December 4 Newsletter

Hi Quilters,

We have wonderful news to share with you. Our yearly totals for 2021 are simply amazing. I have listed them along with the totals from 2019 and 2020 just to let you know how many items we have donated in the past three years.

2019
435 quilts, 589 pillowcases, 111 laundry bags, 991 cuddle cloths

2020
427 quilts, 438 pillowcases, 66 laundry bags, 450 cuddle cloths

2021
701 quilts, 1000 pillowcases, 134 laundry bags, 794 cuddle cloths

We want to thank Sharon Skinner’s family for their generous donation of fabric and other items from Sharon’s quilting room. She passed away this past month. Her family learned what we do for the community and decided to give her fabric to us to create more quilts. It is beautiful fabric and has already been made into several quilts with many more to come.

Our next meeting won’t be until January 5, 2022. We will send you a newsletter to confirm that date. Have a wonderful Christmas. We will see you in the New Year!

Thanks to Carolyn Connolly we now have a Facebook page. Check it out at
Community Quilts Twin Falls, Idaho. She has pictures of some of our fabulous volunteers on the site. We also thank Carolyn for creating distribution spreadsheets that will help us organize and keep track of our donations.

Kathy Silk, manager of KMVT, reminds us that everyone who comes in the building must wear a mask and be vaccinated. We will all be wearing masks until further notice to comply with their building regulations. 

November 28 Newsletter

Hi Quilters,

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, December 1, 2021. It is our last meeting date of the year. Remember to knock loudly at the door, so we can come and let you in. 

We have a special end-of-year lunch planned for this coming Wednesday. We are providing pizza to celebrate our very successful year. Even though Covid has limited our meetings, we have had our best year ever providing needed items to the community. Please join us and enjoy pizza. We will provide water, plates, and napkins. If you would like a different drink, please bring it along. If you would like to add to the celebration with something, that would be nice as well.

Because this is our last meeting date, please be sure you return any items you have completed at home. We plan to make our final delivery soon after this date in order to be sure everything is ready for Christmas giving by our many organizations.

Our next meeting won’t be until January 5, 2022. We will send you a newsletter to confirm that date.

Please join us on Wednesday, December 1, for lunch, even if you aren’t able to stay for the day. We want to have everyone help celebrate our great year. We won’t be meeting again until Wednesday, January 5, 2022.  

Kathy Silk, manager of KMVT, has told us that everyone who comes in the building must wear a mask and be vaccinated. We will all be wearing masks until further notice to comply with their building regulations. 

August 29 Newsletter

Hi Quilters,

Our next quilting day is this coming Wednesday, September 1, 2021, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Because we are unable to buy the small bottles of water right now, please bring your own drinking water.

We have oodles of 6 1/2 inch blocks in all kinds of designs and colors. If you can think of a way to put them into a quilt top, there are many, many choices. Making a four patch with these blocks combined with a 12 1/2 inch square in a print or two or three, would be a simple way to help us use our large supply of small blocks and create a new top as well.

We have some beautiful kids’ prints that would make nice small quilts for those of you who like to make the smaller sizes. They could be combined with those 6 1/2 inch squares.

We will be distributing in September, so if you have some of our quilts at your house, please plan to get them to us as soon as you can.

Here is the list of quilt sizes as requested:

Infant      42-45″ by 42-45″
Youth      42-45″ by 54-60″
Lap         45-54″ by 54-70″
Bunk       60-64″ by 82-85″
Twin        65-71″ by 82-85″
Full          78-84″ by 82-85″
Queen     86-90″ by 90-95″

Our fall schedule will follow our usual days: the first Wednesday and the third Monday of each month in our space at KMVT. Knock loudly as the door is not always unlocked. Here is our current schedule which is subject to change if necessary:

       Fall dates will be:    Wednesday, September 1, and
                                       Monday, September 20.

There will also be a distribution day scheduled for September. if you have some CQ quilts to bind or quilt at your house, please be sure to get them to us for giving in September.  See you soon.

