May Work Day

May 11^th saw some sixteen Hope Quilters working on our varied projects.  Here is the pictorial view of the work being done by this busy group of quilters.

Show and tell quilts:

 

 

Hope Quilters are also making small pillow cases for breast cancer and other medical needs.  Shown are some kits that have been made up, ready to be sewn.  These pillows can be requested through Hope's Care Ministry.

 

 

 

A pillow with one of the pillow cases.

 

The Okoboji project is nearing completion.

 

 

 

Quilters busy with new projects.  We help each other learn new techniques, new patterns and blocks.

Helping hands to pin-baste a new quilt

 

 

Learning how to cut some new blocks using a triangle tool.

 

Here's a Ghana Altar Cloth

It has been made so either side can be used on the altar.

We're planning a Saturday Sewing Day soon to use the rest of the Ghana fabrics

to make more of these 84" X 72" altar cloths for the new churches in Ghana.

If you would like to help sew these altar cloths, please contact Hope Quilters.

We are not "quilting" these, but they will have a backing fabric.  Some may be

double-sided as this one below, others will have a plain, solid back.

 

 



April Work Day

Praise God!  What a wonderful day of quilting with Hope Quilters sisters in Christ!   Several quilters have joined the group in March and April.  Welcome to Hope Quilters, BJ, Connie, Georgia and Melissa.  God continues to provide new talent to Hope Quilters.


Quilt tops were sewn, bindings sewn down, quilts labeled.   Batting was cut for a number of quilt tops, along with backing fabric picked out and prepared.   Everyone was busy.  And lots of laughter, sharing and great fellowship.

So much work, so little space, Linda used the hallway to spread out this quilt. 

 

Hope Quilters are working with the Care Ministry on a couple of projects – bright pillow cases for breast cancer pillows and lap quilts for members who are ill and/or in medical treatments such as chemo or dialysis.  Bonnie, a Hope member dropped by with fabrics from her Mother’s stash.  Jody took some of the pre-cut blocks along with coordinating fabrics and designed kits for the small pillow cases.  Another “God thing” .  Thank you Bonnie for bringing these fabrics in at just the time they will be used in this project.

Four more Okoboji quilts, along with five or six others, are ready to be quilted.  Seven completed Okoboji quilts will be delivered this next week to the Bible camp.  We’re closing in on finishing the Christopherhaus Dormitory project.  What a great group of quilters working together – we’ll have made 37 quilts for the dorm rooms since last August.  Another Praise God!


Still ironing fabrics for backings.   These are some big pieces, but they'll be nice with no wrinkles when Kaaran finishes with them!

 There are several quilts completed and are being labeled for the 2013 Riverside Bible Camp Auction.  A couple more are in progress, tops are done, ready to be quilted.

April 13th Work Day

Spring is finally here – did we wonder when it would finally quit snowing?  Although I remember several snowstorms/blizzards in this area in April.  Just like the proverbial spring house cleaning, I’m trying to clean my quilting area.  And we need to do that with our Hope Quilters fabrics –get them out, use them up.  We have been alerted that more fabrics may be coming, this time from a long time quilter, in neighboring Nebraska.  We give our thanks to God for all the fabrics that are donated to Hope Quilters.  And when there are some that we don’t use in our quilts, My Brothers Keeper is the downstream recipient.  As we always note – nothing goes to waste.

We have a new / resurrected opportunity to do some sewing for the Care Ministry here at LCOH.  Several years ago we made tote bags and also small lap quilts for breast cancer patients.  Recently as you know we made a pillow case and gave a small pillow for Linda H. to use during her breast cancer surgery and follow up treatment.  A couple of Hope Quilters have purchased additional pillows and made pillow cases for other breast cancer patients.  We’re proposing Hope Quilters make more of these as well as some bright, cheery lap quilts to be used by anyone needing to feel God’s presence in time of need.  More information along with several of the pillows will be shown at the April 13^th work day.

Here are several pillow cases and  pillows for breast cancer patients.

March 13th Work Day

Rain in early March here in Iowa - means Spring is not too far away.  What better way to spend a rainy day than with fellow quilters?  A small group of Hope Quilters gathered Saturday working on their projects, going through several batches of donated fabrics and generally having a great time together.  Of course snow is coming down as I enter the recap of the work day.  It won't last long this time of year.  Later this week the temperatures are predicted in the mid to upper 40's.  Bye Bye snow.

