Hi members!

Thank you to all who contributed charity quilts, the new wave quilts and your own designs!

Donations:

• We were able to donate a total of 16 quilts in 2018 (yay!) to the Robert Kaufman quilt drive to benefit the California fire victims.
• We already have 6 finished quilts ready for donation.  
• We have 42 pillowcases ready to send to the Stuffed Suitcase program through the Giving Hope Network for their next giving event and we are so thankful to you guys, you’re the best! Let’s try to beat 2017’s pillowcase record of 127 pillowcases made and make more for 2019!
• In addition, we have already donated 32 pounds of fabric scraps to the Social Justice Sewing Academy. Their Instagram is @sjsacademy if you want to check them out.

Below are the charity activities happening so far for 2019, we are so excited for our upcoming projects!

Log Cabin Blocks

We are making log cabin blocks that should be made 12 ½ by 12 ½ that will be finished 12×12 blocks. We would like for you to dig up those awesome stash strips and ask that members use some white in the block so they have a universal look once assembled into the quilt tops. There will be strips available at the February meeting from the charity stash and white to mix up with your stash. We will have a special giveaway in March for members who bring in log cabin blocks, but we will continue to collect blocks until we have enough for a quilt top or two. Use up that scrap stash!

log cabin with measured strips

one log cabin with measured strips, and one with unmeasured wonky strips

Quilts of Valor Blocks

Quilts of Valor blocks

Thank you for all who made QOV blocks lately, they are awesome! We will be collecting more through to the April meeting so we have enough to assemble into several quilt tops. There will be QOV block kits available at the February meeting as well as at the charity open sew that we are hosting during the weekend of QuiltCon (February 23rd). These blocks should be 12.5” x 12.5” and can be any pattern of your choosing. Please make sure the colors are red, white and blue.

Presenting the 2019 NJMQG Charity Pattern of the Year! 

 The pattern we are using this year for charity quilts and kits is the “Shoreline” pattern from Tula Pink. This is a free pattern available from her website and we were given permission to create kits for our guild. Rachel, Crista, Terri and Emily got together last month to organize the charity stash (thank you!) and have already created 10 kits to make quilt tops for this pattern! These will be available at the charity open sew. We will continue to have the Elizabeth Hartman New Wave Quilt pattern and kit if you would still like to try that pattern.

We also have tops with backing and battings available for those of you who want to practice your FMQ skills and walking foot! These will be available at the March meeting. We have 5 quilt tops that need backings made or cut, and 4 quilt tops/backs ready for batting and quilting.

Thank you again for all of your charity efforts last year, you are all amazing.  I can’t wait to see how many we get done this year, let’s try to beat last year’s pillowcase numbers!

Emily Chwazik

Co-Chair of Charity Committee