November 2024
Fidget quilts, lap quilts, veterans’ quilts, bed-size quilts, placemats, pillowcases, baby and children’s quilts – all are in demand and much appreciated by members of our community. Recently, Rene’ Van Hoorn, Recreation Therapist at Cottage Rehabilitation Hospital, said they are very interested in getting fidget quilts. “They would be a great thing for some of our patients to have.”

If you’d like to make fidget quilts, we’ll be happy to provide you with batting and whatever else you may need. For more information, go to the Community Quilts page. Near the top left there is a link to more information about Fidget Quilts, including patterns, instructions and various tips.
In November someone donated a box of “do-dads” that can be used for patients to “fidget” with. If you have odds and ends of items that can be used on these quilts, please bring them to one of our meetings. Refer to the Fidget Quilts link (above left column) for suggestions.

As always, we continue to be on the lookout for reds, blues and patriotic fabrics. The Running Stitches satellite group has been busy working on veterans’ quilts. They are planning to give a presentation of these quilts at our February meeting.

October 2024
Busy month!
Carol Faye has agreed to organize a fabric sale sometime in the spring. The Guild has just received a large fabric donation, which she is sorting at her house. 

Donations and deliveries continue. This month we donated 100 cradle kits to Unity Shoppe. Additional fidget quilts went to Vista del Monte and to Maravilla. Our Guild donated a quilt to the American Cancer Society for their silent auction to be held on November 22.

Food from the Heart gratefully accepted the last 58 placemats that remained in the locker. They’re hoping that, in the future, there will be more placemats with hearts on them.

On October 18 Nancy took 12 quilts and 16 pillowcases to St. Vincent’s. They were accepted by Gladis Barboza.

The locker is looking a lot better! After all the chaos, we went in and organized everything in the locker. At this point, the tabletop is clear of boxes, most of them having been recycled. We really appreciate all the work our volunteers have done to contribute to our community. In addition to all of the smaller quilted items, we need larger quilts. St Vincent’s recently requested twin, full or queen size quilts for their 'Family Strengthening Program.' Also, Unity Shoppe would like lap quilts.

Susan White & Sue Gierhart at the Community Projects booth of our Harvest of Colors Quilt Show.

Marty Frolli has generously offered to finish some of the larger quilt tops that we have, She recently picked up some PhDs, including two quilts for vets. Keep those veterans’ quilts coming!

Marty informed us that she has two quilts ready to give to us as a donation to Hospice.
These quilts were made by former guild member Elizabeth Jenquin - in photo below. Elizabeth is now in failing health. Members of the Running Stitches satellite group have been busy finishing up her UFOs for the family. Elizabeth wanted these two quilts to go to Hospice.

]
 
September 2024
Lucia Herrea was very pleased to accept 6 veterans quilts and 6 “generic” quilts on behalf of the VNA. They were delivered by Michelle on September 4.

The locker is stuffed with fabric, and more donations are being offered to the Guild. Our quilt teachers will gladly accept fabric, but we’d like to keep some for our locker and for future fabric sales. We decided to limit the donations we accept. Also, Linda Bird has offered to store some of our things in her garage. Many thanks to Linda!

We received a request from SCCQG regarding families affected by the Park Fire. They are asking for donations of bed-size quilts in dark colors if possible. We found a few quilts that met these requirements but transporting them proved to be a problem for us. If you want to donate on your own, contact one of our committee members for more information.

Regarding requests, Guild members who are interested in fabric, kits and PhDs (projects half done) that are stored in the Guild’s locker, please email one of us and we will be happy to reply and supply. We are listed in the directory.

August 2024
Community Projects’ most recent donations were ten veterans’ quilts to the Visiting Nurses Association. This donation means our stash of veterans’ quilts is now depleted. Lucia, who received the donation at the VNA, said that the donation should cover about 3 months of giving to the local veterans under their care. At the August meeting, because of the depletion of veterans’ quilts, the Community Projects table had several veteran-related bins of fabrics for those who would like to make a veteran’s quilt. . ADD PICTURE FROM August NEWSLETTER photo 8
In anticipation of the upcoming September 14 workshop with Kena Dorsey, the donated African fabrics at our Community Projects table went down by half. For those who are interested, the remaining African fabrics will be at the September 12 meeting.

