Barns get painted quilts

BY PAUL MCKIBBEN | COMMUNITY RECORDER STAFF WRITER

BURLINGTON - Boone County could some day have at least two dozen barns each with a painted quilt for passers-by to view.

The Florence Women's Club is leading this public art project which is in several other counties in the nation.

Joyce Foley, the club's immediate past president, said the goal is to have quilts done all over the county during the next two years.

"We want to provide public art. We want to preserve our heritage in some small way, in this case quilting," she said. "And we want to pull people off the highway and have them drive all over Boone County finding these quilt blocks so that they can see what wonderful things we have in Boone County."

The first painted quilt in Boone County as part of the project was placed on a Hathaway Road barn near Union. Other quilts are planned in places such as Belleview, Petersburg Road and the Dinsmore barn on Burlington Pike.

A quilt was placed on an East Bend Road barn in Burlington on April 20. Bob Maurer owns that barn that already had two smiley faces on it before the quilt was added.

"I just thought it'd be neat to have one on it," said Maurer who raises hay and sheep.

The club is trying to raise money in the community to fund the project. To help or to participate, contact Foley at 525-2451.

pmckibben@communitypress.com
578-1057

Quilt raffle to benefit ailing children

By ANN NICCUM, aniccum@edwpub.net

The Madison County Association for Home and Community Education (MCAHCE) kicked off a fund-raiser on Monday to help children with cancer.

The group is raffling off a quilt that is hand embroidered and hand quilted.

Special Activities Director Pat Harmon said the quilt was made locally.

"Bea Tebbe, of Highland, did all the quilting," she said.

The raffle tickets are now on sale. The cost is $1 for one and $5 for six.

Tickets will be sold until the raffle drawing in November and the winner will be notified at that time.

Until then, Harmon said the quilt will remain in storage.

She said there are pictures of the quilt available for view.

The money collected from the raffle will go to Happiness is Serving Kids in Distress Situations, Inc. (H.I.S.K.I.D.S).

The group located in Highland gives support to children with cancer.

H.I.S.K.I.D.S. will use the money to help pay for the cost of camp for children afflicted with cancer and their siblings.

"It is a week long stay at Camp Wartburg near Waterloo," Harmon said.

Matching funds for the camp will also be provided by Thrivent Financial.

MCAHCE is a non-profit organization that was chartered in 1936.

It is a branch of Illinois Association of Home and Community Education (IAHCE).

After 70 years, MCAHCE includes 16 clubs in Madison County.

MCAHCE's mission is "to encourage a healthy, stable home environment, fulfillment through community involvement, and benefits of continuing education through monthly 'lessons for living.'"

For more information about the fund-raiser, to buy a raffle ticket or learn more about becoming a member of MCAHCE, contact Family Issues Director Edna Head at 656-8135.

Crown Royal Quilt

This
is a picture of my Crown Royal Quilt. About 2 years ago we owned a nightclub and my husband had saved the purple bags that Crown Royal comes in. He had over time collected 30+ bags. One evening my husband Bill asked me if I could create a quilt out of them. I gave the idea a great amount of thought and one day while thumbing thru my stash of quilting books I came across a pattern for a quilt with purple and yellow stars.

There it was my inspiration on how to use these Crown Royal bags. Now purple is not my favorite color so naturally I had my doubts. The pattern was perfect for the bags and the quilt was beautiful when I finished it. It is now one of my favorites and although I have had offers to sell it I just cannot bring myself to part with it.

Now I have a problem I hope one of you can help me with. I misplaced the pattern and magazine it was in. I have someone who wants to make a quilt like this but I am of no help, as I can’t remember where the pattern came from.

Can anyone out there help me? Any help or information would be appreciated.

-Betty Davis

Artists are drawn to retiree's quilt projects

Muriel Feldshuh and one of her creations. Photo by Sara Heidinger.

Clifford the Big Red Dog. Maisy Mouse. The Stinky Cheese Man. These are a handful of the original illustrations included on two children's illustrator quilts designed and hand-stitched by Muriel Feldshuh, a Brooklyn-based United Federation of Teachers retiree. A third quilt is in the works.

"I wanted to do something to get people interested in the books," said Feldshuh. The idea for the quilts grew out of her experiences as an educator and her volunteer work with the Books for Kids Foundation, a Manhattan-based group that promotes children's literacy.

