Community Quilts: A Little Bit of Everything

I’ve been trying to keep up with my email.  It can be a bit challenging.  I currently have a goal of removing 50 emails from my inbox every day until I’m caught up.  I doubt I’ll stick with it.  I’ve tried before and I get about a week and then quit.  But hey, I’ll take 350 emails removed.  That would be awesome progress.  I do have to say since I’ve been off work, I’ve been a little bit better at keeping up with email…even when I wasn’t feeling the best as that was one thing I could sit and do.

I have a conglomeration of emails to share with you today.

Karin writes:
“Jo, look what came to my place today!  A big box with a sweet note, 20 bucks for thread, and FOUR (!) perfectly pieced tops, backings, and bindings!! Terri said she’s had them in her closet for a long time and she has lost interest in finishing them.  I have a project like that of my own, so, I get it.  There is 1 crib size, 2 laps, and a twin flimsy.  All with backings already pieced and ready to quilt! 

I will add the batting you provided and see what my hands do.  I think I will take the completed quilts to the local shelter for battered women and children instead of the fire station this time. I can’t wait to get them on (and off!) the frame!

Thank you, Jo, your readers, and Terri, for making this all possible. It takes a village, and I’m proud and honored to be living in this one!!”

Now I have emails from Ray to share with you…

Ray writes:
“Before I get to the quilt, I need to give you some background. As you know I donate a lot of quilts to my church for them to distribute in the community as needed. Linda D. is a member of the church and does not sew BUT she does manage a small thrift shop. It is really small. From time to time she has people drop off sewing and quilting supplies and fabric.

Since she knows me and adores the community quilts that we make, she tells the donor that the shop is too small BUT she has a contact that accepts such items and makes community quilts. Most of the time the donors are happy to know it is going to a good cause.

She either contacts me or brings it to church and it goes from her car to my car. I have gotten a lot of really nice things from her. In the last batch of goodies were the raw blocks for this quilt. The strip blocks were sewn together with varying lengths of strips and the shamrock blocks were not as precisely cut as I like. When I saw them, I thought what will I ever do with them? I set them back in the stack of UFOs.

A couple of days later a neighbor of mine contacted me. Her golf group is having a Mardi Gras party as a fundraiser for a food bank and was wondering if I had anything that was Mardi Gras-themed. I told her it was all in how you interpret Mardi Gras. I did have some really wild, bold fabric, pulled the pieces out, and showed her. She loved it.

I immediately pieced the top and then looked through the stash for the backing and found the green backing with black print.

I decided that I wanted black binding which led me to black thread and the circle meander pattern. And there you have it!!

Cheryl P sent me several quilt tops and I just put the finishing touches on this beautiful quilt.

I really do not know what the name of the pattern is but I really do like it a lot as well as the wide variety of fabrics that went into it. Beautiful quilt.

I went with the stipple motif to soften the lines in the quilt a bit and used the bone colored thread to get the quilting to blend in. The backing came from Colleen M in MN and worked so well with the pink sashing. My thanks to you, Cheryl, and Colleen for the contributions to this very special community quilt.”

What a bunch of great news coming from my inbox.  I love getting mail in for the community quilters.  It’s always a gentle reminder that there is good in the world.