Charity Quilt Exhibit and Presentation

3/15/20 update: The March guild meeting is cancelled. The Quilt Exhibit and Presentation has been postponed. Thank you for your understanding.

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The fruits of the "2019 Monthly Quilt Blocks for Charity Collaboration" for our guild's community service project will be exhibited at the Choo Choo Quilters March Guild meeting on Monday, March 16, at 7pm. Bed quilts made to support the Chambliss Center for Children will be on display and then presented to representatives from Chambliss.

Ginny (left) and Sherry show one of the finished bed quilts, "Woven."

2019 Monthly Quilt Block program
Lead by Cuddle Quilt Co-Chairs, Sherry Reed and Ginny Minninger, the Monthly Quilt Block Collaboration program kicked off in January 2019. Quilt block patterns were distributed to guild members monthly with prescribed color schemes.

Town Square blocks.

Blocks were returned the following month.

Black/white strip blocks.

An assortment of plaids made up these quilt blocks.

At the July Cuddle Quilt workshop, another block pattern and fabric kits were distributed. Guild members worked at piecing quilt blocks and assembling several quilt tops during the workshop.

Quilt block layout at the July Cuddle Quilt workshop.

As the year progressed, quilt tops were completed, turned in, quilted and bound by various guild members and local long arm quilters.

One of the completed Tea Cup quilt tops. This was a popular block pattern.

Come and see the final results of this year-long endeavor in an exhibit at the March meeting when the quilts will be presented to representatives of the Chambliss Center. The representatives will also speak about the Transitional Living Program, a new program that offers assistance to young people when they age out of foster care at the tender age of 18. The bed quilts will go to the young adults in this program.

Friends and guests are welcome to attend the quilt exhibit and presentation. The event starts at 7pm. Refreshments will be served.

Choo Choo Quilters start 2019 with "big" Cuddle Quilt goal

First 2019 bed-size quilt top: Cristy Clark (left) and Veronica Hofman-Ortega
show a bed-size quilt top (72" x 90") that Veronica designed and pieced.

If the amazing, generous and talented Choo Choo Quilters can make over 50 baby and lap size quilts in about 12 months, it's a mere stretch of guild members' quilting know-how to accomplish a goal of several bed quilts for the Chambliss Center for Children group home and its Transitional Living Program. Right???

In 2010, with a plea for larger quilts in the late summer, our guild members pieced and finished 9 bed-size quilts for delivery in December of that same year. Read the blog post here. "It's been a few years since we made our charity quilts to benefit the older children...," said Cuddle Quilt Co-Chair, Ginny Minninger. "Wouldn't it be wonderful to provide them with quilts [again]?"

To respond to this need, our guild will be focusing on making larger bed quilts—approximately 72" x 90" and 80" x 90"—for our community service project this year. Cuddle Quilt Co-Chairs, Sherry Reed and Ginny Minninger, have sourced several easy block patterns and will be providing patterns and "quilty incentives" for participation in and contribution to this endeavor in upcoming meetings.

"Town Square" block. Pattern distributed with permission.
View a tutorial here.

The first block pattern, Town Square, was distributed at the January meeting. Packets of the focus fabric (black squares) and inner (light grey) strips were also given to meeting attendees.

To view an on-line YouTube tutorial for the Town Square block, see this video.

If you'd like to make and contribute a block (or 2, or 5...), here is the requested color placement: use a black fabric for the squares and a light (cream, white, or light grey) for the inner strip. All other fabric strips can be scrappy.

Turn in completed blocks at the February meeting for a chance to win a prize. Or turn in blocks, quilt tops or even finished bed-size quilts and your reward will be the appreciation of a youth at Chambliss.

So, Choo Choo Quilters... are we up for this challenge? Be thinking about our Cuddle Quilt Workshop in July (TBA) and the group basting session which is always so efficient and productive.

If you don't have space to baste a larger quilt top, get the top assembled and take advantage of the group spray basting session! Batting and backing fabrics will be provided by the guild.

