December 2016 Recap

I keep a tally of the quilts we give away each year  to have an idea of the supplies we use and to be able to share your story with others.  Thanks to the generosity of fabric donors, our mission partners, Creative Arts Ministry and most of all the ladies of Hope Quilters for a wonderful year of living our Mission!

Total quilts donated: 259

Missions supported: 

Lutheran Services of Iowa, Youth Emergency Shelter & Services, JOPPA, Okoboji Bible Camp, Riverside Bible Camp, Hawthorne Hills, Dorothy's House, etc.  Quilts also taken on mission trips to Tijuana, Jamaica and Appalacia

November 2016 Work Day

We concluded our annual effort to make twin quilts for Lutheran Services of Iowa to give away with new beds at Christmas.  We made 64 quilts for this program.  Here are a few of them.  We pray for wide eyes and big smiles as these children experience a bed and a quilt all their own this year!

Otober Work Day: Blankets for JOPPA

This month we dedicated our time to making JOPPA blankets.  With the cold weather here already it was great timing.  We received a donation of bed runners from Holiday Inn Exress in WDM.  Wow, what a perfect oppotunity to reuse for such a worthy group.

It's definitely not "fun" quilting but ask any one of these gals if their two-day contribution wasn't extremely fulfilling.  Amazing work!


Here's some pictures of the fun.

June 2016 Work Day Recap

I wasn't sure what to expect for a crowd.  Would numbers be down because of vacations, reunions and other summer plans or would it be up because of the intense heat?  Well, I should stop doubting and just put up all those extra tables on Friday knowing that a crowd will always show up.  We had an highly energetic day in service to God through quilting!  

We began with a beautiful devotion from Rachel.  Here's an excerpt.

"Psalm 119:172 – Let my tongue sing about your word, for all your commands are right.

Jesus tells me and all His followers to sing this song. I must sing it with love, patience, and volume. The entire world needs to hear. I can sing literally — although I won't — but I can and must sing through the spoken word, emails, texts, Skypes, gifts, actions, and attitudes......AND QUILTS."

Show and tell was awesome as always.  The things you can create with what we've been given.  It's always fun to see the finished tops.  It generates ideas and enthusiasm with people hardly able to wait to get to our sewing machines.  What I love to see if how much we can do with such simple patterns and the variety of all kinds of donated fabrics that we have.  God does provide.  Besides the tops that were shared, we turned in 10 quilts to missions, 8 came in quilted and ready for binding.  We also prayed over 10 quilts that will be going to Okoboji and Riverside Bible Camp Quilt auctions in August. 

Praise God from whom our blessing flow!

May 2016 Workday Recap

As always it was a wonderful weekend full of quilting with my favorite servant quilters!  As usual the room was buzzing with activity.  Several of you helped me finish up kits for LSI bed quilts.  We found backs for several of your finished tops and we worked to find room for some new donations on the shelves.  All the irons were busy and we had a station for pinning quilts for a couple of you taking on the quilt challenge. Whew!!!

Rachel shared a delightful devotion reminding all of us that "God's got this!"  Certainly faithful words to live by.  We've secured the Waukee Campus for retreats in October, January and April.  Be sure to add these dates to your calendar.

Oct 28/29, 2016                

Jan 27/28, 2017            

Apr 28/29, 2017

We viewed lots of finished tops and we turned in 10 different quilts to missions.  You asked me how many quilts we've made so far this year.  We have given away 79 quilts to missions and I have 10 that we've designated for the Riverside and Okoboji auctions.  You gals rock!  I am so thankful for those of you who have quilting machines and do a lot of our quilting.  But I am also grateful for those of you who took on my challenge to learn to finish the quilting on your quilts.  These are good quilts to practice on and there is a lot of experience in the group so you can count on good help.  Good for all 

Rachel captured this treasure on my camera.  For those of you who were wondering, Michelle does actually use her sewing machine to quilt.  I was beginning to believe that she just carried her sewing machine up to the room as a form of a good workout.  We seemed a bit lost there in the middle of the day when we didn't have anyone to cut batting.  She spoils us so.of you!

