Quilts, quilts, quilts…

Today I have two quilters to feature:

Quilter, Elizabeth Raach, from Austin, TX sends Quilts Beyond Borders a quilt every September. This is the fourth year to donate a quilt to the organization. She told me she has visited Uganda twice; therefore, she understands the need we as a volunteer organization are trying to fill. Elizabeth’s quilt is the lovely multi-colored hexes mixed with beautiful African-inspired prints. We are thankful for her dedication to QBB and look forward to receiving another quilt in the future.

Prolific longarmer Patti Obyc from Powell, OH has also sent us another beautiful round of quilts. Today we are featuring her lovely longarm work on tops made by Marsha A. Cribbs (patchwork with pink binding), DeDe Crawford (blue and cream), Sue Torre of the Willoughby Wallace Library Quilters, CT (pink and green floral large squares), Martha Miller (frogs), and Ginny Hurt (patchwork with blue trim).

We are thankful to both Elizabeth and Patti for their time and dedication to Quilts Beyond Borders. Have a lovely Thursday evening! – Jodi

Round One from Theola!

Theola, from Houston, TX, is a prolific, talented topper. There are so many beautiful tops in the two boxes she sent me. I am attaching pictures of the tops from Box #1. Do enjoy the eye candy.

I am particularly fond of the batiks, and each tops is pieced so well. Theola, thank you for doing such amazing work and dedicating your time to helping out QBB.

Stay tuned for the second box of tops. – Jodi

Quilts Headed to Burundi

Ginger Kauffman posted to her blog about some of the quilts she will be taking to Burundi with her when she leaves. The quilts will be among 300 which we are sending to Sister Connection’s kids camp, a camp that is run for the children of dispossessed widows in Burundi. To read more, and see the pictures of the quilts, please go to Ginger’s Blog:

http://threeminutestonine.blogspot.com/search/label/Quilts%20Without%20Borders

Regards,
Carla

Call for Quilts Going to Russia

Orphan Outreach

Quilts Beyond Borders has forged a new relationship with Orphan Outreach, located in Plano, TX. Orphan Outreach’s mission is to improve ”the lives of orphans and at-risk children in Guatemala, Honduras, Russia and India through early intervention, education and evangelism.” This is a similar mission shared by Quilts Beyond Borders, which has motivated the work we have done in countries in Africa, as well as Haiti, and Central America. We are grateful to have an opportunity to team up and help Orphan Outreach with an up-coming mission trip to Russia.

The Request

The organization has asked Quilts Beyond Borders to help fulfill a special need for 24 young Russian women, who will soon be graduating from the orphanage and moving into their own apartment. The 24 quilts need to be 42X60 inches long and the style should be considered for a young woman, aged 17-20 years old. They should also be machine quilted and machine bound in order to hold up to severe laundry conditions.

As well, Orphan Outreach has requested 12 additional baby quilts for those girls who are currently pregnant. These quilts should be at least 36 inches by 48 inches.

Pease include a label for each included quilt you send. The label should read:
Quilts Beyond Borders
Made for You with Love
By (Quilter’s Name)
Belongs to (Space for Recipient’s Name)

The Deadline

We are asking Quilt Beyond Borders volunteers to commit to making one or more of these 36 quilts by Friday, August 31, 2012. This means the quilts need to be finished and ready to send no later than this date. Please email Quilts Beyond Borders  to inform us of your commitment to completing one or more of these quilts by August 31, 2012. We will respond letting you know where you may send the quilt(s) once completed.

We thank you in advance for your willingness to continue your volunteerism with Quilts Beyond Borders. This is a new opportunity and country for Quilts Beyond Borders, and we cannot express our enthusiasm enough. We hope you are equally as excited about enriching the lives of young orphan women and children through your love of quilting.

Tops by Audrey M.; Quilted by Ramona Y.

