthday or for the program at the prison with their parent.

19 to those people getting treatment for their illness, usually chemo for cancer - Liz, Micah, Christine, Carleen,

    Rhonda, Karen, Cynthia, Anne, Roxanne, Bob, Scott, Marie, Helen, Dave, Ellen, Jodie, Brian, Marla, George

36 to organizations in the Grand Rapids area that serve those needing financial help

108 to the Mother post partum support program at Pine Rest

7 miscellaneous

25 boy quilts to Honduras

32 to orphans in Haiti

23 to Village of Hope in Guatemala

20 to Rays of Hope going to Haiti

2 for fund raising purposes

#4 UPDATE:  Looking forward to 2014--we need to replenish our supply of kid's quilts for the prison giveaways.  So we will be having a couple of quilt and block collections in January, February and March.  I hope that you will be able to save a few hours in the new year for Margaret's Hope Chest.

#5 UPDATE: Our total number of quilts we have given is 1882!!!  Almost 2000!!!

                        

If You Give a Quilter Three Thousand Two Inch Blocks......

If you give a quilter three thousand two inch squares in various shades of blue and green......

she will first make this quilt:

She will name it Bermuda Blues and she will love it and eventually she will give it to a woman she has met on the island who has many health concerns.
Then she will look at that box of 2,280 blue and green squares again and create this quilt:

She will name this quilt 'Bermuda Triangles' and she will love it and eventually she will give it to a woman on the island who was undergoing cancer treatments.
Some time will pass and the quilter will get distracted by other fabric and projects. But one day she will stumble upon that box of 1,280 two inch squares again.  She will take them out and create this quilt top:

Inspired to use the remaining 890 squares up and be done with blue and green two inch squares for a VERY LONG TIME she created this quilt top:

 And then she will rest because the box of two inch squares is almost empty.  You can't make a quilt with 314 two in squares, or can you????

I am linking up to Amanda Jean's Finish it Up Friday!!  Have a great week!  I will be back next week some more great quilting news!