QOC Day One November 7

The first job for any Quilts of Compassion deployment is setting up what Janice calls our "Staging Area." We have to load our vehicles with as many quilts as possible to go into the neighboring communities, and need to be able to access large adult quilts (male/female) or children's quilts (again, for both boys and girls) easily and quickly. One thing that we try to do as we serve the community is give every single member of the household their own quilt, appropriate for them and their needs. It's necessary to transport the quilts in large, contractor-style bags to protect them from dirt and excess handling, but we quickly get those bags open and the quilts stacked on tables by size and gender so that we can access an assortment. We don't transport "bagged" quilts into the community for distribution.

Our staging area in the hotel in Winnie was a little smaller than we are usually used to...and we had a massive number of quilts donated for this trip. THREE THOUSAND quilts is a lot of quilts, y'all. For context, all the quilts in the International Quilt Festival show numbered about 1,500. And I have to say before I go much further, as a quilt maker and a bit of a quilt snob...these quilts were MAGNIFICENT. At least 1,000 of the quilts we had to deliver, all lovingly made by quilters all over the world, were heirloom-quality quilts. I'm just saying...these weren't "quick charity quilts!" These quilts were the kinds of quilts I'd make for my first grandchild's wedding. Or my mom & dad's 50th anniversary. HEIRLOOM quilts. I absolutely adore the fact that there are literally thousands of quilt makers around the world that know when they make a charity quilt, they are gifting that quilt to GOD and His mission of redeeming the world. No cutting corners, no making something cheap...and no giving away a quilt that was "not good enough for me, but some poor person will appreciate it." These quilts were FIRST FRUITS, and it was amazing and humbling and tear-inducing to behold as we opened bag after bag viewing these lovely quilts. I snapped a few pictures, but you have to believe me when I say there were breath-taking quilts I didn't photograph.

Now, all y'all that are saying, "Oh, well...I cannot donate a quilt then because my quilt making skills aren't heirloom quality yet..." be not afraid! Because a large number of our donations are fleece blankets, crocheted or knitted blankets (of all sizes, but a lot of infants), and simple pieced and tied quilts, also. And Lori the Quilt Snob watched kids of all ages reach right past heirloom quilts and grab those fleece throws with delight, bury their faces in them, and say, "It's SO SOFT!" Please, please, please, keep sending fleece and crochet! The retired middle school teacher in me says FOR THE CHILDREN...send fleece!

Crocheted edge fleece

A great size for kids!

Dennis personally gifted this fleece quilt to a child later in the week, and he saw the joy light up her eyes.

Texas Strong by Jen de Jong (who I discovered I have to share with Janice, since they are real life friends)

I stopped taking pictures of quilts, and started taking pictures of labels at some point...because it was just so cool to see how far the quilts had traveled.

After we loaded our vehicles, we headed to Port Arthur to escort the team into the neighborhoods we'd seen in our short visit there.

Again, I'm horrible about being IN the mission and DOING the mission...while taking pictures and blogging about it. So, I don't have any pictures of all seven of us from Day One (and on Day Two we were joined by our eighth team member), or really many pictures from that afternoon of walking the neighborhoods and delivering quilts. After all, it's not always appropriate to ask a family if you can photograph them with their quilts, so I have to do it with discernment. But this sweet couple were easy to convince...she's a crafter, and lost fabric and machines to the flood. She had gone to a Cricut Maker workshop the night before, though, and she had hope that she'd be crafting again soon! Both loved their quilts. We were expecting the weather to change, and everyone was very grateful for the quilt arriving just before it turned very cold. Most families are living in campers in their front yards, or trying to camp in a house with walls missing.

After it began getting dark, we parted from the team to head back on the 30 mile drive to Winnie, with plans to meet in the morning. But going on mission with Dennis requires that he eat regular meals (nobody wants to hug his neck if he's hungry), so we stopped for a quick dinner, then began to find our way out of Port Arthur. We happened to drive by Encounter Church and noticed that their parking lot was full...on a Tuesday night? 

Encounter Church, Port Arthur

So, we stopped in to see if we could serve any of their congregation that had been impacted by the flooding. We met one of their pastors' wives, Mia, in the lobby, and explained our purpose. She was thrilled, since over 50 families in their congregation had lost everything. It was Tuesday night Bible study, and the women were meeting in the sanctuary, men in the youth building, and kids upstairs! It was a perfect scenario for distributing a lot of quilts quickly directly to people impacted by the flooding. I set up inside with women's quilts, and Dennis set up at the van, handing out quilts in the parking lot. He actually got to go into the men's Bible study and give a brief explanation of the Quilts of Compassion mission, and invite the men to come get a quilt when they got out of their meeting. They released a bit before the women's group did, and it was awesome to watch them beeline for the van! Dennis shared that they all pushed a young man to the front, saying, "This guy needs quilts more than the rest of us!" Manny is from Puerto Rico, and not only had he been impacted locally in Texas, but he was headed home to PR to visit his family the following week. Dennis loaded him up with quilts to take to his family, and now we could say that Quilts of Compassion reached Puerto Rico! How cool is that?