35 Cuddle Quilts delivered to Chambliss Center

Choo Choo Quilters, Sherry Reed (left) and Ginny Minniger, dropped off
35 cuddle quilts to the Chambliss Center for Children in early February.

Right in time for Valentine's Day, Sherry Reed and Ginny Minninger, representatives from the Choo Choo Quilters, shared "Cuddle Quilt Love" with the children and staff of the Chambliss Center for Children. Thirty-five quilts—in an assortment of child, lap and bed sizes—were dropped off at the Center and received with open arms by Center's staff.

35 Cuddle Quilts.

Each year, the Choo Choo Quilters adopt the Chambliss Center for Children as the recipient of the guild's community service project. Throughout the year, bright and fun cotton fabrics and flannels are sewn together and quilted by the members of the guild to create child and lap-sized quilts. The guild's annual Cuddle Quilt workshop—usually held on a Saturday in August—is set up for group sewing, quilt top assembly and quilt basting as well as day of camaraderie for the guild members. The sandwiched quilt tops and backings are then quilted and bound by the members and turned in by the end of the year.

Ideas for block and quilt patterns were presented at the recent February guild meeting for this year's Cuddle Quilt workshop. Ginny Minninger, one of the team members that presented the February program on "Making Do," cited that about 15 of the 35 quilts that were recently delivered to the Center were from a quilt design presented at the 2016 Cuddle Quilt workshop.

"Let's see if we can surpass the 35 number this year," said Ginny. "One year, we made and donated over 70 [quilts]," she added. In 2010, the guild received a unique request for bed-size quilts and members generously responded with a donation of 9 bed-size quilts. Game On, Choo Choo Quilters! Let's make an impact.

45 Cuddle Quilts delivered to Chambliss Center

This year, the Choo Choo Quilters donated 45 cuddle quilts to the Chambliss Center for Children. Virginia Ruston, the new Volunteer Director, was present to receive the quilts from our Cuddle Quilt Program Coordinator, JoAnn Lotan.

Virginia Ruston, Volunteer Director at the Chambliss Center for Children,
lets the children choose their favorite quilt.

The Choo Choo Quilters have made and donated lap and twin size quilts to the Center since the beginning of the guild, 24 years ago. "It was fun to see which quilt the kids would pick out," says JoAnn.

Thanks to all the Choo Choo Quilters for your time, effort and support to this project and to JoAnn and Sherry for coordinating the program last year.

36 quilts delivered to Chambliss Center

From left: Paulette Acord of the Chambliss Center for Children accepts
36 cuddle quilts from Ginny Minninger and Sherry Reed.

Choo Choo guild members Sherry Reed (right) and Ginny Minninger (center) delivered 36 cuddle quilts to the Chambliss Center for Children on February 12. Paulette Acord, the Center's Director, and Elizabeth Sexton were there to welcome the gift.

Thank you to Sherry for coordinating this effort and to all the Choo Choo Quilters for their generosity and support. The Cuddle Quilts program is the guild's community service project.

Annual Cuddle Quilt donation

(Left to right) Director, Paulette Acord accepts a Cuddle Quilt donation from
 Choo Choo guild representatives, Sherry Reed and Nancy Allen. The Choo Choo Quilters
provided 53 lap-sized quilts for the children at Chambliss Center for Children.

Thanks to the generous spirit and talent of the Choo Choo Quilters, an additional 27 Cuddle Quilts were dropped off at the Chambliss Center for Children this week. This donation was in addition to the 26 quilts that were given to the Center last April. Great job, Choo Choo Quilters!

Poor Man's Stack-and-Whack program

Our next Choo Choo Quilt Guild meeting will be Monday, February 17, 2014. The program will be Poor Man's Stack-and-Whack presented by Team Dawn.

