TWELVE YEARS, 5,000 QUILTS
FOR
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
OCTOBER 2017
The Hope Quilting ladies started in April 2005 when the current pastor's wife asked a new member if she would like to start a quilting group. We were off and running. The group consisted of eight ladies that met on the last weekend of the month thru September. Ninety six completed quilts were then taken to Columbus for shipping to South St. Paul, Minnesota.
The fabric used for the quilts came from donations by members from garage sales, yard sales, estate sales or the cleaning of group member's closets. White crochet thread was used to knot the quilts together. The ladies worked at home each month to sew the top pieces or back strips together. Coming together at the end of the month to assemble the top pieces, filler (blankets, stained sheets or towels) and a back. We use to say if you stood in one place too long- you could be placed in a quilt.
In September of 2009, we made the 1000th quilt. The number of ladies changed over the years as members moved away and new ladies joined. We currently have ladies in the group who are not members of Hope. They come for the friendship and they like to sew. For the 2017 year, we have twelve ladies who come for part of the time and a couple of ladies who are there from 9 AM to 9 PM on Friday and 9 AM to 4 PM on Saturday. This is a lot of time spent sewing at home and then on the last weekends at church. The quilts have become very pretty and knotted with many different colors of thread. Some are hard to pack and give away, The age of the quilting ladies range from forty-ish to ninety-two. We averaged 34 quilts per month totaling 306 quilts this year. We only meet from January to September because the quilts are sent North the first part of October.
With the support of the congregation and the hard work of the quilting ladies, we made the 5000th quilt in September of 2017. Not giving up--- we made one more completed to start the next thousand. The congregation also donated $205 to support the shipping cost to send to Minnesota.
GREAT JOB DONE BY EVERYONE!!!!!
Started sewing for 2018!