A Charity Quilt - From Idea to Delivery

Four years ago, Chris from the Fort Walton Beach office of the Emerald Coast Hospice contacted our guild with a plea for help. The annual Celebration of Life Ceremony was coming up and the previous organization/sewist(s) were not able to complete a quilt for the event. The presentation of a quilt with the names of the individuals hospice served the previous year is one of the highlights of the ceremony.
Say no more. The sewists at ECMQG took charge and have been creating colorful memorial quilts for the ceremony ever since. Here's the story of the 2018 Memorial Quilt for Emerald Coast Hospice from idea to delivery.

It started with a very large stack of solid charms that were left over from a hospice project from a previous year.

An online search of charm pack friendly quilts led us to this beauty and the group came up with an idea.

The block size and construction information was shared and members took home charms and white fabric to sew blocks together.

 Our ECMQG December 2018 Sit and Sew gave many the opportunity to work on blocks for the quilt. Most members stayed and sewed blocks together!

Laraine completed the top half of the quilt from the blocks that were sewn at the December meeting. Loree and Natalie worked to complete blocks and finish the bottom half.

The finished top!

Natalie in collaboration with Chris, formatted all the names and printed them on fabric iron on sheets. With some trepidation, Laraine started the tedious process of applying the sheets to the quilt with a hot iron, wooden cutting board, and timer. Natalie and Loree finished the process.

The finished top with all of the names added!

Time for a quilting plan and Natalie went to work on the longarm.

Lots of ruler work went into this one!

The quilting is complete and the top is ready for the next step.

Faye volunteered to add the binding and a hanging sleeve. The entire project lasted 5 months from conception until delivery.

The happy recipients, some of the hard working, compassionate team members from Emerald Coast Hospice.

The quilt will be officially presented at the Celebration of Life Ceremony on May 11.

Quilts from previous years hang at the office building of the Fort Walton Beach branch of Emerald Coast Hospice located on Beal Parkway. The public is welcome to stop by and view all the beautiful quilts on display.

Charity and Community Outreach

More than a year ago when we were discussing and drafting the first version of our bylaws, we decided it was important to include the following as one of our principal purposes for what we wanted to be:

"...and provide opportunity for “charity” or other works that provide back to the communities where we live and work, through the use of modern quilting skills".

After a some fits and starts, 2015 brings renewed interest and enthusiasm for giving back; for community outreach.

  
I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love when I see the quilts, or quilt blocks, or fabric that you've donated for someone else's benefit. 

Someone whom, more often than not, is a stranger.  

Someone whom, more often than not, will never be able to thank us personally.

Someone whom, whether they know it or not, at the time it is gifted, needs a token of love, thoughtfulness, compassion, and care. 

 All of the things a quilt represents.

We've selected several organizations to receive quilts, and by no means is this list intended to be the final word.  

No.  Our intent is simply to give you guidelines for sizes and types of quilts that might fit what you have in your stash or what your heart guides you to create.  

Whenever you hear of a need, let us know during one of our meetings or through a message or phone call.

Please remember when making an outreach quilt, sew with care, but don't worry about whether you're doing it right.

Sew with love.  Sew with intention.  Your perceived imperfections, will not be noticed.  I promise.  

This is not about quilt-show-quality quilts, but your quilt does need to be well-made, be from a smoke-free environment, and be free from pet hair and odors.

  
It is also a good idea to launder your finished quilt(s) with fragrance-free and dye-free detergents. 

Our 2015 outreach goal is 25 quilts.  All sizes.  All charities.  Individually created quilts.  Group quilts.  Sewing-with-a-friend quilts.  Orphan block quilts.  It all works.    

Families First Network - Primarily quilts for children.  They should be bright and happy.  Any size from baby to twin. 

Project Linus - Quilts for children.  They should be bright and happy.  Any size from baby to twin. 

Navy and Marine Corps Relief Society - Quilts for a newborn.  A good size would be approximately 36" x 36".

Favor House of Northwest Florida - Various sizes, but no bigger than twin-sized. 

Quilts of Valor - Minimum size is 55" x 65"; maximum size is 72" x 90".