Feldshuh made dozens of quilts and banners honoring children's literature during her 30-plus years as a librarian at PS 16 in Brooklyn. "I try to bring a love of reading to children," she said.

She retired in 1996.

Creative and giving

Her first project, the Young Readers Millennium Quilt, completed in 1998, features original artwork from 26 illustrators, including Graeme Base, Eric Carle and Laura Numeroff.

"The artists are so wonderfully creative and so giving," Feldshuh said. "Each illustration is so exciting, I'm so impressed by the free-spirited pleasure they take in sharing their talents."

Feldshuh got the illustrations the old-fashioned way - she asked.

"I mailed each illustrator a fabric square along with a letter explaining the project," she said. To date she has received artwork from 96 illustrators.

Feldshuh hand-stitches the artwork into a quilt, adding a border, backing and embroidered title. The quilt back features a listing of the artists' names and a directory of each illustration block.

Her quilts have won widespread acclaim, exhibited at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass.; the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature in Abilene, Texas; and the Bank Street College Library and the Milbank Memorial Library in Manhattan.

"I'm going to keep doing this just as long as my steam engine keeps going," said Feldshuh.

You can view Feldshuh's quilts through April 28, at the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature Web site, www.nccil.org.

- Kara E. Smith of http://www.nysut.org

Quilting Perceptions of Alcoholism

In the lobby of the Student Center, two students sat behind a table covered in a large piece of red fabric laden with crossing lines, images and letters.

The blues, greens, reds and golds in fabric paint on the quilt captured the gaze of anyone who glanced in the direction of the Student Center cafeteria.

The first Alcohol Awareness Quilt, sponsored by Wellness Education and the Drop-In Center, allows students and faculty to express their experiences and thoughts about alcohol and alcoholism.

"Each block is intended to represent a time, place or person that stands out in your mind that is forever linked to alcohol. It is not meant to preach, minimize, flaunt or tout the effects of alcohol or those who use it," read a card handed out by the students sitting at the quilt.

"There are no limitations on what people can put on them," said Amie MacMath, the source of the idea for the quilt. "It's not censored."

Some of them are actually in favor of alcohol. One person drew a martini glass with an olive in it. Another student wrote "Friends don't let friends take ugly people home."

According to MacMath, "It's not about preaching to them that alcohol is bad." Still, some students wrote about being responsible while drinking, friends who had died in drunk driving accidents and their satisfaction about being sober.

One person even wrote simply "I'm sober" on his square, accompanied by a squiggle in green, red, blue and black.

The white fabric squares were cut on the sides with pinking shears, giving them a zig-zag edge. They sat in a pile in front of the students volunteering to be at the table, who called out to everyone to participate.

Anyone who came by could take a square and write or draw on it with fabric paints. "Alc-i is just as wacky as tobacc-i," wrote one student on one of the pieces. The squares were then sewn onto a large piece of red fabric.

About 12 students volunteered their time to pass out fabric pieces for students and faculty to decorate. The volunteers were mostly peer advocates with the Drop-In Center, but also included student workers and service learning students.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month. MacMath said that Wellness Education wanted to do something to educate the campus about this subject. "Everyone is affected by alcohol, even if they don't drink it themselves," MacMath said.

MacMath said that they wanted to do this because of the success of their mirror project, run earlier in the semester. "Students could put how they felt in a tangible thing that people could see."


by

McIntyre, Douglas

Tell us your quilt stories

Please send me your quilt stories, pictures of your projects or anything quilt or fabric related you would like to share with our readers. Trust me they are very interested in whatever you would like to share.

Send your quilt stores to betty@bearpawquilting.com

Quilter has it covered

By PATRICK J. CROWLEY, Reformer Staff

NEWFANE -- Jan Beckert has a few UFOs sitting around her house.

But not the spotted-in-the-sky, abduction kind. In her case, UFO is quilter lingo for "unfinished object."

Beckert said her quilting is often slow-paced and casual. She'll pick up the fabric in her free time and start sewing.

"I've always been a lot more slapdash about it," Beckert said.

One particular quilt, made of bright purple, magenta, orange and yellow hand-dyed Indonesian fabrics, has earned her a spot in one of the largest quilt shows in the country -- the 23rd Annual American Quilter's Society Quilt Show and Contest. She'll head down to Paducah, Ky., from April 25-28 to take part in the contest.