August 13 Newsletter

Dear Community Quilters,

Our next quilting day is this coming Monday, August 16, 2021. We begin at 10:00 AM and finish around 4:00 PM in our space in the basement at KMVT at 1100 Blue Lakes Blvd. N. Use the side entrance across from the car wash. You may want to bring a lunch or snack.

All of us appreciate the quilters who come to pick up some of the many quilts that need to be bound. You are doing a marvelous job, but…we are always ahead of you with the number of quilts still in the “Bind-Me” box. So, come on down to KMVT and pick up a few to bind if you can. You are certainly appreciated.

We moved the flannel from its small shelf to a larger area where the light is better and the pieces can be seen more easily. Flannel always makes a nice warm quilt for our clients. We have patterns if you would like to invent a quilt top for us. We like to put flannel backs on the infant quilts we send to the hospital for use in the NICU.

We still have our Covid requirements from KMVT headquarters saying that everyone who come to Community Quilts must be fully vaccinated. We appreciate your help in keeping this guideline. 

Our fall schedule will follow our usual days: the first Wednesday and the third Monday of each month in our space at KMVT. Knock loudly as the door is not always unlocked. Here is our current schedule which is subject to change if necessary:

       Last summer date:  Monday, August 16.

       Fall dates will be:    Wednesday, September 1, and
                                       Monday, September 20.

We look forward to seeing you. We know that not everyone has a full day to donate to CQ, but a few hours will help us complete our work. Or, pick up a kit to complete at home. See you soon.

July 31 Newsletter

Hi Quilters, 

Since our last notice, we have been able to join others and donate quilts to the folks who suffered a house fire. They were very grateful. We are always happy to serve our fellow citizens whenever we are asked. You can help us, too, by letting us know when/where there is a need.

Our next quilting day is Wednesday, August 4, 2021. We begin at 10:00 AM and finish around 4:00 PM. You may want to bring a lunch or snack.

Most of our previous jobs always need attention: sorting new donations, cutting blocks or strips, making up pillowcase kits, tying a quilt, etc. We are lucky to have space to do our tying within the work area of Community Quilts as the large KMVT Community Room is not available for our use.

Speaking of tying, we do have a concern. We need to have all our ties created at a standard length. Quilt tops with varying lengths of ties have to be redone so that all the tie lengths are the same. We use a length of 1 1/4 inches for our ties. It may be a change for some, but we have to be sure we are all using the same finished tie length. Thank you for helping with this need.

Our “Bind-Me Box” is overflowing. Thanks to all of your efforts, we have many quilts waiting for a binder to come to their rescue. We hope those of you who can bind for us will pick up a quilt or two. We like to do machine binding as it is sturdier. The binding is applied to the back and pulled over to the front side for the final machine seam. We can show you how to make a square corner if you would like some help.

Our summer schedule will follow our usual days: the first Wednesday and the third Monday of each month in our space at KMVT. Knock loudly as the door is not always unlocked. Here is our current schedule which is subject to change if necessary:

       Wednesday, August 4, and
       Monday, August 16.

We look forward to seeing you. Not everyone has a full day to donate to CQ, but a few hours will help us complete our work.

July 7 Newsletter

Hi Quilters, 
Our next quilting day is Wednesday, July 7, 2021. If you have sent a photo of your vaccination card to Phyllis at 208 404-6307, you are welcome to join us. For those who are new to our group, we will meet in the KMVT building located at 1100 Blue Lakes Boulevard North, in our area in the basement. Please use the Community Room door on the north side of the building. We begin at 10:00 AM and finish around 4:00 PM. Bring a lunch or snack as we are not going out to eat quite yet.

We are so happy to have our old routine returning. Our new area makes it possible for all of us to be in the same big room. We were able to tie five quilts last time and hope for the same this coming meeting. Setting up the quilts and being able to leave them for the next session is easy to manage. We have room for two frames, one large and one small.

We still have Christmas fabric in kits for quilts and for pillowcases. There are many new kits and lots of freshly sorted fabric to look at if you have a project in mind, or if you are looking for inspiration.

We always have quilts that need to be bound and many quilts that can be taken for groups to tie for a service project.

Our summer schedule will follow our usual days: the first Wednesday and the third Monday of each month. Here is our current schedule which is subject to change if necessary:

Wednesday, July 7, and Monday, July 19,
Wednesday, August 4, and Monday, August 16.