The team will demonstrate a technique for using large scale prints to achieve an easy kaleidoscope effect for your quilt block. If you want to participate in the demonstration, bring the following supplies to the meeting:

Supplies:

• 1-1/2 to 2 yards of a large scale print. The ideal fabric would have several prominent colors, a regular repeat, and enough variation in the design to allow several different block designs. Bring 2-3 pieces of fabric and the team will help you choose which print will be best for this technique.
• Cutting mat
• Acrylic ruler
• Rotary cutter

Team Dawn will provide a sewing machine and an iron to demonstrate the piecing needed for this block. You will end up with your fabric cut at the meeting, and you'll be able to do the remainder of the piecing at home on your own machine.

Last Call for Cuddle Quilts!

If you have any completed cuddle quilts, please bring them to the February meeting! Nancy Allen will be collecting the quilts, and Sherry Reed will be making our annual donation to the Chambliss Center for Children later in the week. If you are unable to finish all your cuddle quilts before February 17, don't sweat! We'll be continuing our cuddle quilt donations for next year too, so we will accept contributions at any time.

And now... Show and Tell from our January Meeting!

As always, we had a wonderful collection of quilts, bags and clothing on display from the talented hands of our Choo Choo members. Here's proof:

A baby quilt made of hand embroidered doggie blocks.

And the neat envelope on the back to hold extra fabric
should they ever need it.

Our first completed quilt from our 2013 Brown Bag Challenge!

Our first completed quilt from our Brown Bag Challenge last year.
This was made for the Quilts of Valor program.

A red, white and blue sampler quilt.

A collection of handmade purses to be sold for charity.

And yes, you can make clothing to show off a precious collection of kimono fabrics...

Kimono pieces made into a shirt.

… or with a new collection of quilter's cottons.

A Rachel Clark vest pattern made with a new fabric collection by Blank Quilting.

Left: The end result of playing with strip piecing.
Right: More original design from Delores. She does good work!

A Christmas present from one of Cristy's son's students in Japan—
all hand pieced and quilted.

A baby quilt made for a client

A beautiful Christmas Sampler.

Made with fabrics collected on Nancy's Indonesian travels!

A colorful Sampler quilt.

A fine day making Cuddle Quilts

A hard-working band of quilters gathered on Saturday for our Cuddle Quilt Workshop, and we had a most productive day.  Sherry had done an excellent job of setting up the space with tables for sewing, cutting tables, basting tables and also had a large selection of pre-cut fabric strips to use for the cuddle quilts.  She also had a big supply of backing fabrics, and plenty of batting for everything we produced that day.

A few photos of the day's activities:

Some of the 17 quilts basted and ready for quilting - all done in one day!

A great set-up for our cutting.

Ginny with her completed Magnetized top

The mystery pattern for the day - Magnetized!

Front and back of a quilted, bound and washed quilt by Veronica.  Notice the lovely quilting!

Spray basting - a real time saver!

And the pat-down...

We had plenty of strips, backing fabric and batting - all ready to go!

Thanks to Sherry for all her pre-planning and organizing our workshop - it was a great day with friends and working together for a good cause.  The finished quilts will be donated to the Chambliss Center for Children.

Got Cuddle Quilts?? Bring 'em in!

Cuddle Quilt made using
pre-cut strips and the "lasagna"
quick quilt assembly method.

Do you have any cuddle quilts in the works? Now is a good time to finish the quilting and get them bound! A representative from the Chambliss Center for Children in Chattanooga will be talking about the Center and sharing its mission in a presentation at the April Choo Choo Quilters guild meeting.

The Choo Choo Quilters and the Chambliss Center have had a long-time partnership through the guild's annual Cuddle Quilt Project. At the January guild meeting, a demonstration on making a "lasagna quilt"—a quick sew technique using pre-cut fabric strips—was given that could be used for making Cuddle Quilts. A show and tell of quilt tops followed at the February meeting. Guild members are urged to finish any of these tops and bring them to the April 15 meeting so they can be presented to the representative from the Center.

Several lasagna quilts were turned in at the March meeting. You can see a Show and Tell of these colorful quilts here. Be inspired to finish yours!