I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.
Today was Community Service Day at The Quilt Company. We have agreed to contribute 50 quilts to the Bethlehem Haven House to distribute to the women to whom they provide services. Fifty finished quilts between now and October, I'm thinking we must be nuts. This is a sizable project (even for us) but we feel very strongly that an important part of our business is to provide opportunities for local quilters to give back to the community. We tackle some sort of charitable project every three months and these quilts are the project that we have selected for the next 
several months. Now we had to get organized.
I have been accused of being a control freak. I prefer to think of it more as having uncompromised standards. I am willing to admit that we sometimes don’t play well with others. I am an extreemly busy business person. I have very low tollarance for comittee work, especially committees that can't make quick decisions. When the Directors of Haven House ask for 100 quilts, we offered to provide 50 if we could do it “our” way. “Our way” means that I
control the quality of the fabrics, the workmanship, the patterns and the finishing of the projects. I also feel very strongly that I don’t ever want to give away a quilt that I would not want to keep for myself.
We advertised that we needed help between 10:00 and 3:00 today to cut as many kits as possible for the donation quilts. The plan was to cut quilt kits from our HUGE overflowing scrap basket. Haven House is hosting their major fundraiser next week and they
would like us to bring fabric blocks for all 350 attendees to sign and write messages of hope. Those signature blocks will then be inserted into the quilts. Our group of volunteers selected and sorted fabrics from the scrap basket then used our AccuQuilt cutting machine to cut squares and triangles and rectangles into individual quilt kits. Each kit will be given 1, 2, 3 or more signature blocks of the appropriate color and size to be inserted into the patchwork pattern.
Today was Community Service Day at The Quilt Company. We have agreed to contribute 50 quilts to the Bethlehem Haven House to distribute to the women to whom they provide services. Fifty finished quilts between now and October, I'm thinking we must be nuts. This is a sizable project (even for us) but we feel very strongly that an important part of our business is to provide opportunities for local quilters to give back to the community. We tackle some sort of charitable project every three months and these quilts are the project that we have selected for the next 
several months. Now we had to get organized.I have been accused of being a control freak. I prefer to think of it more as having uncompromised standards. I am willing to admit that we sometimes don’t play well with others. I am an extreemly busy business person. I have very low tollarance for comittee work, especially committees that can't make quick decisions. When the Directors of Haven House ask for 100 quilts, we offered to provide 50 if we could do it “our” way. “Our way” means that I
control the quality of the fabrics, the workmanship, the patterns and the finishing of the projects. I also feel very strongly that I don’t ever want to give away a quilt that I would not want to keep for myself.We advertised that we needed help between 10:00 and 3:00 today to cut as many kits as possible for the donation quilts. The plan was to cut quilt kits from our HUGE overflowing scrap basket. Haven House is hosting their major fundraiser next week and they
would like us to bring fabric blocks for all 350 attendees to sign and write messages of hope. Those signature blocks will then be inserted into the quilts. Our group of volunteers selected and sorted fabrics from the scrap basket then used our AccuQuilt cutting machine to cut squares and triangles and rectangles into individual quilt kits. Each kit will be given 1, 2, 3 or more signature blocks of the appropriate color and size to be inserted into the patchwork pattern.
As you can see, we had a wonderful turnout of sewers, pressers, sorters, cutters and even cleaner uppers! By the end of the day we had coordinated, cut, pressed and packed a total of 41 quilt tops in assorted patterns! AMAZING!!! What I found even more amazing is that with 41 quilt tops removed; our scrap basket STILL looks like THIS!Next week we will have the blocks signed and insert them back into the
appropriate kits. Then we will set up sewing days here in the store and ask volunteers to help us put them together. Those people that don’t want to sew here at the shop will be able to sign-out a quilt top and take it home to assemble it.At 8:00 am this morning I couldn’t help wondering what kind of mess I had gotten myself into this time. Now less than 12 hours later, with such wonderful volunteers, I’m thinking “50 quilts, no problem”!
Karen
P.S. No fabric yet.................
1 comment:
congrats on a job well done!
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