She entered by submitting photos of the quilt to judges. Now selected, further judging will take place at the show and Beckert is hopeful that she'll do well.

"It's exciting just to be in the big show," she said.

The quilt that earned her the spot in the show Beckert started in 2002 and completed late last year, she said.

According to a press release from the American Quilter's Society, Beckert will join 412 others in their annual contest. Her's was chosen from a field of 742 quilts. The top prize, the Best of Show award, earns the winner a $20,000 cash prize. In addition, the winning quilt is entered into the society's museum.

Beckert entered the quilt in another contest, The $100,000 Quilting Challenge, and made it to the semi-finals but did not earn Beckert a prize.

But Beckert said her quilting is by no means a business for her, since she has never sold a quilt she's completed. Mostly the finished products end up going to relatives, and because she's got a lot of relatives to cover, she's still got some work to do.

The quilts that don't go to family members like her children and her father, go to newborns or even charity.

Since she started quilting seriously around 2000, she's completed somewhere around 20 quilts, by her estimate.

Much of the thrill, she said, is the process of purchasing the fabric from which the quilts are made. These days, she said, there are thousands of places on the Internet where fabric of all kinds can be bought.

But that's not as fun as going to a store and feeling the fabric before you buy it, she said.

Now, Beckert said she's got enough fabric to last her a lifetime. Quilters have a term for this as well, they call it "SBLE" -- stashed beyond life expectancy.

Another resource, she said, is quilting groups. Since moving to Newfane from California in 2005, she hasn't been able to find a "quilters' guild" like the one in Santa Barbara, Calif., but she still can get together with a few other women in a church basement to quilt and chat -- the "Sew Whats" meet in a Newfane church once a week.

Beckert, who grew up in Reading, Mass., took her first quilting class in 1990. She slowly got more involved before becoming more of a serious quilter 10 years later.

Beckert said the world of quilting is often overlooked. Despite that, there are a few national and international quilt shows that attract hundreds of quilters.

Along with the American Quilter's show, there are also large contests in Houston and Chicago every year.

"It's something you wouldn't even know about if you're not into quilting," she said.

The fabric of the quilting community is woven throughout the globe, she said.

"It's a big scene," she said. The shows are held in anything from large expo centers in huge cities to state fairs, libraries and church basements.

"There are an awful lot of people doing quilting out there," Beckert said.

Hawaiin Quilting

Quilting was first introduced to the Islanders of the Hawaiian Islands by missionaries in 1820.Then, the Hawaiians were being taught methods of piecing scraps of fabric to make a large quilt. Also, they learned "snowflake" paper cutting.But, because they had no bags of scrap fabrics, they began to create designs on larger pieces of fabric, using their environment: trees and flowers, for inspiration.....Click here to learn more and visit this excellent Hawaiian Quilting website.

Kwilts N Koa has been a valuable partner and friend to us over the years and I thought perhaps some of our readers might like to see what this very unique quilting website has to offer.

Delta Make Special Delivery to Salt Lake City: 1,200 Handmade Quilts for Hospitalized Children

Delta Airlines Press Release on webwire.com

SALT LAKE CITY - Delta Air Lines employees are sending more than 1,200 handmade quilts to the Primary Children’s Medical Center as part of an ongoing partnership between Salt Lake City’s hometown airline and the city’s leading children’s hospital. The handmade bedcovers, which will be on display in the Energy Solutions Arena as part of a formal presentation by Delta to hospital officials, will blanket the entire playing surface and approximately 30 percent of the facility’s seating area.

"I am proud of our employees’ overwhelming dedication to provide quilts for Primary Children’s Medical Center," said Sandy Gordon, vice president of In-Flight Service at Delta. "Their continued spirit and support shows that our commitment to the Salt Lake City community reaches well beyond the airport."

The Medical Center has a long-standing tradition of providing quilts to children whose illnesses or injuries require extended hospital stays. As children grow attached to their quilts, they take them home to put on their own beds.

The project began seven years ago in the Salt Lake City Delta flight attendant lounge where employees converted their work area into a virtual quilt factory producing individual pieces in between flights. Their efforts were quickly supported by other employees and senior management. Today, Delta employees, their families and others throughout the country volunteer to produce quilts to be donated to the hospital.

As the quilt project coordinator, Cindy Atkinson, a Delta flight attendant, has overseen the growth of the project from its first year when Delta presented 335 quilts.