No pictures this month, but we're still working on the Okoboji Christopherhaus project as well as putting quilt tops together for the Mercy PICU, the C&Fof I Womens Shelters and future mission projects.  Also a new roll of batting arrived so pieces could be measured and cut for the next round of quilt tops to be quilted.

February 15th & 16th was a Hope Quilters retreat weekend in Valley Junction.  We had a good time with food, fun and getting to know one another better.  Looking ahead later this year we may have another retreat.  More information to come for possible dates and location.

As always with quilters, nothing goes to waste.  The smallest of scraps are turned into quilt blocks.  The fabrics that are not 100% cotton, or for some reason aren't suitable for the quilt tops, are further donated to My Brothers Keeper, an organization that makes sleeping bags for the homeless.  One of our quilters was kind enough to see that our supply of MBK's fabrics would be delivered to a local quilt store for transport to the local group in Prairie City.

The target date for the quilts to be completed for the Okoboji project is the April 13th work day.  If anyone is needing a bit of help in finishing their top(s), please let Norma Hamilton know (gnhamilton@q.com).  We'd like to get the quilts up to camp well before the Family Camping Season begins in late spring.

As noted in an earlier email message, we now have the work dates scheduled through August.  Refer to the column on the right side of this page for those dates.

February 9th Work Day

Fifteen Hope Quilters were working on Okoboji, Mercy PICU and women’s shelter (now referenced as Domestic Violence Services) quilts on Saturday, February 9^th.  Some quilters came and stayed for the whole day, others for part of the day.  We had a great time visiting and quilting together.  At the end of the day there were quilts ready to be delivered to Mercy and to C&FI.  We also worked on the Ghana altar cloths.  There is still much work needed on this project.

On Monday, the Mercy PICU and women's shelter quilts were delivered. 

We’re continuing to work on the quilts for Okoboji’s Christopherhaus dorm.  So far seventeen quilts have been delivered out of the 37 we committed to making.  We have several more ready for delivery.  The earlier goal was to have all of the quilts completed by the March 9^th work day.  I believe this can be pushed out to April 13^th.  Family Camp season will start soon, and we’d like to have all of the quilts at camp and ready to be used.  Here's a link to that schedule for 2013.   http://www.okoboji.org/camp-programs/family-camp/   If you are having difficulty in getting a quilt finished, please bring it to the March work day and we’ll work together on it.

 We do handwork to finish and label the quilts

Sorting blocks for placement;  fabrics need to be ironed as well

 Visiting, catching up on news and family and events is an important part of the comradrie of quilting together.  We share stories and we help each other on our quilts.

 

Progress is being made on altar cloths for the Ghana churches. 


 

 

 

 

February Events - Work Day and Retreat

Saturday, February 9th is our regular work day.  We'll continue to work on the quilts for Okoboji's Christopherhaus dorm as well as quilts for the Women's Center and Mercy PICU.  Bring a sack lunch and beverage, along with your sewing machine and associated notions.

Friday and Saturday, February 15th & 16th is the 2013 quilting retreat.   There are 20 quilters signed up for the retreat.  Please let Linda Bergeson know if you've signed up but are now unable to attend.   You can work on personal projects - get one or more of those UFO's finished this year.

January Work Day

Hope Quilters met Saturday, January 12th for a day of fellowship and quilting.

We've been working on quilts for several groups, including the Okoboji Bible Camp's Christopherhaus Dormitory, Children & Families of Iowa Women's Shelter, Mercy Hospital PICU and Riverside Bible Camp 2013 Quilt Auction.  A number of the quilts have been quilted and are ready to be completed with binding and labeling.

Several Hope Quilters made and donated two quilts to Mentor Iowa.  We presented them to Marty L and Kevin O at the January work day.

We're still looking for people to make altar cloths using the fabrics brought back from Ghana.  These altar cloths will be given to the new churches provided by LCOH's 2012 Lenten project "40 Churches in 40 Days".  The mission teams will deliver the altar cloths on the 2013 trips to Ghana.  Praise God!  There are some 120 new churches being built in Ghana from that project.