Q1 report on charity quilting

Here’s the first 2021 report to the board of directors (that’s you) for the charity quilting operations in our basement. Last year at this time, we were settled in to the stay-at-home average of one quilt a day. We have not been functioning at that pace in 2021. So far this year we’ve completed 30 charity quilts.

One of those was for a fundraiser and auction that raised $157k for mental health service in the Olathe school district. Two of the 30 quilts were made from drawings on fabric Karla’s kindergarten class completed and Judi and I assembled and quilted. These two quilts were donated to a care facility and the activity director awarded the quilts to two residents as prizes for bingo.

When we delivered the quilt for the Olathe school auction, we discovered that the office next door to the school foundation serves homeless kids in the school district. There are more homeless kids in Olathe than any other district in the state of Kansas. The director of that program provides a new pillow and blanket to any student who is shelter insecure. That’s a creative initiative that would be of great benefit to kids sleeping on a sofa in a friend’s apartment. Judi has connected that school office with Project Linus. A few weeks back, Judi delivered 50 quilts from Project Linus that will be immediately available to school officials to distribute to kids in need.

What you don’t see yet, but I hear about every day, is the pile of about 40 quilt tops Judi has completed that are just waiting for me “to get with it.” (Now that I think about it, it was, “Get with it, Bucko.”) I say about 40; she can tell you exactly how many crib size and how many twin size just waiting for me to quilt on the longarm machine. We’ve already had two inches of snow this morning, so today is going to be a day inside, standing beside the quilting machine.

Actually, I’ve contributed to the surplus of quilt tops. I’ve been spending my time designing quilt tops from orphan blocks. From time to time, Project Linus receives fabric donations, some of which include unfinished projects. We’ve told the Project Linus chapter leader that we’ll take all of the hard-to-place items. I find it delightful to take bits and pieces and figure out a way to work it into a Project Linus quilt. We’ve got one 48″ x 48″ quilt top (log cabin blocks) that will soon be a twin-size quilt that could go to a homeless kid in Olathe.

And then there’s the fabric panels. For example, there are three quilts I’ll probably work on today made from panels on which is printed a bunch of Despicable Me minions in an old-time telephone booth. We have worked with panels designed to be used in throw pillows that we’ve turned into quilt tops. It’s great fun to dream up a way to make use of a lonely fabric panel or quilt block.

So that’s an update. Time to get with it.