We look forward to seeing you and catching up on the latest additions to your quilting projects. We have lots of magazines and books free for the taking that will be on a table for you to look over. Drop-in and chat!

June 11 Newsletter

Hi Quilters, 
Our next quilting day is on Monday, June 21, 2021. If you have sent a photo of your vaccination card to Phyllis, you are welcome to join us. We will meet in the KMVT building located at 1100 Blue Lakes Boulevard North, in our area in the basement. Please use the Community Room door on the north side of the building. 

Isn’t it great to be back together again! There is a lot of space in our area, so we will have two frames set up for tying each time we meet. There is also room to set up machines for sewing.

Many of you are quilting at home. Here is a list of suggested sizes of quilts:
Infant    42-45″  by  42-45″
Youth    42-45″  by  54-60″
Lap       45-54″  by  54-70″
Bunk     60-64″  by  82-85″
Twin      65-71″  by  82-85″
Full        78-84″  by  82-85″
Queen   86-90″  by  90-95″

We have Christmas fabric in kits for quilts and for pillowcases. In addition, there are cut blocks of all sizes as well as strips that can be made into simple quilt tops.

There are also quilts that need to be bound and many quilts that can be taken for groups to tie for a service project.

If you have a standing fan that is unused and can be donated to us, we would appreciate that kindness a lot. Thank you.

It’s always nice to read the letters of thanks that come in after our Distribution Days. Many times they truly touch our hearts. We have them for you to read in our area. We received a letter from one agency, A Chance for a Change, that every recipient signed with a note. Here is one to share: “Thank you for caring about me, Ryan.” And we do care, Ryan. We do care about you and the many others who receive our love in the form of quilts.
 

May 22 Newsletter

Hi Quilters, 
We are ready to have a quilting day on Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Welcome back! We cannot use the Community Room yet, but we will set up two quilting frames as that is what we will have room for in our area. If you have sent a photo of your vaccination card to Phyllis, you are welcome to visit us to see how our area has grown and changed. We invite you to sew for us or tie if you have some time.

According to KMVT’s corporate directive, we are not allowed to have anyone who is not vaccinated in our area. If you are still in the process of getting vaccinated, Susan Stallings will be happy to collect a quilt kit, pillowcase kit, or fabric for you from our area. Let her know what you need (208 420-1194).

Here are some other quilting ideas for you to ponder and see if you can help out with one or two of them. Pick up some fabric to:

• make quilt tops or pillowcases from our stash of Christmas fabric,

• make quilts from our supply of fabric for men,

• make a larger quilt such as a twin, full, or queen-sized quilt from our fabric,

• make a quilt using one of our quilt kits,

• create a quilt from our many 2 1/2 inch wide strips of fabric.

You might like to sort some of our recent donations; or, you might like to cut our fabric into blocks for use in future quilts. As you can see, we have many jobs for our volunteers to choose from, or you can bring your own machine and work on a project.

Thanks to two matching grants from Modern Woodmen as well as other amazing donations, we no longer need to plan a fundraiser. We thank all of them for their generosity in helping our work continue. 

We had a very successful Distribution Day. Even though we haven’t been able to meet, YOU, our amazing volunteer quilters, made it possible for us to deliver the following: 276 quilts, 396 pillowcases, 98 laundry bags, and 209 cuddle cloths. And, we were able to serve the burn-out victims from the recent apartment fire in Buhl thanks to help from the Red Cross.

How You Can Help

If you would like to sew a kit for us, please text or call Susan Stallings at (208) 420-1194. She can pick up a kit for a quilt or a few pillowcases for you the next time they are allowed to go into KMVT to work.

There are many completed quilt kits (top, back, batt, binding) that need to be tied or machine quilted. If you have a group that would like to use this activity as a community service, please let Susan know and she will make kits available for you. There are also several kits available in the box at the Twin Falls Sewing Center.

Hand-Embroidered Quilt

A group of Community Quilters takes a break to admire Judy Snider’s hand-embroidered quilt made for the first baby born in 2020 at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho.