An Offer of Quilting Services

I received an email recently from a friend, Joan, who has known our family for many years. Her brother is a great friend of Gregg's from WAY back, and Joan was the secretary at Katie's elementary school. We saw her often during the grade school years. A while ago, she and her husband moved away, and after they moved back to our area, I received this message:

"Mark bought me a longarm quilting machine. I am now quilting for people. I would love to donate quilts... I would love to do some quilts that I can machine quilt on my large machine...I would love to help in any way that I can. You are always in my thoughts and prayers."

"If you have anyone that has pieced a quilt and would like me to quilt it for them I will donate my time and the machine. This is so great. I have been looking for something to do to fill the down time that I have, not that I have much but the machine is just sitting there, it begs to be used." - Joan Morey, Henhouse Quilts  

What a great name for a business! And isn't that a lovely offer? If any of you need help with quilting a larger quilt for the guild, please contact me, and I will put you in touch with Joan.

We have been given three large, pieced quilt tops and I think Joan's offer may be the answer to our prayers. We could have them finished, and then auction them off to raise funds to benefit the hospital, or our guild.

Our guild has been invited by Kelley Stryer to participate in the Children's Hospital Calendar Project. It has been one of the top guild fundraisers for over 70 years, and they provide lots of support to make it easy. Does anyone want to spearhead this project? Please leave a comment or send me an email!

Thank you!

Guild Luncheon

Dr. Gordon Cohen

Today was the annual Seattle Children's Hospital Guild Association Luncheon at the Westin Hotel. It was a wonderful event, and this was my first year attending. Friends & family (guild members) came from Poulsbo, Bainbridge, Arlington and Seattle to support our guild and the event.

Thank you all!

One of the highlights, for me, was hearing Dr. Gordon Cohen (pictured above), who performed the cardiac part of Katie's life-saving surgery. Dr. Cohen is a genius and a warm and kind human being.

I love him.

He is the surgeon who took the tumor out of Katie's heart, and gave her sub-cutaneous (under the skin) stitches, so the scarring was minimal on her chest. That meant that she could wear a bathing suit or t-shirt with very little evidence that she had had major surgery. To a 12 year-old girl, that has meaning.

Dr. Cohen is making wonderful changes and progress for children with heart issues right here in our Pacific Northwest.

Paul & me

We were seated with Aileen Kelly, the creative, energetic, thoughtful and encouraging executive director of the Guild Association, two lovely board members, and Paul (Mooselips) Dudley, the Master of Ceremonies (maybe we got to sit with Paul because his wife is a member of our guild). It was a great table:

Julie, Denise & Heidi (Mrs. Mooselips)

Mom, Linda (my sister-in-law, and our guild's treasurer) & me

We shopped at the booths of other guilds and bought some things they were selling (a fleece vest for me and raffle tickets for mom). We heard inspiring stories of fundraising success, fellowship, innovation and progress. We heard about medical advances that need and deserve to be funded.

I am so excited by what I heard, and grateful for Seattle Children's Hospital, its dedicated staff and their love for our kids!

Guild Association Facts from Fiscal Year 2009

Number of Guilds: 500

New Guilds Formed: 15 (we're one of these!)

Project Revenue (net): $10,200,000

Number of Volunteer Hours: 140,000

Guild affiliated revenue in Foundation Programs: $5,500,000

Total Guild Association contributions: $15,700,000

New Donors, New Quilts

We have been given some beautiful new quilts by new donors, and we are very thankful. I'd like to present the handiwork of Bonnie P., a member of Katie's Comforters Guild:

Bonnie didn't want to have her picture taken, but she gave me permission to post a photo of her beautiful quilts here. Thank you, Bonnie!

Here's a closer view, so you can see the lovely fabrics:

And I'm thrilled to introduce a new donor, who has made nearly two thousand quilts so far, during her productive quilting career. Meet Lucile N. and her husband, Noble:

Lucile and Noble donated 28 quilts today!

Lucile makes a quilt per day, and I hope she won't mind me telling you that she's in her 80s. What an inspiration - she's amazing!

Here are just some of the quilts that she donated today:

Thank you, Lucile!

If you know any quilters or blanket-makers who would like to join us, please give them our email address, blogspot, etc.

We always need more quilters, knitters, crocheters and fleece-blanket makers.