Here are a couple of beautiful quilts to brighten up your weekend…

Ramona Y., of Crownsville, MD, contributed her quilting and binding skills to these beautiful tops crafted by Audrey Murphy. Each of these quilts are so festive and lively. The butterflies flutter off the page, the stars practically twinkle, and the blue sashing really brings out the rows on the ladder quilt.

Thank you, Ramona and Audrey, for collectively creating these four quilts.  -Jodi

A Team Effort: From Quilt Tops to Finished Product

Bruce and Martha Pouliot of Bow, NH, have quilted tops made by Richard and Martha Miller.

There are some really great quilting details, which I tried to capture in a couple of photos. The Finding Nemo quilt with aquatic quilting is particularly cute. The quilt with the bear blocks reminds me of a lot of Scandinavian textile designs, which I happen to love.

Thank you to the Millers and the Pouliots for creating these great quilt, which will surely delight the children who receive them.

Quilting by Ramona Yurwitz

QBB recently received some finished quilts from Ramona Yurwitz, who resides in Crownsville, MD. Ramona did a lovely job quilting tops from Peggy Weir, the Willoughby Wallace Library Quilters, Faith’s aunt, and Theola Breaux. All of the completed quilts look amazing, and I really like the purple and blue tie-dyed fabric used on the quilt from Faith’s aunt. Truly psychedelic.

Ramona has been practicing her longarming on quilts for QBB, and we are thankful for her help. Quilting for QBB is a wonderful way to help out a great cause and work on further developing your longarm skills. Thanks, again, Ramona.

-Jodi

Quilts from Ruth Cook

Quilt tops from Kent and Faith Njaa, Faith’s aunt, Gayle Stephens, and “a friend” were quilted by Ruth Cook of Tustin, MI. Ruth has a longarm business, Ruthie’s Designs Longarm Quilting. I was particularly fond of the butterflies and dragonflies she quilted on the green squares within Gayle’s top.

We would like to thank Ruth for sharing her talents and enhancing these tops with her quilting finesse.

Tops Quilted by Keri Celik

I recently received three quilts completed by Keri Celik of Amherst, OH with some fun, bubbly designs. I’m quite fond of circles and loopy styles so each of these quilts brought a smile to my face.

The quilt top with the red border was made by Paula Park. Virginia Lopez made the lovely green and gold top. The mauve and green dots and squares top was made by Sandra Cassidy. Keri did a great job bringing out the character of each top with her quilting. Thank you, Keri, for your amazing work and dedication to QBB.

Jodi

6 Pretty Quilts from Nancy

One of the many lovely benefits of coordinating long arming for QBB is that every once in a while I get to meet someone in my neck of the woods. As some of you know, I belong to several long arming Yahoo groups and I occasionally post that I have tops kitted up and ready for quilting. Over the last 4 years I’ve had respondents from Alaska to Florida, Maine to California, even from Canada. No one from Hawaii, yet, but perhaps that will happen and I can drop off the tops in person, and practice the hulas I’ve learned over the years!

Anyway, I digress. Last month I received a note from a lady named Nancy Sturgeon, who had seen our blog and was offering to quilt for us. That name looked very familiar to me, so I did a little searching and discovered that Nancy and I belonged to the same guild, the Northern Illinois Long Arm Guild! I met Nancy for lunch and dropped off 6 tops, and was delighted at the next guild meeting when Nancy showed the lovely completed quilts at the guild’s Show and Tell. Nancy talked about Quilts Beyond Borders and mentioned the wonderful synergy of doing good for a needy child at the same time as you get to practice new techniques and enhance your skills. Nancy’s talk encouraged two other guild members to sign up to quilt some tops for us, and Nancy picked up 6 more tops to do for us before the next guild meeting.

Nancy did a wonderful job of the quilts, using a different technique for each of them. Click on the thumbnails below so you can see a close-up.

Thanks for doing such a great job of these, Nancy! I know the children will love them! And thanks so much for introducing QBB to our guild!

Regards,
Carla