We collected the fabric, we picked the teams, we set up in the gym. We were ready to rumble.

March Madness was a fun and frantic day of charity sewing, the best possible way we could have kicked off our guild-wide charity quilting program. We had more than 20 quilters sewing throughout the day using the mountains of fabric donated by our generous members and led by team captains Ashley (Red team) and Beth (Yellow team). As everyone sewed, referee Stella yelled out points like a Hogwart’s professor.

“Fifteen points for Yellow!” “Forty five for Red!”

There was pizza for lunch and a great spread of snacks.

And then there were the quilts. Fifteen tops in all, four basted sandwiches and 5 completed quilts (plus one that Tracy finished on Sunday night)! Though the Yellow team pulled out a decisive win, we were all winners, along with the people from Shelter our Sisters and Quilts for Kids who will eventually receive these beautiful quilts.

Our magnificent hostess Stephanie not only set up the gym with quilts and flowers and extension cords, but she also put together our Cloud 9 challenge blocks into a stunning quilt:

HUGE thanks to Stephanie and all of the kind people at the LDS church, to Ashley and Beth for their leadership and spirit, to all our quilters and donors, to Caroline for bringing much-needed afternoon snacks and to everyone who sent moral support.

But I save the biggest thanks for our new VP Stella, who stuffed goody bags, provided tunes, baked goods, served as score keeper and referee, ordered pizzas and won overall event MVP.

Her Monkey Bread earned unanimous raves, so she wanted to share the recipe (check out a pic on her Instagram):

Monkey Bread!

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cans Grands biscuits
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, if desired
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 stick melted butter

But WAIT! Our jobs are not done yet. We still have to finish these quilts! If you’d like to chip in with quilting or binding (or if you’ve been looking for a chance to practice on a real quilt), please email or leave a comment. This was an amazing kick off, so let’s keep our charitable quilting momentum going. We’ll be sure to plan another Madness event by the fall at the latest, but we’d love for everyone to take part. We’ll bring tops and sandwiches to the April meeting on the 17th.

And the frosting on the Monkey Bread is that we were interviewed! One of Stephanie’s fellow parishioners and the public affairs director for the church works for All American Crafts, the company behind Quilt Trends Magazine and The Quilter. We’ll see if anything comes of it, but for now we are just so proud of what we can do when we come together, and we can’t wait to get together to sew again.