Since I submitted the information for the January Newsletter (mid December), the Charitable Quilts committee has been very busy getting ready for this year’s projects.  It all started with two major fabric donations from our members around Christmas.  Margaret Potter gave us 6 large boxes of fabric totaling 200-250 yards.  This included many large pieces and lots of cute baby flannel.  The next call I received was from Amy Howell. She had another very large group of fabrics including a GIANT BOX packed and so heavy two of us had trouble getting it in and out of the van.  After sorting by size, I estimated it to be over 400 yards of great fabric.  Thanks to these two ladies and the donations listed in the January newsletter, ACQ has a gold mine to work with “probably for the next two years.  The final donation was from Debbie Geissler.  She gave us a full roll of batting “the size the professional long arm quilters use that will do 12 twin size quilts“  so we could finish some of the Crayon Box quilts from last year.  THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR THE GREAT DONATIONS!
 
With all this inspirational fabric and the cold snowy weather keeping me inside, I’ve had a great time playing in fabric.  The committee decided to develop a couple of new things for this year. After receiving permission to use one of Great American Quilt Factory’s cute, simple patterns, I used it to cut some kits for smaller quilts (children’s) and altered it a bit for the great flannel we received.  We also decided to take one of the Crayon Box patterns I used last year and use it to make kits for twin size quilts from our stash.  The smaller quilts are super simple to make and go together in less than 3 hours.  I made one on Christmas Day (while snowed in) in less than 2 hours.  I want to thank Lexie Foster for helping me get the pictures right on the direction sheets for the kits.   My directions may not be great, but the picture will do the job.
 
At this time, we still have one more project we are developing that we will, hopefully, have ready to present at the February meeting.  It will be the raid your scraps type of thing like the Crayon Box was last year.   I am in the process of finishing the last six Crayon Box quilts so we made a total of 32 twin sized quilts with your blocks.  Thanks again for your support of that project.  
 
The idea is to have a variety of kits and projects that will interest a wider variety of the members.  We will have two twin patterns, three smaller patterns, and a scrap bag project.  The shelters have said they would like smaller quilts as well as the twins this year so that inspired these changes.   Speaking of the shelters, we did give six twin size quilts to The Family Tree in December.  
 
We hope many of you can come to the February meeting to see all the new kit samples and check out a project.  We’ll have at least 10 quilts for binding and many kits ready to complete.  If you want to donate something to the cause, one of the best things would be a king size batting.  That size is enough to do four of the new smaller quilts and is a far more efficient use of batting.  Maybe use a JoAnn coupon “they seem to be the best place for that size.   Of course, we can always use batting of any size and any fabric you want to share.  If any of you want to quilt one of the smaller quilts, I’ll have some of those at the meeting also.
 
Cheryl Walters