"I’ve been so encouraged by a project that started locally, but has grown to receive national attention," said Atkinson. "This began as a grassroots effort to support the children of a great local hospital, and now we’ve got people and companies from across the country donating money and material to support the cause. Our goal to provide the children and their families with something that shows we care and love them - that’s what this is all about."

Recently, Carpenter, a company which provides fiberfill for everyday items such as beds, floors and boxes, announced that it will provide all of the batting (padding) for next year’s quilts.

Quilt Spectrum provides inspiration, entertainment

By Tony Sapochetti
tsapochetti@pantagraph.com

Jane Tripp of Springfield said that she needed a little inspiration for her new hobby, quilting.

"I'm just starting," she said. "I'm just gathering more things than actually stitching at this point."

So with camera in hand, Tripp headed to the 2007 Quilt Spectrum, presented by the Hands All Around Quilt Guild of Central Illinois, held at the Interstate Center Saturday and Sunday.

The event attracted spectators from all over Central Illinois, where more than 200 quilts were displayed, most made by guild's 350 members. Charlette Elm, publicity chair for HAAQG, said the ability to be creative helps attract people to quilting.

"This is something that a lot of people found when they had young families, and it was a creative activity that they could do at home," Elm said. "It's also a way to make some good friends."

Rows of quilts were on display as passersby inspected and commented on the quality and difficulty of their design. The main theme of the show was challenge, as quilters were asked to make something they found to be particularly difficult, such as a particularly difficult stitching technique.

This quilt challenge did no t go unrewarded as ballots were cast to determine awards in numerous categories, including best of show.

"If I stand back and a quilt just grabs my eye, then I know it's good," Elm said about making her choice. "It's like going to an art gallery and something just grabs your attention when you walk in."

There was no shortage of talent at the event, especially when it came to featured artist and ISU alumna, Barbara Miller, who has been making quilts for 25 years.

"I just love the fabric and the color, but the design is what I love most about quilts," Miller said. "My inspiration is usually nature . . . and I make a lot of them through trial and error by adding or taking away fabrics or design elements."

Nineteen vendors from Illinois, Indiana and Missouri were on hand, offering every pattern and fabric imaginable. Jewelry yarn, handmade wooden crafts and even cookbooks were also made available to the 1,100 quilt enthusiasts who attended over the weekend. The vendors themselves had nothing but good things to say about the level of quality of the event.

"The quilts are absolutely beautiful, and anyone that appreciates beautiful artwork would be impressed." Gail Warning, co-owner of Peddlers Way Quilt Co. in Washington, said.

"It's amazing," Sheri Kinman, owner of The Fiber Shop in Bloomington, said. "The talent here just amazes me."

Tripp said she gets a lot of inspiration from the quilts, and that this event was one of the best that she has been to.

"I've been to bigger ones in Peoria and Paducah Ky., but at this one you can actually walk up and see them very well. They're not bunched up," Tripp said.

Elm said next year will mark the 25th anniversary of HAAQG, and she said that it is going to be an even bigger event.

A Patchwork Friendship

Two friends gear up for the ninth annual Quilters' Run – the mother of all fabric shopping sprees.

By LORI BASHEDA

It was about 12 years ago when Don Gardner woke up one day to find he had himself a second wife.

Don was pretty happy because now his second wife could entertain his first wife.

Now, don't go down that road.

We're talking here about good, clean entertainment.

We're talking here about quilting.

See, Rosemary Gardner is a quilter. For years, Rosemary dragged Don to fabric stores across the county.

"Are you done yet?" Don would ask, knowing full well that she wasn't. "Are you done yet?"

Then one day in 1995 Rosemary met Sherry Wilhoyte.

The two women always got their nails done on the same day at the same time at a nail salon in Santa Ana. They both talk fast. And they joke faster. Neither one had children. Both had cats. They got along just fine.

For Christmas that year, Rosemary got Sherry, who had been down about the passing of her husband David, a quilting lesson. On the way to class, Sherry told Rosemary she really didn't think quilting was going to be "my thing."

But Sherry had underestimated the allure of the quilt. After sewing her first quilt block, she vividly remembers thinking "Ooooh, hot dang! I can put something together, and it looks good."

By the time she finished her first quilt, a green and red beauty, Sherry had something to be buried with.

And Don had a second wife.

"We do everything pretty much together now," Sherry says of her and Rosemary. "We even end each other's sentences."

