October FQ Challenge & Annual Winner

Hard to believe a whole year of our Fat Quarter Challenge has come to an end with the October drawing.  During October I received 3 beautiful quilts!  And one of those quilters was randomly drawn for the $100 annual prize.  More about that shortly.  Our October random prize winner was a repeat winner, Donna Dellacamera of Unionville, CT.  She submitted her quilt in April.  Donna will receive a $25 gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop.  We can’t thank them enough for sponsoring our monthly prizes for the past four years and they have agreed to do it again for next year.  Please take a look at their site.

Our 3 beautiful quilts received this month are from Jackie Fitzgerald (New Braunsfels, TX), Jane Reardon (Narragansett, RI) and Susan Seward (Superior, CO).

Our $100 cash prize winner for the year was randomly chosen from all the fat quarter challenge participants during the past year.  That winner happened to be Susan Seward who turned in her quilt this past month.  Congratulations!!

We will be starting a new year for the Fat Quarter Challenge.  If you are in Houston, this week, you can pick up a fat quarter at our booth.  Otherwise, you can supply your own fat quarter and get more information on the right hand side of our blog (under pages) about the challenge.  It’s been a fun year.  Sherree Newhouse, our Regional Coordinator from the Southwest will be coordinating next year’s fat quarter challenge.

Cheers, Tina

 

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The River Keeps on Flowing…

As quilts flow into my house and back out again, I am always amazed at the generosity of quilters.  I no sooner empty my house of quilts than I get a shipment from someone else and the stacks begin to grow again. Please enjoy these photos of recent quilts that joined the outpouring of quilted comfort!

A huge thanks to all the teams in California who send quilts my way to be distributed to QBB initiatives.

Sewing Servants is a group of ladies at North County Church of Christ in Escondido, CA.  They not only make quilts for QBB, but also send them to orphanage homes in Mexico.  These wonderful women meet every Monday night and sew beautiful quilts.

Ruth O’Neill picks up quilts from her guild, the Friendship Quilters.  She brings the quilts to me from time to time.  She has taken quilts to Guatemala when she goes to help install stoves in homes.

Thank you to all of you who quilt in a group or independently and donate so generously to Quilts Beyond Borders.  Many people will be warm due to your kindness and thoughtfulness.

Ann Drake, Regional Coordinator, Southern California

Quilts for Israel

One of our magnificent volunteers and prolific quilters, Donna Sciandra, is also a volunteer for the Georgia-based non-profit maasayyahdav, which serves those in need in Israel. Through Donna, we learned that Maasay Yahdav Board Member Doris Mintz would be taking a trip to Israel in September and that there were several opportunities to provide quilts to needy children there:

• Beit Singer is a home and school for children who have been abused and/or orphaned.  They have about 95 children there between the ages of 5-13, so we gave them 100 quilts.
• Neve Michael Children’s Village has two programs that we will be providing quilts to:  The Children’s Emergency Crisis Center (usually 15-20 children, ages 5-18) and the Teenage Girls Emergency Crisis Center (usually 40-50 girls, ages 13-18).  These children and teenage girls have all been removed from their homes because of abuse.  We gave them 70 quilts.  You can read about those programs here:  About Us – Neve Michael Children’s Home

Here are just a few photos of the 170 quilts sent to Israel for these initiatives, enjoy!

(Photo from Kim Bell above) From left to right:

1. Doris M & Sunshine Quilters

2. Doris M, Tammy S & Sunshine Quilters

3. Linda Kowalski

4 & 5. Doris M, Tammy S & Sunshine Quilters

    

Top Left, Left to Right:  Nancy Sturgeon & Carol E; Debby Connor & Dorothy K; Judith White & Norine Stein

Top right:  1st Quilt – Nancy Sturgeon & Theola Breaux; 2nd, 3rd & 4th quilt – Nancy Sturgeon & Lisa Cadzow

Middle Row, Left and Right:   All quilts by Dianne Combs

Bottom Left:  All quilts by Dianne Combs

Bottom Right, Left to Right:   Debby Connor & Norine Stein; Debby Connor & Geneal Smith; Nancy Sturgeon & Donna Sciandra.

Save the Date for IQF Houston

It may still feel like summer in Texas, but November and the International Quilt Festival in Houston will be here before we know it! We are excited to announce that Quilts Beyond Borders will have a booth again in 2018 and we are looking forward to meeting our supporters and spreading the word about QBB.

The upcoming show dates are November 8-11, 2018 with a preview night Nov. 7th. We will be sharing information about our cause, selling beautiful handmade items to help raise funds to offset our shipping costs, and if you have picked up a quilt kit at a past show, we will be happy to receive them back as finished quilts or tops (preferably with backing and binding).

We will be located at the back of Hall C, behind the main aisle and “Open Studios” in Row 100, Booth 147.

See you there!

September FQ Challenge

We are in the home stretch of our annual Fat Quarter Challenge with one month left.  This month our randomly drawn winner was Diane Hamm from Ellington, CT.  You can see her FQ Challenge quilt she submitted in July here.  Congratulations Diane!  She has won a $25 gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop.  Please take some time to check out the FQ shop.  They have been our sponsor for 4 years and we really appreciate their help.

This month I received a beautiful quilt from La Donna Helveston of West Point, MS.  I have to admit that I am partial to the beautiful jewel tones in the quilt.  Unfortunately the sun has washed out some of these vibrant colors, but oh so beautiful with the quilting also.

Remember you have until October 31 to enter our 2017-2018 FQ Challenge and be eligible for the monthly $25 FQ Shop gift certificate and also to be eligible for the $100 cash prize.  We will have a booth again this year at the International Quilt Festival in Houston if you would like to stop by and pick up a FQ for the new challenge next year.

