Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Back in the saddle again.........literally........

Hey ya'll!

So sorry it's been a little more than a week since last I blogged!

Your stories have been so inspiring to read!  I hope you all have had a chance to read each other's replies as to who was the person most responsible for your involvement in quilting?  I think from your responses, mother's definitely win, with grandmother's coming in a close second!  This feedback is invaluable to me, and please encourage your friends, family, and neighbors to still reply!

My apologies for being unable to reply to your responses for a while!

I PROMISE I have a REALLY good reason!

You see........well, I ummm...........

OHHHHHHHHHH I will just show you in photos!



I was visiting my blogging friend Alycia of Alycia Quilts!

For those of you who haven't visited her blog, please check it out!
I have said it before, and I will say it again, this gal is an angel on earth for all of the hard work she does for 

 She and her family (including her 4 legged family) made me feel right at home!
This is Dixie!

Dixie had a grooming appointment with me!  Who knew I could do hair?!?!?!

And a riding lesson with Wrangler Man!  I am not sure who looks more concerned here?
Me or Dixie???????? LOL

Awwww......I'm just kidding!  We both had a great ride, and I had a great time!

Before I give you the impression that all I did was ride horses while visiting Alycia and her family, let me inform you on the purpose of my visit, (besides visiting) was to hand deliver Celtic Solstice to her, and work on some Quilt of Valor related items.  

We were really busy cutting scraps.....no photo......too busy.......
Trimming quilted quilts........well, Alycia trimmed more than me.........no photo........too busy.........
Making backings..........no photo.........too busy.........

TOO BUSY = LAUGHING, TALKING, VISITING

I was able to take a photo of the pile of quilts I added labels to though!
WOWZERS!  That's a LOT of beautiful quilts!

I was also able to work with Alycia's Quilts of Valor group at their work day!




What a wonderful group of ladies and gentleman I was able to meet and work with!
I loved being able to see how this group worked and was able to discuss with several of them the way Quilts of Valor Eastern Missouri works.  Several tips and ideas were shared back and forth.  It was a very productive meeting!  And as you can see, those blocks from Alycia's block drive are DEFINITELY being put to use!  I thoroughly enjoyed working with this group!

AND.......

I met my first follower outside of immediate friends and family!
From the minute she met me she said, "You look familiar, I know you!"  After she kept asking questions, she realized I am "Kevin the Quilter!"  Sorry for the blurry photo!  Everyone was giggling too much over what just happened! LOL

Thank you so much Alycia for yet another wonderful visit to your beautiful state of Colorado!  I was so honored to spend time with you, your family, and friends.  I had an absolutely wonderful time!  Please tell my girl Dixie I will be back!

Here is my question for you this week...........

Are you a charity quilter?  If so, which charities do you quilt for?  

Your replies will again be used in my upcoming presentation!  Thank you in advance for helping me out!

"Happy Trails"
I'm back in the saddle again!

Until next time,
Thanks for all of the encouragement!
Kevin the Quilter


31 comments:

  1. I quilt for both Project Linus and my local Scrapbag group which donates quilts locally to a variety of groups. (Salvation Army, Children's Aid, Food Bank, various other requests)

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  2. I quilt for cancer patients, kids who are placed in foster homes, home for unwed mothers and special requests that come to my friendship group.

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  3. Hi Kevin! Great post! Looks like you had a fantastic time! Whoop Whoop! You sure are a handsome devil! I have made quilts for quite a few charities, the most recent being quilting911, Local Aids charity ride, Local fire fighters needs, VFW....

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  4. What fun! I haven't met Alycia yet either but cannot wait to send her another quilt. Always nice to see everyone hard at work on getting them on down the line to their soldiers! I try to do QOV once or twice a year and I do Downy Quiltz for Kids too. This past year our guild also donated drawstring bags with stuff in them for kids in crisis. Personally QOV has my heart since I was an Army wife for 13 years--a lifetime ago ofc!

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  5. I make charity quilts for the local woman's shelter. I love it when I have enough scraps left over to make a lovely second quilt to donate to someone. Or when I decide I want to make a pattern and go way outside of my comfort zone I will donate it too. I still make sure they are quilt shop quality fabrics, and I do an excellent job quilting them.

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  6. Great photos! Lovely to have had time with like minded souls making gorgeous quilts for a great cause!

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  7. What a great time you had "horsing" around! Charity quilts, more charity lap blankets. They're small crocheted lap blankets that are given to every hospice patient. Crochet goes together fast and there's no quilting. Now I need to take a deep breath and work with a competitor of yours to cancel flight plans............