And stir up trouble together.

They were once frozen out of a Mary Kay meeting for being too disruptive. And they drove one woman to drop the Sunday afternoon quilting lesson at Leah's Fabric Gallery in Orange because they horse around too much. Rosemary boasts that she once had a quilt-in-a-day kit that took her three months to finish.

The women in their Sunday class call them Lucy (Rosemary) and Ethel (Sherry). Their favorite stunt: Running into the store in hats that read "Quilt Police," blowing whistles and demanding to see everyone's seams.

Neither are free-form quilters. Rather than using their imaginations, they work with patterns, sewing impeccable blankets, pillow cases, table runners and tree skirts (Rosemary once made 21 in one year).

And they share the same simple goal: To complete all the quilt projects they've started before they die. The quilting world calls these UFOs: Unfinished Objects. Rosemary and Sherry have about 10 UFOs each right now.

But it's their love of fabric that truly binds them.

"We're pretty sure they spray pheromones on the fabric," Sherry says. The friends admit to owning 400-500 bolts of fabric. In fact, the bolts have their own bedrooms.

"Some of the fabric is so pretty I don't like to cut it," Sherry says in her defense.

Rosemary just resorts to bribery. "But I'm going to make this quilt for you, honey," she tells her husband when she walks through the door with more bolts. Of course, she hasn't made Don one yet. But she has made one for his mother. It's an elaborate chicken-themed quilt that her mother-in-law found worthy enough to hang on her living-room wall.

When the women aren't busy working (Rosemary does payroll for a building maintenance company; Sherry is a tech writer for Boeing), they are sewing quilts for friends and co-workers and, oddly enough, Tippi Hedren. The former actress auctions them to support her wild animal refuge, Shambala, where Rosemary sponsors a black leopard.

So enamored with cats is Rosemary that every item she quilts has a patch of cat fabric hidden on it.

"Any fabric with a cat on it, we own," Rosemary says, sweeping her hand across shelves of cat prints at Leah's store the other day.

Or does she?

"Spotted cats!" Rosemary shouts, her eye catching a new print. "I haven't seen thisone. Oh, Sherry! Dalmatian cats."

Rosemary and Sherry are gearing up to embark on the ninth annual Quilters' Run – the mother of all fabric shopping sprees.

This year 34 fabric shops are participating (nine in Orange County). Essentially, quilters drive from store to store, buying up fabric for future quilt projects. Picture a pub crawl, but instead of getting a beer buzz, they're getting a fabric buzz. The Run is on the second and third weekends of July.

A map was printed last week and is now in quilt shops. It details a route that encompasses more than 1,000 miles, all the way down to San Diego, up to Lancaster and clear out to Palm Desert where Rosemary and Sherry once stepped out of their car into the 117-degree heat wearing curlers, bathrobes and slippers (The Run had a pajama party theme that year).

More than 1,000 quilters are expected on this year's Run. They bump into each other as they cruise the route, getting their Quilters' Run passport stamped at every shop they hit. Those who have finished past Runs wear "ididit" pins, which at first glance appear to indicate they're calling themselves idiots. (Sherry and Rosemary love to point that out).

Rosemary will load up her chicken purse with cash and credit cards. Sherry will fill her cat purse with cash and credit cards. They confess to spending (close your eyes, Don) about $1,000 each on the spree. And that explains how quilters in 2006 spent $3.2 billion nationally.

Last year, Sherry and Rosemary rented a Cadillac for the Run. This year they're dreaming of a limo.

Rosemary's husband is putting together their itinerary, complete with directions to easily get them from store to store.

It's the least he can do for his wives.

The ninth annual Quilters' Run is the weekends of July 12-15 and July 19-22. The route can be found at participating quilting shops or socaquiltshops.com

From The Orange County Register

PATTERNS: Sherry Wilhoyte, left, and quilting partner Rosemary Gardner lay out their quilts at Leah's Fabric Gallery in Orange.

Wedding Traditions: Creating the Wedding Quilt

by Frances Burks

The wedding quilt has had a long, significant role in America. It even appears that the oldest surviving North American quilt is a wedding quilt. According to "The History of the Patchwork Quilt: Origins, Traditions and Symbols of a Textile Art" by Schnuppe von Gwinner, that oldest example, as far as we know, is Anna Tuels' wedding quilt, which was given to her by her mother in Maine on August 23, 1785.