Regards, Tina

Quilter Spotlight: Donna Dellacamera

Our Spotlight Quilter this month is quilter and generous volunteer extraordinaire, Donna Dellacamera. Donna has given QBB many quilts over a lot of years, and has won the Fat Quarter Challenge several times as well!   We want to feature Donna’s story, as well as a recent initiative she spearheaded after being inspired to help the children in the news who were separated from their parents at the border.

We are so grateful for Donna and our many other wonderful volunteers, we hope you enjoy learning more about her as well as photos of a few of the quilts she and Karen Matheson recently donated.

 

I started sewing as a child, taught by my mom and grandma, and made my first quilt at about age 10.  It was very colorful, but not very well constructed! Since then I have improved considerably and make mostly baby and children’s quilts for gifts and for charity.

I learned about Quilts Beyond Borders at International Quilt Festival in Houston. While at the booth, I met Karen Matheson, a quilter from my area of CT, who shortly after became the QBB Northeast Regional Coordinator.

As a retired pediatric and elementary school nurse, I love the idea of making quilts, a sign of warmth, comfort and love, for children in need!

During the recent border crisis, I was devastated by images of children separated from parents, and was moved to find some way to help.  With the encouragement of Carla, Tina and Ann, I was able to find a location in CT, where unaccompanied migrant children as well as some who had been separated from parents at the border, were being cared for.  Karen provided quilts and I added some more of my own to total 15 quilts, one for every child in the program.  It was a wonderful feeling to deliver them them to the office of Noank Community Support Services that day in July, knowing that the quilts would soon be in the arms of the children in their care.

So often, we can feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of need in our world today. But I believe that every single efforts counts when we do it with love.  I was humbled to be considered in the quilter spotlight, as I am just an ordinary person who likes to sew!

 I applaud everyone who is involved in Quilts Beyond Borders.  Little, by little, together we make a difference.

 

 

The quilts -15 in total, were happily received by Dot Hazlin of Noank Community Support Services and will be distributed to the children in their care.

Thank you, Donna, for all that you do for Quilts Beyond Borders and for the Children!

 

 

From the Northwest and Beyond – Quilts for El Cajon Refugees

We were so delighted to provide these 150 quilts to the Refugees from Syria and Afghanistan that have settled in El Cajon California. These quilts were a part of 500 that were donated by many volunteers in Quilts Beyond Borders to bring joy to children after the theft of gifts intended for them to celebrate Eid. Please see the post on July 10, 2018 for the full details and information about this delivery. You can click on each picture to see who made and quilted each quilt.

As always I am grateful for the support by the many quilters that make up our Northwest Regional group. Their time, gifts and talents are evident in the beautiful quilts you will see below.

Susan Schmidt  – Northwest Regional Coordinator

 

Quilts for Giles County

Since moving to SW Virginia in lovely Giles County in 2016, I looked for opportunities for Quilts Beyond Borders to provide quilts to children in the area.  I was lucky to find a very active group called Giles Early Education Project (GEEP).   “This group began in 2012 spurred on by the grim statistics of poverty, teenage pregnancy and child abuse and neglect that was reported in the Giles County Health Assessment Survey.”  Through GEEP, we contacted the Foster Children Program in the county.

Last year we provided 11 quilts to foster children.  The foster program was thrilled to have these quilts and told me that the children really appreciated and loved them.  It was nice to bring some warmth and comfort to these children.

The following quilts were from Donna Sciandra, Vicki Waller, Becky Beckenbach, Dede Cranford, Pat Laney, Ronnie (?), Joy McAuley, Kathleen Rountree, Shirley Sellers, and Ann D.  I apologize for not having everyone’s name, but during my unpacking from our move, I misplaced the full list of names, but did find a jotted note I had made.  If one of these quilts has been misidentified, please let us know and we will correct it.  If you click on the thumbnail you can see the quilters names and if two names, then the second name is the longarmer.

Finally, we don’t post pictures of the children, but I did receive this thank you note that has adorned my desk all year.  Please know that these children do love these quilts.

Regards, Tina

August Fat Quarter Challenge

The weather for the past 10 days here in SW Virginia has been more like July weather, so I’m hoping for a reprieve in temperature in a few days.  However, it has been a great time to stay in and sew as our two quilters perhaps did who submitted FQ challenge quilts in August.   The quilts came from Becky Beckenbach of Sugar Land, TX (first quilt) and Trudy Pickle of Austin, TX (second quilt).  You can see their quilts below.

Our winner, Donna Dellacamera (Unionville, CT) is from a quilt submitted in April that you can see here.  Donna is another of our prolific quilters and volunteers.  Enjoy your $25 gift certificate from the Fat Quarter Shop, our long time sponsor for our monthly prize.  Please visit them because they have some awesome deals.

This year because the Houston International Quilt Show is later (November 8-11), we are extending our FQ Challenge thru the end of October this year.  If you picked up a FQ from us at Houston, you have time yet to turn in a quilt.  Also, if you would like to participate you still have time.  You can read how to participate on the right hand side bar of our blog.  We will have a booth again this year at Houston, so stop by and see us and pick  up another fat quarter.

Cheers, Tina

 

From the Northwest and Beyond – Quilts for Guatemala

An additional 30 quilts were needed to take to a village near Chichicastanago, Guatemala in June that were provided by the Northwest and Beyond Regional volunteer network of quilters. They were hand delivered by people involved with The Guatemala Project that install safer stoves for families in their homes. You can read more about this project by going to our June 18, 2018 post. Click on the pictures below to see who made and quilted the quilts.

Thank you to each quilter who provided the beautiful quilts so that we could send to children in need.

Susan Schmidt –  Northwest Regional Coordinator