Thank you so much for your time, talent, skills, fabric, generosity, and dedication.   

Cindy Marvel
ECMQG 2015 Vice-President and ECMQG 2015 Charity Captain

May - That's a Wrap

Despite a little confusion and a quick change of venue for our May 10th meeting  and sew-day, ECMQG had a full house.

Kelly's last minute discovery of a key that wouldn't open any doors at our usual location, Crestview Baptist Church, sent us down the road to her church, Grace Redeemer.  A big thank you for the use of the space!    

Business matters, including a reminder from our President, Marcy Gallagher, about our latest charity project, were discussed.  

Fisher House of the Emerald Coast, Inc. will be the recipient of our quilt for their upcoming silent auction, which takes place Friday, September 19, 2014. 

You can learn more about our local Fisher House here.  

We are using the beautiful sea colored and uber-modern Sphere collection from designer Brigette Heitland for Moda as it compliments so well, our aesthetic, and the colors of the Gulf Coast. 

All of the May birthday girls celebrated in style by choosing their fabric lollipop, which I think is certainly one of the best kinds!  Totally beautiful and non-fattening, right?

ECMQG had a terrific group of gals representing us at Stash Bash just outside of Atlanta the last weekend in April.  Kira, Wendi, KaSandra, Marcy, and Kim had a mini-reunion with Leslie who drove up from Jacksonville.

From the pictures posted to Instagram, and from the highlights recounted by Kira, KaSandra, Kim, and Wendi, ECMQG is overdue in hosting a sewing retreat.  Hmmm...  Sounds like we need some volunteers. 

Sadly, we have no pictures of Kelly's demonstration and short program on QAYG.  

Finally, May was our Make a Bag, Make a Friend swap of which these colorful little Friendship Bags stuffed with goodies - notions, fabric, chocolate! - were given and received.     

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are the quilts and projects from Show and Tell.

KaSandra's Relay for Life t-shirt quilt (above) and a snippet of Diane's latest improv creation (below).

One of our newest members and our first Junior Member, presented several of his original quilting creations.

ECMQG has some fantastically talented ladies - and gents - who practice many styles of quilting and needle arts, as is plainly evidenced in the following photos.

This is but a small bit of the creative talents within our guild.  I would love to be able to share more details, so please, leave a comment or send us an Email and we'll give credit where credit is due.

A sailboat and water quilt Carol is working on.  The genesis for this began with Diane's improv curved piecing demonstration.

Cricket showed her completed intertwined quilt.  This is an original design we saw come together over several sew-days.  

Kira, with a couple of her quilts.  The one above belongs to her son.  The one below is from her Fresh Flowers QAL.

If you belong to our Facebook group, then you saw the progress on this "quilted" stitchery project.  It was designed and quilted by Kathy, who has the online shop Needle Delights. 

This quilt was whipped up after Diane's presentation and workshop on improv curved piecing.  

The next two photos are of a quilt gift to a special friend.  Gina made this for Karol and presented it to her upon her retirement from the USAF.  

Consider this your PSA and friendly reminder to ALWAYS LABEL YOUR QUILTS.

Part of the fun of swapping is learning new skills.  This is a little dumpling pouch from Michelle Patterns Cindy made as practice for an Instagram swap.  

Stash Bash afforded Wendi quality time to finish several longstanding WiPs.  We saw this bee block quilt top first.  

The second was Piece of Cake III by Camille Roskelly from her Craftsy class Playful Piecing.

A nearly completed Shiny Brite quilt top designed by Wendi's daughter, Amanda was the third quilt top.  Amanda is also the owner of Westwood Acres, one of our favorite independent online modern fabric shops.

The fourth beauty Wendi shared was this Single Girl quilt top (pattern by Denyse Schmidt).  

Elaine shared this medallion quilt top.

And here is another version, same pattern, but different fabrics, shared by (please let me know).  Both are equally beautiful, but so different!

That was May.  So glad you joined us or stopped by.

Cindy Marvel, ECMQG Secretary and Wendi Mihalik, ECMQG Treasurer