January 2005



January 2005

Another Holidays season is behind us and a New Year is ahead of us! By now I hope you’ve packed away all your holiday decorations and are ready to get the New Year started with new projects and new adventures.

Last year was an exciting and busy year for Peace by Piece. Last year at this time Peace by Piece was only a thought… “Wouldn’t it be nice if SOMEONE started a quilting group that got together once a month and made quilts for AZ Blankets 4 Kids. This thought had been running through my head for a couple of years and then it finally hit me, that SOMEONE might as well be me. So a year later here we are! A bonafide quilting group that is no longer just a thought in my head. By April we had our first bee and it was a BIG success. Last year we held a total of 6 quilting bee that produced and delivered 58 quilts to AZ Blankets for Kids! A BIG THANK YOU goes out to everyone who helped make that possible.

	We finished out 2004 with a Potluck Lunch that included the drawing for our Raffle Quilt at my home in December. There was lots of good food that was enjoyed by everyone who attended. We also had a Chinese Gift Exchange that yielded everyone a great gift and a few laughs. The most important event of the day was the drawing of the lucky raffle ticket. And the winner was… Dilly Muehlfelt. She was very excited about the news and said she listened to the message on her answering machine three times and still couldn’t believe she was the winner. Dilly is a quilting volunteer herself. She makes quilts for AZ Blankets 4 Kids every month with the Sunrise Village Quilters and she also sews with a group that supports The House of Refuge.

Even though we didn’t hold any Peace by Piece quilting bees in the months of November and December there was still plenty of things going on to help our effort. Denise Besson has officially taken over the responsibility of organizing the Preemie supplies and making our Preemie quilt kits. Everyone loves to make these quick and easy Preemie quilts and she has been working on making kits for you all to sew up at future bees. She may put out a plea from time to time for help in making kits. When she does please give as much time and help as you can. Having enough kits on hand for each bee may be too big of a job for just one person. Ida Peacock has another passion besides quilt making. She is also a talented scrapbooker and she has agreed to keep a history of our bees in the form of a scrapbook. So don’t be surprised if you see her at the bees pointing a camera in your direction or taking notes instead of making a quilt. Won’t it be fun to see what she does!

	My wonderful husband, Greg, has also been pulled into this effort by building a Peace by Piece web page for us to use. It’s still under construction but promises to be a place where you can go for fun things and information. He plans for the site to contain several pages such as a Calendar of events that relate to Peace by Piece and AZ Blankets 4 Kids, a Gallery of photos taken at our bees, Newsletters from the past and present along with a few others. I’ll keep you posted on the progress.

AZ Blankets 4 Kids is searching for a few dedicated people to fill some vacant board positions in 2005. The open positions are Volunteer Records/Roster, Newsletter (bi-annual) and Historian/Scrapbook. If you are interested in giving your time and talents to fill one of these positions please contact any board member, or you can leave a message at 480-283-8746 or send an email to info@azblankets4kids.com.

	Get your fingers warmed up and your sewing machines oiled because in the year 2005 there are 10 Peace by Piece Quilting Bees scheduled and my goal is to deliver over 100 quilts to AZ Blankets 4 Kids!

Our first bee for 2005 will be Thursday January 27 from 10 am until we get tired. As usual, the wonderful people at CraftMart have generously offered their classroom for us to use. And of course, I’ll have snacks and DOOR PRIZES! I promise to keep all your News Years diet resolutions in mind when picking out snack food. Hope to see you there!