Program Planning

 We need people to plan programs!! Marcy has been our program person for several years and we certainly appreciate the excellent job she has done.  However, she’d like to move on to some other things, and this is YOUR opportunity to help out our group.  If you want to simply take over and plan programs for the next year, that would be great.  If you’d like to work with a friend or two to plan programs, that would be great, too.  And if you just want to plan one or two programs some time in the near future, we’ll take that, too.  You can volunteer by responding to this post, or at our next meeting.  Thank you!

 October meeting and sewing days updates

Good news!  Hanover County has given us authorization to have our October sewing days in the Parks and Recreation building on the 9^th and 10^th.  We are limited to 15 people each day, but since we normally have 10-12 participants, we should be fine.  If you plan to come, please let Becky Brown know; she will be keeping track of expected attendees so we don’t end up with too many people.  Thanks.

However, we unfortunately cannot use the Parks and Recreation building for our meeting on October 13^th – but, good news again – member Debbie Quitiquit has generously invited us to visit her farm where they have a large barn where we will hold our Trash to Treasure sale.  For planning purposes, please let us know if you are coming to the meeting – RSVP to Marcy George.  Thanks!

Please note: there is no furniture in the barn!  You will need to bring your own chair.  At our last meeting someone volunteered to provide tables, but I don’t remember who it was – if you have tables we can use, please contact either me (Peg) or Debbie (or leave a comment here).

The barn is at 17640 Pouncey Tract Rd, Rockville.  As usual, our meeting will be from 7 to 9.  There is a wood stove in the barn that can provide some heat but it won’t be like being inside a house, so please dress appropriately if it is a cool evening.

Be sure to bring your contributions for the Trash to Treasure sale, and cash or check for your purchases. Contributions can be anything you think other quilters will want or enjoy – quilting items, other craft items, food, etc.  Please note that if you bring something and it doesn’t sell, we will need you to take it home with you.  All proceeds from the sale go to support our charity projects.

To summarize:

What: October meeting, Trash to Treasure Sale

When: Tuesday, Oct 13, 2020, 7-9 PM

Where: Quitiquit barn, 17640 Pouncey Tract Rd, Rockville

Bring: Chair, items for Trash to Treasure, $

RSVP: marcyg2009 <at> gmail.com

Hanover County Spirit of Volunteerism nomination

 First, I (Vicki) want to apologize for not posting about our nomination directly after the September meeting. I completely forgot and just found the certificate that I was supposed to share!

Instead I'll use this post to document our nomination. The ultimate winner of the award was Kiwanis of Ashland. You can watch the award "ceremony" here: https://youtu.be/JKZgaEYuRxg

You can read about all of the nominees here. Honestly, the text for CSQ is riddled with typos but I've copies it below just as it is on the website.

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL QUILTERS SPONSORED BY HANOVER COUNTY PARKS & RECREATION, The Country School Quilters, have been donating quilts to those in the community since 2011. Every month, the Country School Quilters come together at the Montpelier Community Center to create and preserve the artof quilting. Some quilts are made at home and brought in to be donated tothe community. The Country School Quilters donate quilts to Veterans at theHunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center and to Western Hanover Emergency Action Team (WHEAT). Over the years, The Country School Quilters have donated hundreds of quilts, likely taking thousands of hours to complete. The purpose of donating the quilts to Veterans is to show thatthey are cared for and loved and that people are thinking about them and appreciate their service. Likewise, the goal is also to support needed servicesfor residents of Western Hanover through WHEAT. The Country School Quilters donated 70 quilts last year. Their goal is to make and donate 75quilts this year. Over the past seven years, the Country School Quilters have also participated in food drives twice a year for WHEAT (Western HanoverEmergency Action Team). The nurses at the medical center have used the quilts, which are the perfect size of a large throw and made of superior craftsmanship, as a gesture of compassion for their oncology patients. Some patients come angry, tearfulor withdrawn, but when presented with a quilt, they see an immediate smile. Patients are very grateful and express sincere gratitude for the gesture. Just as quilt making is a time-honored tradition, so too is the selfless act of meticulously devoting one’s talents in service to others. HANOVER COUNTY SPIRIT OF VOLUNTEERISM SPIRIT OF TEAM September 2020

Meeting on Sept. 8, 2020

We are approved to once again use the picnic pavilion at the Montpelier Center for our September 8th meeting. The bathrooms will be available for our use.

Last month we discussed starting the meeting a bit earlier, since we are now in a season where it gets dark around 7:30. There are lights in the pavilion but having some daylight will be better for our meeting. I know that the message from the county said we are starting at 6:30, however, I've spoken with our Parks & Rec contact and we should be fine to start at 6:00.

If you want to come, but feel 6:00 is too early, PLEASE send me (Peg) an email letting me know when you think you can be there. If 6:00 is difficult for a lot of people, we will start a little later.

Betsy Scott will be presenting a short program about how she makes her beautiful potholders. We also plan to discuss ideas for using orphan blocks, so if you have orphan blocks hanging around in your sewing space, bring them along. And remember your show-and-tell and veterans quilts!

If you have baby quilts to donate to VCU or other quilts for Hanover Safe Place, I am happy to collect them at our meeting and get them to the right place.

At this time we are NOT approved to have sewing days in September. I am discussing ideas with the Parks & Rec folks and will let you know if anything changes. We are also discussing ideas for how or where we could meet in October and on into the winter, since meeting in the picnic pavilion won't work once it gets cold!

Hope to see all of you on Tuesday at 6:00 pm.

August meeting on Tuesday, the 11th

Our Tuesday, August 11 meeting is on! We have the picnic pavilion at the Montpelier Center. There are picnic tables to sit at, or bring your own chair. In spite of what was said in the message from Hanover county, we will meet at our normal time: 7 pm; feel free to come a little early to socialize. See you there!

Other Quilt Donation Locations

In the last meeting we discussed other places where we can donate quilts. I've gotten feedback from several members and have page link on the right sidebar. If you have quilts that you want to donate somewhere take a look at that list for possible destinations. If you have additions or changes to the list at any time just get the information to me (Vicki). Just to add a little picture, this is the next veterans quilt that I'm working on.

Veterans Quilts

We'll, everyone has been busy during lock down! With one quilt that I had at home, I now have 15 ready to be delivered sometime in the next couple of weeks. I'm going to try to finish 2 more that I have here to bring the total to 17! 

At the meeting I discussed some feedback from the hospital that they really mostly need quilts for men: patriotic themes, military themes, outdoorsy, darker colors, etc. Feminine quilts (flowers, pinks, pastels) are less used and they have a nice inventory of them. 

We talked about options around whether we want to make feminine or baby quilts for other causes. Because I'm typing on my phone I'm going to take a short route to summarize our decisions :

1. As our official project, we will continue to primarily make quilts for the VA and focus on masculine themes. Purchased batting and backing will be for these quilts. 

2. Members will send me information that they have for donating baby and lap quilts to other organizations and I will create a page on the blog with that information. 

Regarding veterans quilts I want to remind you that quilts need to be 48 x 60 (or really close). I've received a few that are 48 x 48 lately and I don't think they are very useful for the VA, plus they waste a lot of backing fabric and batting. Going forward I will return quilts that aren't close enough to the 49 x 60 size. 

I appreciate everyone who avoids scented detergents and starch in their quilts. Fragrances are a real problem for my allergies. 

I'll let you know when I deliver this stack of quilts. The next delivery will be in September.