Community Quilts from Ray

Ray spent much of February and March scrambling to get quilts finished for the Airing of Quilts which is a fundraiser for his church’s outreach program to help those in need.  So many great things are done with the money that is raised.

Ray writes:
“I finished another quilt to include in the Airing of the Quilts.

The top is a panel that was included in some donated fabric, not sure who it came from, unfortunately. The selvedge says “GUARANTEED DUTCH JAVA PRINT”. A Google search leads me to believe it is a South Africa batik.

The fabric is as pretty on the back as it is on the front which would also make me believe it is a batik of some nature.

Regardless, it is… a beautiful quilt. I used the heart motif to go with the gorgeous hearts in the fabric. I used a tan-colored thread that blended well with the background color. I used a solid black for the backing and binding to frame the front. Love it!! My thanks to you and the panel donor for such a unique, gorgeous quilt.

I just finished adding the binding to this tropical themed sampler quilt from Arline H. in FL.

Arline makes such beautiful quilts with lots of bright, bold colors. This one is for all you folks up north where it is still bitter cold. Lots of warm wishes in this quilt. I decided that all those tropical flowers and plants needed some butterflies.

I used a white thread so that the quilting would not take away from the quilt and so that the butterflies would pop on the bright green backing.


Arline included the backing and binding with the top.

My thanks to Jo and Arline for all they do for community quilting. Keep your eye out for this one on the Airing clothesline.

I finished another beautiful quilt that was made by Arline H. in FL.

Arline makes beautiful quilt tops and stretches my abilities from time to time as she did with this one. All of the cornerstones are 3D pinwheels.


We, edge to edge longarmers, live for flat quilt tops. I was stumped until I decided I could and would come up with a solution. I broke the quilt down into rows and decided I would do a straight line stitch between cornerstones on the horizontal sashing. Then I would do a stipple stitch in the rows between the horizontal sashing. I could have and should have taken it a few steps farther but did not. The top deserved a motif in all of the sashings and a motif in each block. Yes, I am still learning.

Arline included the backing and binding with the top.


My thanks to you and Arline for all you do to support the cause. It is going to look awesome hanging from the clothesline in a couple of weeks at the Airing.”

Awesome showing of quilts Ray.  They all looked great.  I can’t wait to see the pictures from the Airing of the Quilts.  It’s going to look amazing!!  Many thanks to every one donated and made these quilts happen.

3 thoughts on “Community Quilts from Ray”

  1. marie duncan, Vincze

    Jo, do you know of any women that are crocheting or knitting baby caps and blankets for premies? An 80 year old friend passed and left me all this yarn. So far I have 8 plastics packed to the top (I balled a lot of it) and would like to find a woman or two to mail some to that will use for the babies. The Ark. pen pal died last year soon after I had mailed her 2 boxs of other inherited yarn. She did get several items made and donated. Thanks for any help you might be able to give me in this matter. Marie D.

    1. I have this person.
      Mary Trenkamp runs a charity knitting group at her retirement community in Dubuque, Iowa, and is accepting of all acrylic yarn donations. Baby yarn is ok because it can be held double, but worsted weight is her favorite. No wool please.

      Mary Trenkamp
      Eagle Pointe Place
      2700 Matthew John Dr
      Dubuque, IA 52002

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