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  8. Hey Kevin, it's about time you got back to blogging!
    I volunteer once a week at the Camo Quilt Project in Plymouth, Wi. Camo Quilt Project in Plymouth is open Tues, Weds and Sat(am). This dedicated group of ladies and men have made and delivered over 20,000 camo quilts for our deployed service people free to them. The requestor must pay for shipping though.
    This group has donated workspace, donated utilities and 12 sewing machines that are usually all occupied. Donated utilities says something for the center of Wisconsin! It's been at -5 there for a few days.
    Fewer service people are being deployed lately so the requests for camo quilts are fewer. The Camo Quilt group is now making Veterans lap quilts for Vets in the county's nursing homes. These quilts are not of the camo fabric but are red, white, and blue fabric in any kind of pattern. There is also no cost to the recipients. I was lucky enough to be at the first presentation on Veterans Day 2013. I think there were about 28 lap quilts presented and I tell you that it was a very touching ceremony.
    One of the fun things about these Vets quilts is that most of the people who have been making the camo quilts for years are not quilters!!! There are only a handful of us that are quilters and are familiar with piecing, etc. to see these folks expand their knowledge and learn piecing for the first time is so much fun and they are having fun too!
    Of course if orders come in for the camo type quilts we all switch gears and return to quilting the camo quilts. I can't figure out how to copy the link on this iPad for you and your readers but if you search Camo Quilt Project Linda Wieck you should find some interesting reading. The creator, Linda Wieck was a recipient of $10,000 Make a Difference Day in 2011 for Camo Quilt Project. I am honored to be a part of this group of volunteers.
    Ok, I'm off my soap box now, thanks for reading.

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  9. Well, you read my blog, so you already know that many of my quilts go to one of three charities in the Fort Leonard Wood area. I make baby quilts for FLW's newborns. I make lap/throw/twin quilts for the wounded warriors (surviving spouses/parents) and veterans returning to FLW for rehabilitation. And finally, I make twin quilts, pillowcases and baby bibs for Genesis House, the local battered women & children's shelter.

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  10. I quilt for My church (prayer quilts, Children's home, and a life care center), Quilts for Kids, Quilts of Valor. I have also made pillowcases for diffrent causes bu mos tof them go to QOV.

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  11. I quilt NICU quilts, QOV, pillow cases for active overseas troops, quilts for teens at risk in my area (bed sized),
    1 special raffle quilt for Relay for Life per year. Love your stories!

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  12. What a fun day you had! Looks like you all accomplished lots as well as having a good time. I help with a local group called quilters against kids hunger who makes quilts for local kids distributed through guidance counselors at schools.

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  13. I think quilters are generally a very giving and generous group. My quilt bee picks a charity at least once each year and we all make quilts for it. Most often they're for soldiers, but we've also donated to the local woman's shelter and made a gazillion pillowcases for sick children. Next month we're getting together to make breast cancer bags to hold the ports they have while going through treatment.

    Personally, I try to do several each year. I make prayer quilts whenever there's a need and have donated to QOV, Project Linus, Quilts for Kids, local and overseas orphanages, etc. I'm not tied to one organization, but will donate wherever I hear there's a need. I'm very interested to hear about your presentation. Looks like you had a good time in Colorado!

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  14. I am back into quilting for about 3 years now, and am building a stash etc. Still doing the work gig, so my quilting time is not as much as I would like. I work on baby quilts as time permits that I can donate. I am not tied to any organization but will give when I see where there is a need... like a disaster or special circumstance. I alternate doing a boy or girl quilt, and look for good deals for the right colors.

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  15. I make quilts for whatever charity our guild is currently supporting. The charity changes with each new person who heads up the project. Currently we are making quilts for the Annie Malone Childrens' Home here in St. Louis. BTW not sure what you are conveying with the photo showing you and the horse from behind. ; - )

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  16. I am retired, so I can spend as much time as I please on quilting tops for Quilts of Valor. My yearly goal has been at least 30 tops; last year (2013) I exceeded that goal by 10! Some of these I take to my friend with a long arm and I quilt them myself. My main group is in west central MN; that is where the women charter a bus and deliver around a 1000 quilts to army hospitals every 2 years or so. I am their " scrap lady"; I end up with all the extras and crumbs! It keeps my challenged and entertained!

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  17. Hi Kevin! I can't wait to see how Alycia decides to quilt Celtic Solstice!

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  18. You look like a natural on Dixie. Sounds like you had a great time! It's so nice to see all those QOV being made and the block drive blocks being sewn into quilts. I do a couple charity quilts a year, which doesn't sound like much, but at least it's been consistent. I've done quilts and/or blocks for Heartstrings, Hands2Help, Happy Chemo, Project Linus, Bumble Beans, and QOV.

