January 30, 2017

knowing you contribute

I've been a part of do. Good Stitches for about 5 years now, first with the WISH circle and now with the PEACE circle. Each month, the quilter for that month chooses a quilt block pattern and color palette and the other members make blocks and send them to her. Last January I chose a scrappy bright and low-volume half-square triangle pattern which resulted in this beautiful quilt to be donated to Project Linus.


I had a few blocks left over so I made a few more blocks to make this smaller quilt for Quilts for Kids.


Then last spring, the Omaha Modern Quilt Guild received the opportunity to sell raffle tickets for a quilt at the Douglas County Fair. We were short on time and only had a few months to make a quilt and sell tickets, but it's amazing what you can accomplish when people work together.



At the January Omaha Quilt Guild meeting, members had a discussion about what people like and/or are looking for in our guild. We came up with a pretty great list.


It was that last comment that struck a chord with me, though. One of the members said (and I'm paraphrasing here) she didn't have a lot of free time, but she really liked the projects like the guild raffle quilt where members could contribute one or two blocks. She could look at the finished quilt, see her blocks in the quilt and know she contributed. I know EXACTLY how she feels. Every small contribution matters, and we can do amazing things when we work together.

And then a few weeks ago, one of the ladies in my PEACE circle group posted a quilted top she made.

(Hmmm...I really should have pressed that before I took a pic!) Judy liked the pattern so much she decided to make one block a month last year. Just one block a month made a whole quilt top that she then sent to me to longarm and donate to Project Linus. Well then the wheels started turning, and I've had this crazy idea rolling around in my head for much of January. I have a few things to work out, but look for a detailed post within the next week. Together we're going to do something amazing!

January 17, 2017

#organizedsewingspace 2017 Prize Sponsor!

So I'm a little blown away (and excited and motivated) by the response to my #organizedsewingspace2017 challenge over on Instagram. Seriously...head over to Instagram and check out the difference between the #sewingtablebefore and the #sewingtableafter posts. It's pretty awesome. We just wrapped up the first two week challenge to clean up and organize our sewing tables so we have a nice, welcoming place to sit and sew. As a little added bonus, there will be a drawing for a prize at the completion of each challenge. I couldn't offer these prizes without generous donations from some pretty great prize sponsors. The prize for the first challenge was donated by Sew Michelle.


Brooke was the lucky winner of a $15 gift certificate to SewMichelle's online shop!


Thank you so much Michelle for your donation for our challenge! You can see more of what she does on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.

The challenge runs through June, and you can join at any time. For more information, check out this post. If you would like to donate a prize for one of the challenges, please leave a comment here with your email address or send me a DM on Instagram @stephkucera.