Dennis gave Manny a "North Carolina" quilt with our lighthouses to remember him.

Since we hadn't planned this event, I was "restricted" to the quilts that I had left in the van after walking the neighborhoods in Port Arthur all afternoon. Many of the quilts distributed here, as a result, were the quilts I had brought with me from eastern NC. I love looking at these piles and recognizing the generosity of my friends and clients.

This sweet girl doesn't have a room or a bed yet. One of the other moms asked her, "Does that match your room?" and she said, "I don't really have one." She was all smiles and loved her quilt.

If every quilter in America could see this picture, we would never need to ask for quilt donations again. Isn't he the sweetest thing you ever saw?

God was so good and so sweet to take us to Encounter Church! We just loved the spirit in that place, and the hope and stories from all the congregation as they shared His protection during the flooding. People who had lost everything told us how good God is, and how Faithful He is to His People. One member took 10 wheelchair sized quilts to church members in a nursing home that have been "doubled up" in another temporary nursing home location, forced to have several people to a room.

We left Encounter Church so grateful and full of God's love and provision that we missed the turn to Winnie and had to by-pass to find our hotel. Such a great first day! We were filled with anticipation of all the Lord would bring us on Day Two. He does not disappoint! Keep reading.

International Quilt Festival 2017

Dennis and I attended the "Oshkosh of Quilting," aka International Quilt Festival, on Friday and Saturday, November 3-4, 2017. We wore our Quilts of Compassion gear, since we considered it part of the gift from the ministry that we were able to attend. So many industry partners assisted the Disaster Response TEAM deployment this year! We had donations collected by Art Gallery Fabrics, APQS, and Missouri Star Quilting Company. We had fabric donations from Connecting Threads, a regular supporter of Quilts of Compassion. We had batting donations from Hobbs Batting (more on that later), and many more people and quilt shops and companies that I wasn't personally connected with...so see Janice's posts (linked here as available) for even more awesomeness from the industry!

First of all, if you came here for a quilt show of the magnificent collection we saw, you will be sadly disappointed. I took almost no pictures at the show. I was too busy drooling. I had just snapped this picture of my friend Connie Griner's wonderful quilt "Wrinkly, Irony" when she walked up and hugged my neck! Connie and I have become virtual friends first but now we are REAL LIFE friends.

Connie Griner, Wrinkly, Irony

 There were too many exhibits to name, but one of my favorites to see in person was the Van Gogh exhibit from the Cherrywood Fabrics Challenge last year. They announced their new challenge for 2018--PRINCE! So much purple. How many raspberry berets do you think we'll see?

Oblivious was my favorite.

And this GIGANTIC quilt of the fifty states! Too big for any space at my house. Just spectacular.

D & I grabbed lunch in the cafeteria upstairs in the convention center on Friday, and this fortune was in my cookie. NOT COOL, universe...NOT COOL.

Let me talk about the VENDOR side of Festival for just a minute. Here's one awesome view from upstairs looking out over just a few rows of the vendor space.

BECAUSE THIS IS FESTIVAL!

There were about twenty rows of vendors the length of the convention center, packed in like cord wood, as we like to say in the south. We laughed at the difference between the "museum" like volumes in the quilt show side of things, and the Wall Street trading floor volumes on the vendor side! Man, was it loud. And colorful. And AWESOME.

I really wasn't on much of a "shopping spree," mainly because I knew the following week's mission would take up all the available space in the van. But there were a few things I knew I needed. The first was happening upon Doohickey Designs' booth and meeting Shari, the amazing Binding Babies creator. I've wanted Gingersnap and Gumdrop Binding Babies ever since I knew that there was such as a thing as a Binding Baby! In fact, I'd asked young Gingersnap to get me one for my birthday (she's five years old, you know) and at my party, eating cake, she exclaimed, "OH, NO, GRAMS...I forgot about your Binding Baby!" After assuring her that I really didn't expect my 5yo granddaughter to order online, I promised her that I'd get one for myself soon. TA DA!

I mostly ignored the fortune. These two beauties are my Gingersnap and Gumdrop Binding Babies.

The only other shopping I managed to do for myself was picking up a Moda Bella white jelly roll (in case I needed it to make hexies on the trip home), and replacing all the Primitive Gatherings navy blue Liberty Gatherings fabrics that I've sewn up for #bluerkblocks and wanted so I can make more.

Friday Dennis wore his Oshkosh tshirt, but his QOC name tag. There were a few famous quilting men walking around (Rob Appell was one I saw), but this little painted closet door made us chuckle.

Saturday, we had a great time talking with vendor/partners about the Quilts of Compassion mission. Steph, the director of sales and marketing for Hobbs Batting, has been another of those Instagram friends that I couldn't wait to meet in real life. Don't you love it when you meet someone from social media that is exactly the same in person as you imagined? Steph is awesome. As we shared about our mission and purpose in east Texas (she already knew nearly everything from IG, because I am mostly transparent, in case you didn't know that), she made sure we left the convention center with two cases of Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 queen sized battings (about $300 value) to make more QOC quilts when we got home. So precious!

