Charity Project Update

Wow!

We are so excited about the amount of interest we received for our new charity quilting program!

Thank you for all who donated orphan blocks, scraps, batting and yardage at Saturday’s meeting. All of it is greatly appreciated and will be used to, hopefully, brighten the day of someone in need. We will have a bin at the monthly meetings for on-going collection.

We are planning to have the first quilt(s) go to Lucile Packard Neonatal unit.

When Deborah and I had our 1^st brain-storming session, she mentioned that a postage stamp quilt might be a good idea. Our first block inspiration came from none other than Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. I thought it would be nice to have each block stand out and remembered the quilt-a-long that Amanda Jean hosted this summer. She has, kindly, given us permission to post her images. You can find more information in her post about the quilt-a-long.

Here is her beautiful finished quilt:

Photo Credit: Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts

For our purposes, we knew we wanted to start with preemie baby blankets about 30ish” square so we needed smaller blocks. It also needed to have one element to tie the various squares together to make a cohesive quilt (the white fabric) since the blocks would be made scrappy.

Amanda Jean's quilt is made from 36 “36-patch” squares. Ours will be made with 16 “16-patch” squares! Thus our 8” 4x4 sample block was created:



Here are the specifics for your blocks:
-monochromatic block, any color of your choosing
-8.5" unfinished
-alternating 2.5" white squares and 2.5" scrappy squares (in your chosen color palette)
-bring blocks to the next meeting

Like Amanda Jean's each finished block will be a different color (mixed with white) to make a bright and cheerful quilt. Many of the pre-cut postage stamp block kits were taken home from the meeting. We can't wait to see them come back at the January meeting!! Feel free to use your own fabric if you feel so inspired. I know there has been some confusion so I hope this helps explain a little better.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them here or on Ning.

We were also thinking of making some quilts for Project Night Night as well and a few of you had suggestions about where or to whom to donate quilts. Keep those suggestions coming! We want to make this a meaningful experience for all, so any personal causes are greatly appreciated.

We would appreciate any feedback on the organization of the current projects.

• Do you like the kits?
  
• Do you want simple, complicated, or free form blocks?
  
• Should we do one block a month, every other month, or every quarter?
  
• Have several options running at once?
  

Any feedback would help us focus our efforts to make this a successful and meaningful experience for all.

We're off to a great start to 2012! Thank you!

~Jennifer and Deborah, your Charity Coordinators