Jeans for JOPPA Sew-In

Hope Quilters is sponsoring a sew-in to make blankets for  JOPPA Ministries.  Anyone is welcome to help.

Men's Ministry has been collecting denim jeans for us and we will be turning them into warm and sturdy blankets to give to the JOPPA ministry for distribution in the upcoming cold weather.  All you need is a sewing machine and the ability to sew a straight stitch. If you don't have a machine we can always use help with cutting and ironing as well.

 

Join us in Room 212 on Friday or Saturday, October 16 and 17.   The room will be available Friday, October 16, from 1PM to 9PM.  On Saturday, October 17th, we will be sewing from 8AM until 2PM.  You can be flexible in your participation.  Just come whenever it fits into your schedule.

Denim needles provided if you don't have your own. All fabrics provided as well.  We also have thread you can use.  Just come with a servant heart and a desire to create comfort by using your sewing talents.

 

September Work Day Recap

 

Wow, what a great day at Hope Quilters yesterday!  We had a huge turnout.  We even had three new guests stop by to see what we're all about.    I didn't count exactly but I think we probably had about 20 people there over the two days.  Lively conversation and as always, lots of productivity in the quilt making department.

A few stats I collected after looking at our work:

• 10 quilts were finished and ready for distribution to YESS, LSI, ASP mission trip and 2 for next year's auctions
• 8 or so went out to be quilted
• We still have 18 tops ready for quilting
• My inventory shows that we've distributed 89 quilts so far this year. 

We received a very generous gift of 15 storage bins of fabric on Friday.  We spent most of the day organizing by color and theme and working to fit the new fabric into our shelves. 

We are fully engaged in creating quilts for the LSI bed give away again.  Many tops are in process and several are in quilters' hands.  We have October and November to get these completed as they need to be to LSI by Thanksgiving. 

 

Our other winter project are the JOPPA blankets.  We've had the materials in storage for the summer but now that the cold weather is in our periphery we have come up with a plan to kick start this work again.  Rather than try and work this into our normal Work Day, we are going to organize a sewing day in late October or early November with the intent of mass producing as many blankets as we can.  We're looking for a date and location and then will post details on the blog.

 

Upcoming retreat

Friday September 25 and Saturday September 26 .  Start time is 8am Friday morning or come when you can.  The retreat is in Room 101 on the first floor across from the gym.  We'll have the Hope Quilter's cutting and ironing supplies so you only need to bring your machine and your projects.    On Saturday you can start as early as 6:30 when the doors open back up.  We have to have everything picked up by 3pm on Saturday.  Feel free to come either day or both.

• $10 / day as we provide a meal on Friday night and then on Saturday lunch as well. 
• Bring a lunch on Friday noon if you want. 
• Bring a snack to share.  
• Coffee is available as always at the church.  Bring a coffee mug!

Be aware, the Hope Vision quilts that were hanging in the stairwell south of the gym have been removed.  Hope is renovating the downstairs for the new Hope Kids program.  All walls have been repainted and decorated and the quilts will no longer hang there.  We were be sharing these quilts with other campuses.  I am glad that these beautiful art quilts can brighten up the walls of our other locations.  I will let you know when we have a new home for them.

August Work Day Recap and an Okoboji Surprise

We had a good crowd at our Work Day this past weekend.   Set up started a little late Friday but we still had 6 people there.  Jean has been recruiting Prayer Shawl friends and she and Julie helped them make up a quilt to work on from our 6 1/2 inch squares.  It's wonderful to see the interest blossom in people.  And who doesn't love looking through all that lovely fabric and picking out something that you like!  

Saturday was a great day for sewing and we had a good turnout.   We had a quite a few finished tops to show and a few more were quilted as well.  People helped with binding and labels so we were able to distribute 1 quilt to LSI and 2 more for the women's shelter. 

Our next focus will be quilts for the ASP trip in Oct and then children's twin quilts for the LSI bed give away at Christmas.  These need to be done around Thanksgiving. 

We have finally gotten confirmation on our next retreat dates so put these on your calendars!

Sept 25/26

Jan 22/23

Apr 22./23

We talked a lot about the quilt auctions.  Cheryl was able to attend the Riverside Auction and 6 of us went up to Okoboji for that auction.  Riverside quilts brought in about  $1,400 overall.  The Okoboji quilts brought in a nice sum as well.  Being the Featured Quilters, the auctioneer and the quilt committee did a lot to talk up our quilts to the group.  Once they came to our featured quit (below) there was lots of excitement in the audience.  The opening bid was $1000.  While it started to move up slow, it all of a sudden became electrifying as there were two bidders who really wanted it.  This quilt ended up selling for $4,000.  Wow!  Linda Bergeson pieced it and Norma Hamilton quilted it.  I know they were both ready to be done with it but thank God for their talents and perseverance as the camp was really grateful for this gift.  