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  19. Kevin, You look right at home in the saddle. Dixie looks like a sweet girl. A question -- did you actually do "hand" sewing putting on labels.??? Welcome home.

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  20. What a grand adventure you've had, and a pretty neat group of peoples, too! Looked like Dixie was glad to have you on board to me. My work has generally been to help finish charity quilts, donated blocks, and church ministries.
    :-}pokey

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  21. Well TOO COOL!!!! What a wonderful visit you had, I'm smiling ear to ear just reading your post :) Love the pictures of you with Dixie - you look like you were made for each other ;) I remember the first time someone came up to me that I didn't know and said, "Are you the Teresa that blogs at A Quilt and A Prayer?" Wow - what a high! To think - someone actually reads that stuff we send out there in the Blogiverse LOL!!!

    I do participate in several charity projects at my Guild. We make baby quilts for all newborn Down Syndrome babies at vairous Nashville hospitals. One of our members is the mother of Alecia Talbott, the Executive Director at the DS Association for Middle Tennessee. Alecia had a DS child about 5 years ago, very unexpectedly as she was a young woman. She dove into study about it, joined a local support group and began being active in local events to expand awareness and raise funds - before long she was leading the Middle Tennessee effort! Naturally, this is a charity that is close to everyone's hearts! We also make quilt tops for Sewn in Love, a local charity that provides quilts to chemo patients. The lady who started it is a guild member who lost her husband to brain cancer several years ago. She said she got started when she saw how cold all the patients were when her husband was doing chemo. We also make tiny preemie quilts and knit even tinier preemie hats for most of the Nashville hospitals to give to newborn preemies.

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  22. So far, the only charity I have quilted for is "Quilts For Kids", an organization sponsored by Downy. They provide home-made, machine-quilted quilts to ill children in hospitals.

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  23. What fun photos of you on the horse and looks at that stack of beautiful quilts! I definitely think you had a great time and that last photo.....priceless!

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  24. The guild Im a member of does charity quilts for local shelter's in our area.

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  25. Looks like a fabulously fun and productive weekend. I have made a couple of quilts for a project called Blankets of Love. They are given to families who have suffered the tragedy of a still born baby. Just started supporting this, plan on doing more.
    There is a lady who blogs and quilts called Chookyblue. She recently posted she doesn't have time at the moment to do either because her family are facing another year of drought and they are working so hard to keep their cattle alive. Last year despite drought conditions, she started a quilt drive for families who lost everything in bush fires in her region. I think there were about 50 homes destroyed. She coordinated the quilt drive called Caring With Quilts. A big job considering that her own family were out until after midnight for a few weeks checking their own property for spot fires and up at dawn again to do the same. I thought I would mention that to you because I know she is too busy at present.

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  26. I make tops for Quilts of Valor. My little quilt guild also makes preemie quilts for a local hospital, along with lap and wheelchair quilts for Illinois veterans, and we also make placemats (Christmas on one side, something else on the other side) for the local Meals on Wheels group. I also donate fabrics to each of these causes, beyond what I make.

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  27. I just LOVE reading your stories!...Hope you don't mind but I added you to my Blog list on my Blog......I quilt for our local Hospital's NICU ward for babies....as far as inspired me to quilt, it would have to be Bonnie Hunter...found her just about the time I became disabled/retired..No one in my family ever saw a sewing machine!...self learner....You look so good on the Beautiful horse Kevin, you're a natural...

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  28. I have enjoyed reading your blog recently. I help with quilts at my church that are sent to Lutheran World Relief for disaster areas in many parts of the world. I also make quilts for the Linus Project and for my local quilt guild which are given to various charities in the area.

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  29. Just last Fall, I started a few quilts that will be headed to charity auctions. I live in a suburb of Chicago but spend a lot of time in Shipshewana, Indiana over the years. Among other things, they have fabulous quilt fabric shops in the area, with huge selections (one shop has 13,000+ bolts) that I can't get at my LQS(s) in IL.While visiting a few years ago, I discovered the Amish/Mennonite Haiti Benefit Relief Auction and through discussion with some area friends, I will be making a few quilts for these charity auctions this year.

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  30. Looks like you had a great time. Glad you missed having messy weather there. I'm sure it caught up with you somewhere this week.

    I just finished my first QOV that will be on it's way to Alycia soon. I don't finish a lot of quilts each year, so I only end up with charity quilts every other year or so. My first two charity quilts were for Drama Teen's school. They hold an auction each year to raise funds for special projects.

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