March 21st — Las Vegas — The Las Vegas Quilters will be working on some HeartStrings projects during their sew-in and welcome other quilters.
They will be sewing for St. Judes Ranch new group home for unwed mothers — contact Tonie at TONIEGK@aol.com
QAYG blocks
Although we’ll be sending the QAYG blocks to Jan Mac unassembled, Maxine shared this tutorial from Keryn Emmerson showing how to assemble these blocks by machine.
For those of you making these and donating them locally, I hope the link is helpful.
Keryn’s tutorial
A special project for March & April
Now that we’ve finished up our Happy Block project, if you’re interested in making some Quilt as you Go blocks to send to Australia for quilts for those affected by the bushfires, you can find the information here:
Tutorial for assembling blocks into a quilt
Sue will be collecting and sending these together to save some postage costs so if you make them, email me for the mailing address at mmcjohnson@gmail.com .
As always, we accept blocks made according to the guidelines all through the year so feel free to make up a batch of these too!
Alycia’s QOV Goal – 400 Quilts
Are you following Alycia’s quest to donate 400 Quilts of Valor in May 2009? She works with students to make these quilts and with this ambitious goal this year has been getting help from HeartStrings members and many other quilters.
She recently spoke to a group and her project was mentioned in the local paper.
Australia – helping out
There are plenty of ways to help those affected by the bush fires in Victoria but we’re quilters right? So lets make some blocks.
Jan Mac is a HeartStrings member who will be collecting quilt as you go string blocks for assembling and donating. She’s posted a tutorial on her site if you’d like to help her out and send some blocks.
I’ve got strings — I’ve got batting leftovers — I’m going to make some to send.
You can contact Jan Mac at janmac@mcmedia.com.au
Do you want to attend a Sew-in?
The MN/WI group has been getting together since our first year and now more groups are starting to coordinate Sew-ins in their area. Here are the current ones scheduled. For more information email the contact person or Mary at mmcjohnson@gmail.com.
March 21st — Las Vegas — The Las Vegas Quilters will be working on some HeartStrings projects during their sew-in and welcome other members. They will be sewing for St. Judes Ranch new group home for unwed mothers — contact Tonie at TONIEGK@aol.com
April 25th – Virginia is hosting at Hope Christian Church in Shoreview, MN.
May 2nd – Jay and Julia are hosting in Fremont, Nebraska. Contact Jay at gap_number_02@yahoo.com
June 27 – Cindy & Mary H are coordinating in Seattle, Washington. Contact Mary H at maryhopkins39@yahoo.com
August 22 – Kathy & Rhonda are hosting in Roberts, WI
SF Bay Area (Date TBA) – contact Cynthia H. at QuiltTechEd@comcast.net if you’d like to participate
Dawn’s scrap quilting class
Earlier this week Dawn gave a talk about scrap quilting at a free community Library Quilt Show in Shelley, Idaho.During her talk, she also shared information about HeartStrings. Here is what she wrote to us:
They LOVED the heartstrings quilts. I gave them the link to join us,on my handout and told them about all of you. I told them all the great and easy ways that they could be a part of Heartstrings. Sue sent me three completely different quilts with different looks so that I could teach and quilt them for charity – they were really impressed with how wonderful the quilts looked.)
Dawn is a member of HeartStrings and a longarm quilter; she has an excellent quilting DVD (yes, you can quilt her designs on your domestic machine too) and I have used her designs on many of the HeartStrings quilts I’ve finished in the last year.
Thanks to Julia for sending me the photo and you can see a couple of Julia’s recent string quilts on her blog.
Make a Blanket Day
Project Linus National Make a Blanket Day, February 21, 2009 is almost here! Just a reminder that this is the day that Project Linus chapter volunteers and blanketeers across the country celebrate Project Linus with special blanketmaking events.
Please check with you local chapter to see if an event is being planned in your area,
or set a goal to make a blanket to be donated to your local chapter by February 21. Project Linus is very flexible — whatever works for you and your schedule. Keep in mind that depending on weather and local circumstances, the local chapters may have an alternate day of celebration in your area.
We hope that you will honor this day by making a blanket for Project Linus or by helping at a blanketmaking event in your area.
To find a Project Linus Chapter near you, check out
http://www.projectlinus.org.
Thank you!
Here are a few ideas to get you started!
Happy Block Quilts
Here are two Happy Block quilts by Mary Hopkins – finished and ready to donate. She added borders to hers but they look equally good without.
Happy Blocks – are you making them?
We’re continuing to work on our Happy Blocks and Happy Block Quilts through the end of February and I’ve heard people comment that they either don’t have a variety of novelty fabrics or don’t have a variety of framing fabrics so here are a couple ideas.
Jessica used the same fabric for all her centers. (photo linked from her site)
LauraJean used just two fabrics for framing her blocks.
So you can see, even with limited fabric choices, these quilts can be really successful.
