April 2005
MY HOW TIME DOES FLY
Can
you believe it’s been a whole YEAR since our first Peace by Piece
bee!!!!!
I remember the day well… it was April 22, 2004.
9 people
came to help me make quilts that day. There was fun and laughter accompanying
the sound of busy sewing machines. And when the machines fell silent I proudly
walked out with 6 little quilts that I knew would go out into the world and be loved in a BIG way. Each
one of those little quilts had the important job of making the life of a child
just a little bit better.
FAST FORWARD….
ALL
THE PEOPLE
This past year has only been successful because of all the people that have helped along the way…
THE
SPACE…
Every
single month, without fail, the people at CraftMart make us feel welcome and
allow us to use their classroom space FREE
of charge so we can hold our monthly bees.
THE FABRIC…
The donations of fabric continue to come in from many different corners of the quilting community. We’ve received fabric, thread and batting donations from many different sources. The Sunrise Village Quilters has donated a huge amount of fabric and other supplies. Members of the Scrap Rats and Cactus Patchers (two chapters of the Arizona Quilters Guild) have donated fabric. CraftMart has donated fabric and batting. And there are MANY, MANY generous individuals who have donated anywhere from trunk loads of fabric to scraps of fabric.
THE
MONEY…
Not everything
we need to make quilts comes from donations. Very little batting, spray bastes
and child friendly novelty print fabrics are donated. For those things a
shopping trip is in order. The ladies of Sunrise Village Quilters and the
owners of Specialty Loaders have made our shopping trips possible. Without
their generous donations of money we could not continue to make quilts every
month.
The people
that come to the bees and put their love into the craft of making little
quilts. Whether it’s ironing fabric, sewing on a label or any of the other
numerous tasks in between that it takes to make a quilt. There are also the
tasks that people get done every month between bees in preparation for the
next bee. The people that have helped with the job of layering all the quilts
so they can be quilted and all those kits that have to be cut and packaged.
And then there are also those people who sew at home between bees making tops,
quilting and putting on binding. Each task is just as important as the next
and each task completed is one step closer to making a Childs life better.
AND
THE NEED GOES ON….
The
sad truth is that there will always be children in this world with a less than
perfect life and the people in public servant jobs will continue to encounter
children in need of the comfort that a quilt can offer. And that’s the
reason why we keep doing this every month. So here we go again… The little
quilts are waiting to be made so they can go out into the world and make a
child’s life better. And in the process we will have fun and laughter
because we’ll know we are doing our part to make the world a better place.
We’ll be making quilts on the fourth Thursday of the month, which falls on April 28th. You’ll find that we’ve taken over the classroom, yet again, at the CraftMart located in Chandler at Warner and Alma School roads. The hum of sewing machines and the sounds of fun will be heard from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. There will be plenty of tasks to keep everyone busy along with something good to munch on. There’s always lots of laughter shared and the opportunity to make a new friend.
Hope to see many of you at the bee this week!!!
~Wanda~