In the 1800s, quiltings (now commonly known as quilting bees) were popular and were often held to mark special occasions, particularly engagements and weddings. Girls were expected to sew several quilt tops for their dowries; ultimately, quiltings were often equivalent to engagement announcements.

While we may not be so concerned with dowries these days, the making of a wedding quilt is still a valued tradition. Whether you want to make a wedding quilt yourself or have it made by The Frances Burks Decorative Arts Studios, here are some unique suggestions for creating a quilt that will be cherished for years to come:

Bring the quilting bee into the 21st century and host an online "bee" to create a wedding signature quilt. Simply have well wishers send their names and/or short messages to your e-mail address. Take all the names and messages you receive and transfer them to fabric, then use the "signed" fabric to create the wedding quilt. There are several products available for transferring images and inscriptions to fabric. You can even print images and words on fabric using a computer Inkjet printer. Many craft, fabric, and office-supply stores carry such products.

If you want to transfer photos and inscriptions to fabric to create a wedding quilt, consider using photos that will not only preserve wedding memories, but also enhance home decor. For example, use honeymoon photos of a beautiful sunset or ocean scene. Preserve the bridal bouquet by incorporating a close-up photo of it into the quilt design. As for inscriptions, consider incorporating the wedding vows, newlyweds' names, or a favorite poem into the quilt design.

Instead of having wedding guests sign a guest book, have them sign fabric squares that will later be sewn together to make a wedding quilt. For best results, have the guests sign with a permanent fabric marker. Additionally, make sure a quarter-inch space is left blank around all sides of the squares so that when the squares are sewn together, names and messages won't be lost in the quarter-inch seam. To determine the best method for this, practice the technique on a few fabric squares before the wedding day. Alternatively, have wedding-shower guests sign fabric squares and incorporate those into the wedding quilt.

Create a central-medallion quilt in which the center of the quilt is a monogram using the initials of the bride and groom. The medallion can then be surrounded by quilt borders that incorporate the wedding flower and/or wedding colors.

For a more casual look, consider a wedding quilt made with T-shirts commemorating the honeymoon spot or other places that are special to the newlyweds.

Essentially, there is no wrong way to design a wedding quilt. Whether you make the quilt yourself or have it made, the making of the wedding quilt is one tradition that will never be out of style.

From The American Chronicle

Celebrity Quilt Raises Money For Retirement Village

From Herald Mail by JANET HEIM janeth@herald-mail.com

BOONSBORO - As more than 300 squares of muslin fabric were mailed to celebrities across the country, the hopes of an energetic fundraising committee at Fahrney-Keedy Retirement Village near Boonsboro went along for the ride.

Betsy Miller, an administrative assistant at the retirement village, called the idea for a celebrity quilt an "inspiration from God."

After the idea came, Miller assembled a committee of 23 residents and volunteers, ranging in age from 65 to 95, who worked tirelessly to see the project through.

The committee was motivated by their cause - raising money for the Fahrney-Keedy's Benevolent Fund. The fund helps residents in financial hardship pay their bills.

"Sometimes, financial planning falls short. These are residents, they're family. You wouldn't ask family members to leave your home," Miller said.

The committee met and brainstormed to whom to send letters and quilt squares. With 324 separate letters - some to celebrities with more than one mailing address - Miller said the committee had been hoping it would get maybe as many as 10 to 20 quilt squares returned with autographs.

The first two squares came back within a week's time.

And, what began as a trickle, escalated as the daily U.S. mail delivery brought more and more celebrity autographs and photographs to Fahrney-Keedy.

The committee received 90 squares and used 87 of them in quilted creations. Two of the signature squares were received too late for the quilting and one was illegible, Miller said.

Of the 87 squares used, two are from TV host Regis Philbin, who returned both squares sent to him at two different addresses.

Others include movie actors Charlton Heston, Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones and Lauren Bacall, country music singer Hank Williams Jr. and TV talk show host Montel Williams, to name a few.

With such an outpouring from the celebrities, the seniors decided to create one large quilt and four smaller-themed wall hangings.

Each square was catalogued as it was received and a group of five committee members has taken on the task of compiling scrapbooks for each quilted piece, with information on each celebrity included, as proof of authenticity of the signatures.

The committee is auctioning the quilted items on Internet auction site www.UBID.com. . Bidding will last for 14 days, unless one of the celebrities requests an extension, Miller said.