April Work Day

I tend to say this most months after Hope Quilters but boy am I exhausted.  The main order of business on Friday was cutting batting for most of the finished tops.  I think we had 12-15 go home with quilters.  Thanks to those of you who can help us finish these quilts.  And thanks to any of you working on learning to quilt.  These quilts are excellent projects on which to practice new skills.  We had a huge crowd on Saturday!  I counted 15 people at one time and we had at least 12 machines going.  We had two visitors who hopefully weren't overwhelmed with all the activity and will be coming back.  We turned 13 quilts into Missions designated for YESS, LSI, Dorothy's House, ASP and a women's shelter.

Had to share this phot of Kent the Bus Driver.  Taking a break from driving Mercy Me around he stopped by to take a peak at our work.  Lovely crazy quilt made by Jody and quilted by Rachel. 

 

Reminder!

RETREAT:  Friday and Saturday, April 22 and 23.  This retreat will be at the WDM campus in room 101.  We will start at 8am Friday and can go until 3pm on Saturday.  The cost is just $10 a day if you are going to eat with us.  We provide dinner on Friday and lunch on Saturday.   I'll also have a coffee pot on and many people bring snacks to share.  If you're sewing on Friday feel free to bring a lunch.  This retreat is a time to work on your own projects while you fellowship with other Hope Quilters.  The supplies will all be available so you only need to bring your machine and projects.  It's never a bad idea to bring an extension cord as well.  No registration is needed.  Just show up if you can make it.  Bring a friend as well.  We have lots of room and enjoy sharing this time with others.

Hope Quilters March Work Day Recap

A somewhat abnormal day at Hope Quilters.  It seemed most everyone had a project to cut out this weekend.  The rulers and mats were in high demand.

Rachel and Doris were running a tight ship.  We had way too many scraps that needed to be cut down into standard sizes.  They had most everyone taking a turn at making that pile smaller.  Great news!  They finished it all! 

We now have a collection of a variety of square sizes, some loaves and 2 1/5 inch strips.  These make for many easy and fun scrappy quilts. Fun for beginners and experienced quilters alike.

Check out the pictures tab to see some of our most recent Mission quilts. 

Hope Quilters February Work Day

We're better together.  Pinning  a quilt goes quicker with lots of hands. 

The weather was frigid outside but the warmth inside Room 212 was delightful.  We had a great crowd and the room was buzzing.  A couple of large fabric donations were fun to look through.  The ideas were flowing as we started putting together ideas for the LSI Bed Giveaway next fall.   Inspiration comes pretty easy with such a large variety of great fabrics and plenty of friends for encouragement.  I wasn't sure where we'd store all the extra fabric but after you all took home some fabric for your new quilt projects it all magically fit on our shelves.  

We had 8 finished quilts to turnover to Missions for distribution to a women's shelter, LSI and for the upcoming ASP mission trip.  See the Photo tab for a look at some of them.

Finally, don't forget the next retreat on February 26/27.  This one will be at the new Hope Waukee location.   I hear the space is awesome with lots of good lighting.  Times are from 8 to10 on Friday and 8 to 5 on Saturday.  Cost is $10 a day.

January Retreat

15 women got together for fellowship and quilting on January 22nd and 23rd. 

What a great time we had!! 

Check out the action!

Room 101 was buzzing!

Lot's of opinions come together for a beautiful quilt!

A crazy quilt brings back lots of memories!

January 2016 Work Day Recap

This month we decided to use our work days to make blankets for the JOPPA homeless ministry. We had 10 people sewing both on Friday and Saturday.  It was a great weekend to stay inside and sew given the bitterly cold weather, especially for such a good cause.

Here are a few of our creations.  Beside denim we used anything heavy we had available.  Corduroy, upholstery fabric and some broadcloth gave the denim a little more interest.  With a  fleece back these became very heavy and durable blankets.