Community Quilt Projects

I'm working on making quilts to donate to the Woman's Shelter in the town I work in. Each year at Christmas time my office "adopts" the people in the shelter. We take up a collection of money and gifts. This year there were 12 children between the ages 3 months and 16 years old in the shelter along with thier mothers. That's more people than ever. I felt awful.

Can you imagine having no home? I cannot imagine how stressful that must be for a Mom. I donated what I could but really felt it wasn't enough.

My quilting guild, the Bayside Quilters, has a community quilt program. I usually have a goal of donating 3 quilts a year to this program. I didn't meet my goal last year because I was busy selling, buying, moving and fixing up my new house. I'm thinking that this year instead of donating to the guild I will use my time and stash to donate quilts to the Woman's shelter.

There are a couple of problems with that. One is that I can't make a quilt for just a couple of the kids, it's all or nothing. The second is I won't know until just before Christmas how many kids or what thier ages are. The third problem is TIME. The fourth problem is MONEY for the batting.

I think the biggest problem is going to be the time. I could make and quilt 12 60" by 60" quilts in 12 months IF I had my quilting machine set up. But I don't and I don't think I will be getting it set up any time soon. I don't have space in the house, not unless I set it up in the dining room and that would be really ugly. The whole first floor is an open floor plan and quilting machines are just not attractive.

I bought this house with the intention of using the building out back as my sewing studio. It will be PERFECT! Isn't it beautiful?? Can't you picture me walking out there in the morning with my dog and my cat to spend the day listening to music, sewing and eating chocolate??

But, my son and his family have come to live with me and they need the studio to store thier household belongings. My son is in the construction business and he has no work. He's exploring other avenues of work but has not found anything yet. The storage unit they are currently using costs $240.00 a month,..... way to much money!!


I can quilt on my home machine, but it takes so long and it puts so much stress on my home machines and my body that I really don't like to.


So I'm setting myself a goal of making 2 quilt tops a month for now and I will worry later about finding the money for the batting and how I will get them all quilted.
Anyway, we'll see what I can do.

I've already made some progress. I have a couple of tops made so far. I have two done and three that need borders. I might just make the YBR a little bigger and not put a border on it. I'm having a hard time finding the right colors for borders and I don't want to go out and buy any fabric. I just can't afford it. I'm thinking of using simple patterns that will look good without borders. Any suggestions anyone?