For more information, call Miller at 301-671-5016 or e-mail her at bmiller@fkmh.org

Quilt Pink Quilts Now Up For Auction

American Patchwork & Quilting will auction nearly 4,000 quilts to benefit breast cancer awareness and research. Prairie Quilt of Hennessey donated 84 quilts for this auction.

On Sept. 30, 2006, all across the country more than 1,000 quilt shops held Quilt Pink events attracting many thousands of quilters and their friends. American Patchwork & Quilting magazine reports the events culminated in nearly 4,000 Quilt Pink quilts. These quilts will be auctioned starting this month and auctions will run through mid-October. Proceeds will benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For more details on the auction, visit www.ebay.com/quiltpink.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure was established in 1982 by Nancy Brinker to honor the memory of her sister, Susan G. Komen, who died from complications of breast cancer at the age of 36. Today, Komen for the Cure is an international organization with a network of more than 75,000 volunteers working through local affiliates and events like Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to eradicate breast cancer.

A global leader in the fight against breast cancer, the organization fulfills its mission through support of innovative breast cancer research grants, meritorious awards and educational, scientific and community outreach programs around the world.

Since its inception, together with its affiliate network, corporate partners and generous donors, Komen has raised $750 million for the fight against breast cancer. Visit Komen’s Web site at www.komen.org.

About Quilting's 2007 Sampler Quilt

About Quilting's 2007 Sampler Quilt

Many members of the our quilting community are working with me on the Anniversary Sampler Quilt. I designed the quilt to coincide with the end of my first year as Quilting Guide here at About.com, and as a way to move into year two by adding a block-a-month to the quilt skeleton you see in the illustration. It's about time to reveal the second block, so I thought it might be a good idea to introduce our new community members to the quilt, because there's plenty of time to join in the fun. I've had some feedback from some of you about calling the first block simply Block One -- and I agree it's definitely not a pretty or creative description. The design is similar to the traditional Fox & Geese block, but with some of the units flipped-flopped. Can you think of a good name for it?

Instructions for Block One

Quilts Provide Comfort to Military Children

By Samantha L. Quigley

Courtesy of American Forces Press Service

Washington, DC— Military children missing deployed parents can take comfort in quilts the Armed Services YMCA's Operation Kid Comfort program is making especially for them.

The Armed Services YMCA is a member of America Supports You, a Defense Department program highlighting the ways Americans and the corporate sector are supporting the troops.

"The children don't know that (parents) are deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq or in a more dangerous situation than any other," Susan Simms, the organization's manager for branch and corporate relations, said. "They just know Mom or Dad is gone."

To help them deal with the separation, Operation Kid Comfort participants create quilts unique to each child 5 and under, Simms said. The quilts include family photos, the child's name and the parent's service seal. Older children receive a small pillow with the same photos.

Since the program began on Fort Bragg, NC, in 2003, Simms estimated, close to 3,000 children have received quilts with a card explaining their significance.

"The card is addressed to the child, and it's the quilt talking to the child," she said. "It's telling the child that this quilt is especially for him or her, and it's okay to hurt, it's okay to cry, (and) the quilt is there to give them a little bit of comfort."

Simms said she thought it was a good way of trying to get across the purpose of the quilt. Each card is signed, "Your Buddy K.C.," initials that stand for Kid Comfort.

The quilts have benefits beyond being a cool gift, however, Dr. Sarah Hansel, a Department of Veterans Affairs staff psychologist, said.

"Blankets and stuffed animals have long been associated with kids as transitional objects, things they hold on to specifically for comfort," Hansel, whose husband retired from the Navy after 24 years, said. "I think that's one of the reasons why the program is so beautifully named.

"Kid Comfort is precisely what it does," she said.

A child's response to a parent's absence can manifest itself in many ways. Hansel said children's responses could include bed-wetting and exhibiting more challenging behavior. Those symptoms often improve significantly when the kids have something to latch onto that represents Mom or Dad to them.

"The little quilts are something tangible that they can grab hold of and take with them and wrap up in, be surrounded by parents' love," she said. "Those are all real, positive things that are likely to have solid impact, and families can see the difference in behavior."

Hansel believes so strongly in the program's positive impact that she has involved her quilting group, Stars and Stripes Quilters of Fort McHenry. Since the group started quilting for Operation Kid Comfort in July, it has completed more than 80 of the 40-inch-square quilts, she said.