Steph from Hobbs Batting

Another company whose generosity is unmatched was Martelli Enterprises. Valarie spent a long time talking with us about charity quilting, both ours and hers, support of law enforcement, frustration with the VA (ha!), and the power of their wonderful ergonomic cutters and tables. When we were ready to walk away, she handed us a bag full of cutters, blades, and even an awesome ruler...and told us just to "let her know" when we needed more. What a sweetheart!

We were also trying to finish up a few "last minute" items for the rest of the team as they traveled Sunday and Monday, including picking up some quilts that were in Houston for the deployment. Like the rest of Texas, Houston is large...and Erica is a longarm quilter on the north side of town that made the special effort to meet us Saturday evening in front of the convention center and drop off ten quilts that she'd collected for our delivery. It was great timing, since I started giving them away immediately on Sunday as we arrived at the staging area!

Erica met us just before we left Houston on Saturday night.

Many more highlights of the Festival adventure...I don't know if you heard, but there was some kind of sports team that won some big prize just before we arrived in Houston. It was hilarious and amazing to have a World Series parade honoring the Houston Astros right in the middle of downtown Houston while we were IN downtown Houston! So much orange--and such an encouraging event for a very downtrodden community still hurting and recovering from the flooding.

I heard a few people say that Festival was smaller than previous years, but I absolutely adored it. I am grateful that our mission to east Texas coincided with International Quilt Festival. There were several other quilting charities there with booths and opportunities to learn about their missions and ministries. One thing is for certain...the entire Festival was "Houston Strong" this year!

Leftovers

I managed to get both of my Leftovers variations quilted, so I thought I’d post a couple of pictures.

Leftovers 3, pieced in Jo Morton fabrics with Barbara Brackman background

I love Baptist Fan. It's my go-to pattern.

Leftovers 2, in 3 Sisters fabric

Quilted in Feather Puff in Glide Cool Grey 7

Believe it or not, I also finished a client quilt or two.

Custom Flange Binding on a vintage Dresden quilt

104" finished custom quilting

Dresdens are ditched with a ruler and freemotion stipple in the background. Lattices ditched, outer borders custom quilted in Emerald Isle Feather.

This precious baby gift was quilted in Loopy Hearts with Glide Military Gold.

 

 

 

And now I'm thinking that I need to do some single block quilts.

It's still more work than I like to log onto this page and post pictures...but I'm going to keep it going for a while. I need the documentation of my work.

Thanks for reading!

Lori

Nearly Two Years, but Little Has Changed

I would like to begin this blog with lots of false promises of "I'm back to stay!" and "I'll be posting regularly again," but I'm not going to do that. I think I have a few things to say today, maybe a bit later this week, and then I'll definitely have much to tell you when I get back from Texas with our next deployment with Quilts of Compassion. But I cannot promise a single thing beyond that. As evidenced by my blogging history, I have good intentions, but less follow-through. If you are truly interested in following what I do day-to-day, you should follow my Instagram account.

And so...time warp. I'm just going to pretend nothing of note has happened since January 2016, and just post today as if you are all caught up. If you are my dear friend and rely on this blog to know what is going on in my life--CALL ME.

In my latest quilting endeavors, I have a beautiful vintage client quilt in the frame.

I also have new design I've been testing called "Leftovers." I whipped up the design to use up fabric that was left over from another quilt, and it has taken on a life of its own. It's a great way to use a charm pack and a couple of yards of background fabric, so let me skip the preliminaries and give you the how-to.

Pictured: "Leftovers" laying on top of Swell (designed by Camille Roskelley of Thimbleblossoms), made from the remains of two Jolly Bars of Prairie and Sundrops from Corey Yoder for Moda Fabrics.

Fabric Requirements for your own version of Leftovers

1 charm pack
3 yards of a contrasting fabric for background, backing, and binding

• at least 38" of background fabric
• at least 55" of backing fabric
• at least 12.5" of binding fabric

batting at least 40x50

Cutting instructions

1. Split your charm pack in half (two stacks 2.5" x 5").
2. Cut six 5" strips of your background fabric, then crosscut them into 1.5" x 5" rectangles.
*******
3. After your top is together, cut four strips (your choice of width) for borders.
4. Your backing needs to be about 55" long, and you can strip up the rest of your fabric for binding. You'll need 4-5 strips 2.5" wide for binding.

Sewing instructions

1. Chain piece all 42 2.5x5" rectangles in one stack with background fabric on each side. I don't clip my threads, and instead wait until after ironing and trimming at the cutting board to clip the sections apart. Speed is your friend.

2. Trim up each block to 4.5"x4.5" Use the first 42 to make 10 blocks, and chain piece them through the machine.

3. Repeat with the other half.

4. Web your top together.

5. Add borders to all four sides. I've made three quilts so far, and I've cut those borders 1.5", 2" and 2.5" and I like all three looks. I'm probably going to try 3" borders on the next one.

Leftovers 2, in 3Sisters fabrics for Moda

Well, there you have it. Leftovers, on the most abandoned blog in the whole dang blogosphere.

Leftovers 3, in Jo Morton & Barbara Brackman fabrics