 

What should we buy??

A wonderful weekend at the lake with friends.

Thing 1 and Thing 2 participated in the 5K.

Hope Quilters to be featured in DM Register

 

LOCAL QUILTING GROUP TO BE FEATURED

AT OKOBOJI QUILT AUCTION

 

The "Hope Quilters", a group from Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines is being

featured at the August 1 quilt auction which will benefit the ministry of Ingham Okoboji Lutheran

Bible Camps. The group was chosen for its faithfulness in donating many beautiful quilts to

IOLBC over many years. These ladies are on a mission "to serve God in the world by making

quilts that give warmth, comfort and support for those in need." Hope Quilters began as a small

group which made one quilt its first year and currently is creating and donating over 90 quilts a

year to needy people locally and globally. Jody Eubank, chairperson of the group, shared that

the organizations who receive their quilts are those that are supported by the church. The group

is blessed with donations of fabrics and is pleased that the church has the space to store the

needed supplies. Jody encourages people from all skill levels to participate. She has made

various kits to get beginners started. Quilters are not required to be members of the church.

These ladies are wonderful representatives of a church whose mission is to "Reach out to the

world around us and share the everlasting love of Jesus Christ." To learn more about Hope

Quilters, visit hopequilters.blogspot.com and to learn more about IOLBC visit www.okoboji.org.

July Work Day

Thanks to Rachael for capturing notes about the day.  Sounds like the group was small but very productive.  And in Rachael's words "We had a great day of quilting!!! ".   Praise the lord for blessing this group with a love of quilting and such a desire to serve Him.

 

Some tidbits:

• The 5" blocks were found.  I understand they now represent 2 beautiful tumbler quilts.  No pics yet but I'll try to capture them for the next email or get them on the blog. 
•  
• Batting was cut for several of our finished tops and Norma took many of them home!  I bet she's anxious to put that quilting machine to work since it's been gone for so long.
•  
• Rachael is getting creative with strips sets.  I can't wit to see what she comes up with. 
•  
• It sounds like I need to get more kits made up.  Look for more of them at next month's meeting!

 

I received an email from  a Hope member who is looking for some help. Take a look and let me know if you have any recommendations to offer up? 

I know nothing about quilting, and I have a 35-year-old quilt in desperate need of repair.  It has several tears, plus seams that have come apart.  Is there anyone that's part of the Hope quilting group that can handle difficult repairs or knows someone who could?

 

 

June Work Day

Well Saturday turned out to be a full house!  We had 15 or 16 people show up throughout the day.  Five of them were first time guests and hopefully most of them will come back.  Ginni, you're excused as I realize the trip from California may be prohibitive  

What a blessing it was to experience the energy in the room.  We got a ton done.  Show and Tell was the longest part of the meeting.  We had lots of beautiful quilts to look at. There were 6 or 7 people piecing. Several people were cutting out projects.  We had a few small donations to sort through.  We found backs for 4 or 5 quilts.  Linda prayed for us to find a quilter and before the end of the day I believe 10 quilts went out the door with Sandy and Suzanne!  We finished 6 quilts that were dropped off with Missions.  They will go to JOPPA and YESS.  Whew, are you tired yet? 

 

Check out the Photo tab to see the activities of the day.  Here are just a few.

Zoom in and look at the embroidered Noah's Ark blocks.  So cute!

 

A great quilt for LSI.

 

Rachael like her pink.  Just not all the small pieces.  But she did a great job.

 

A very simple way to use some strip sets.

April Work Day Recap

 

Thanks to all for another energetic and productive work day!  5 quilts off to Missions, 5 more ready for the auctions, another 5 off to the quilters and 7 or 8 more that we found backing for.  WOW!  Thank you, God, for the generous donations of materials as well as the faithful servants who are Hope Quilters!

Check out the pictures of our newest creations on the Photos tab.

Just a reminder that we have a retreat coming up on the 24th of this month.  This is time for fellowship and time to work on your own projects.  We have Room 101 on Friday, starting any time.  I'll be there around 8am.  We can stay as long we want on Friday.  We will also sew on Saturday.  Church opens at 6:30 so you can start as early as you want and we'll finish at 3pm.  Fee is $10/day to cover Friday dinner and Saturday lunch.   There is also a snack table so feel free to bring something to share.  Coffee will be provided.  Bring a friend if you like.  There is always plenty of room.

Here is the end result of the project I showed in the last post.  Quite a clever group we have.   

Finally, take a look at the new page; Jeans for Joppa!  A new ministry in partnership with Hope's Men's Ministry