Hansel said she got involved in the program as an opportunity to participate in a primary prevention project.

"We know that there's a lot of research evidence that shows that early parental separation is a risk factor for depression in adulthood," she said.

She stressed that such separation is only a risk factor and not a determining factor. "That's part of why I got involved, was to really push for something that has the potential of having a long-term impact in making up for some of the harm that war does that we never actually see."

Hansel added that the children aren't the only ones who find a measure of comfort in the quilt. All those involved benefit, she said and cited research that finds those who witness or engage in an act of kindness also feel better.

"This is a great project that spreads blessings on so many levels," Hansel said. "It's something that's just got kind of a no-lose component."

Those blessings have spread from Fort Bragg to Fort Riley, Kansas, Fort Drum, N.Y. and to Armed Services YMCAs in San Diego and Alaska, Simms said. The program is expected to be introduced at Fort Stewart, Ga., and Fort Carson, Colo., by fall.

The ASYMCA's most recent addition of the Operation Kid Comfort program is at Fort Belvoir, Va. That program is a joint effort between the ASYMCA and Fort Belvoir Child and Youth Services.

It was launched March 29 in observation he Month of the Military Child, which is April, Simms said. The event included a spaghetti supper where military children were presented with an Operation Kid Comfort quilt or pillow.

Charlize Reagin, 1, was one of the children to receive an Operation Kid Comfort quilt at the Fort Belvoir event. Her older sister, Eliana, 9, who couldn't be there, received a pillow.

Their dad, Army Staff Sgt. Josh Reagin, has been deployed to Iraq since Dec. 31 and is not due back until January 2008. His wife, Melanie, accepted a quilt and pillow personalized with family photos, including one of Josh riding a horse in front of the caisson at the funeral of President Ronald Regan.

"The quilt and pillow will comfort them a lot," said Melanie, as Charlize pointed to a photo of Josh on the quilt. "Da Da," she said.

helpful hint for pressing seam rows

I would love to share this hint with all of you. When I have pieced all of my quilt blocks and arranged them in rows I label the 1st block in each row with a number starting with the number 1,2,3 and so on. I then sew the blocks in each row together. When I have finished sewing the blocks into a row and I am ready to press I press all the odd numbered rows to the left and all the even numbered rows to the right. This works great for me and I hope it will be of value to you. I use the Avery 1/2" by 3/4" white labels. They stick well to the cotton fabrics and do not leave a residue when they are removed.

A question about Pfaff sewing machines

I have a question about the new creative fabric mover from Pfaff. I need to hear from you if, you have purchased and or tried out one of these at a dealership. I now own a pfaff which is about 15 years old and although it has served me well it is dying and I am so interested in this fabric mover for doing free motion quilting on smaller projects here at home. I live over 2 hours drive away from my nearest dealer and can't seem to find the time during the week to get there and try one out. I would love to hear your feedback.

Alphabetical Quilt-Type List

I found a neat little website fabriclandwest.com that has several patterns, blocks, some quilt history and even an alphabetical list of quilt types. Below is a snippet of the alpabetical list along with a link to the list.

Album Quilt-A quilt assembled from individual blocks, each designed and/or executed by a different person. Album blocks are appliquéd or pieced (or both), and frequently stitched into a quilt by a group for presentation to a public figure to commemorate a special occasion. In the past, blocks often were signed and dated by the maker in India ink or embroidery. Today, special markers are available for signing.

Amish Quilt-Quilts done in the style of the Amish. Usually solid materials in deep hues. Patterns tend to be geometric with intense, heavy quilting, often feathers, scrolls, cables. Click picture for larger view.

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Baltimore Album-A style of album quilt, named for quilts made in Eastern Maryland between 1844 and 1855, featuring ornate appliqué and embroidery blocks.

Bargello-quilts made up of off-set squares of color in a rising or falling pattern. Strips of different fabrics are sewn together, then cut into smaller segments, and pieced together in a style in which there are "waves" or geometric patterns in the design.

Broderie perse-From the French for "Persian embroidery," a technique in which a printed motif, usually a flower or animal, is cut from fabric and appliquéd onto a plain background.....continued here

Looking For Contributors

We are currently looking for volunteer contributors/authors to help us keep letstalkaboutfabric fresh and up-to-date.

If you are interested in contributing please e-mail me at betty@bearpawquilting.com

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