Guest Blog By Pam

Back in the spring, I posted here about the quilt that my friend Pam and her youth group made in an effort to raise money for an international mission effort supported by her church. You can click here to go back to read about it.

Well, Pam contacted me over the weekend to tell me that their quilt had at last been auctioned and they raised a whopping $1050 for their cause! Isn't that fantastic? Pam has agreed to fill you in on all the details, so here she is as today's guest writer. Take it away, Pam! :)

You may have read about the Zentangle quilt that I hosted for the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry at my church on this blog last April. Well, the auction was on Sunday night and the quilt went to the highest bidder for $1050.00! It was then GIFTED to our youth pastor and his wife. The money will be used for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering that is part of the international mission effort that our church supports.

This is a picture of the quilt. You may notice the red ribbon. One of the ladies entered it in a show in the category of group projects. The quilt received 2nd place!

The picture below was taken by a friend of mine at the mission auction. The quilt that I hosted did not make this photo, but you can see some of the other beauties that were auctioned off. There were also pillow cases, pillows, wall hangings, table runners and an apron created by the quilters and seamstresses from our sewing ministry. The total collected for the mission fund was over $9000.00.

The woman  in the picture above is the leader of our sewing ministry. She is the one who taught me to zentangle. I then taught the youth while we were on a retreat last February. I had cut squares of white fabric before the retreat.  The fabric contained a small percentage of spandex. ( a recommendation made to me for this project.) I outlined the shapes on the fabric.

Then I gathered lots of black artist pens, gave a few instructions, and let them create. I asked each person to add a Bible verse to their square. Some added just the address, while others wrote all or part of a verse. Many included their name or initials in their design.

The next step was to cut the colored squares for each  block and create kits for the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry to assemble. The ladies made the blocks at the March gathering. I sewed the blocks together, made a label, assembled the back, and took it to my friend, Pat,  for quilting. When I got it back, I attached the binding. Then one of the ladies from the sewing ministry volunteered to hand sew the binding. ( I really do not like to do hand sewing.)

This quilt was certainly a group effort and multi-generational, too! I hope that after reading this you have a better understanding of what it means to “host” a quilt. I am already planning for next year!

Note: The block that I used for this had been “taught” at one of our monthly meetings of the Scarlet Thread Sewing Ministry. We call it an exploding block. I am sure that it has other names. I like the diamond that occurs when the blocks are sewn together.

Thanks, Pam! Great post! You and your youth group are to be commended for such an awesome project as well as for the amazing donation it brought. What an accomplishment! Think about all the various lessons involved in this effort that those young people have learned. They certainly gained a lot, too.

Do you suppose a budding quilter might emerge from this experience??

Happy Quilting, Friends!