Many thanks to all who donate their time and skills in making quilts, placemats and other requests. We couldn’t do all this without your help. Please stop by the Community Projects table to peruse our fabric for your next project.

July 2024
We are so thankful for the many projects that you have donated to the community in the name of our Guild.

At the July meeting, we received finished cradle quilts for Unity Shoppe and have now almost reached our goal of 108 sets. We also received finished adult and children’s quilts, plus placemats for Meals on Wheels. The number of placemats currently in the locker is 154.  We are more than ready for a call to deliver them to the Meals on Wheels organization!

Do you need anything from the locker? Please contact one of our committee members.
We have a FREE Sew Day coming up on July 27! Please join us. There will be cradle kits and unfinished quilts plus batting and some fabric from the locker. Let us know if you have any requests for items you may need from the Guild’s locker.

June 2024
At our July picnic we’re looking forward to you taking and finishing cradle kits and other unfinished projects that are waiting to be quilted.

We had lots of action at our May Guild meeting! There were many incoming donations and volunteers who picked up cradle kits and other projects to work on. Four unfinished quilt tops were donated: three by Elisa Purnell and one by Reyna Lorele. Linda Bird donated nine placemats and two cradle sets, and Rita Hardin donated one. Nancy Miller donated four patriotic quilts and one finished bed size quilt.

As for projects going out, Mary Ringer took two of the unfinished quilt tops and Ranell Hansen took one. Unity Shoppe has requested 108 cradle kit sets for the upcoming Christmas season. With six months to go, we have about 70 in storage and are hoping to have 38 more by November, so please consider making a cradle kit or two!

Recently Nancy Blau received four unfinished quilt tops, two finished quilts and some veteran’s fabric that had been left over from the Assistance League’s Fabric Sale. Nancy also delivered five quilts to Transition House and five quilts to the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center.

None of this would be possible without the participation of our Guild members. Your work is very much appreciated by the community and by us.

May 2024
Thank you all so much to the many volunteers who have picked up projects to work on. We do need help with the unfinished quilt tops and quilts that have been donated. Right now, we need cradle kits! We have 108 of the kits that will be going to Unity Shoppe for the Christmas season, and we need 38 more.

Angela Miller-Bevan, Executive Director of Unity Shoppe, said they are working on a vignette for the 2024 telethon. They would like to use some footage of quilters at work on the projects we do for them.

Quilts donated since summer 2023

We’ve received many quilts at our meetings, but we don’t always know who the donors are. Please write a little note about your donations. We really appreciate all of them. Thanks to our members who contribute so much to our community.

April 2024
Our committee members feel that we should spread the love to as many organizations in need as seems manageable. We had agreed to give Ridley-Tree a trial run. They responded that they would like to try some larger quilts. Transition House doesn’t need any children’s quilts at this time, but they could use about 5 adult quilts.

We received a very nice thank you note from St Vincent’s for the 24 children’s quilts we donated to them. St. Vincent’s provides low-income housing and various other services to single mothers with young children, as well as to seniors.

At our March meeting we were able to see and admire this beautiful quilt. LouAnn Smith took donated quilt tops from Kaffe Fassett fabric, combined them with other Kaffe fabric and did a beautiful job of quilting them.  The quilt was sold in a silent auction at our April fabric sale.

Unity Shoppe has told us they will need 108 cradle quilt kits for the Christmas holiday giveaway. As of now, we have approximately 65 quilt kits finished, with many thanks to Marian Jones who took 20 kits. We will bring more unfinished kits to the next meeting, so please take one or two and help us meet Unity Shoppe’s goal.

Also stored at the Guild’s locker are a variety of quilt tops that need finishing. Susan White has volunteered to meet with those who would like to finish a quilt top. There will be backing and batting available. Please let Susan know if you are interested and she can meet with you.

So, in summary, sewists are needed for fidget quilts, Veteran quilts, cradle quilts and finishing a variety of quilt tops. Supplies are available for completing all these projects. Please stop by our table or contact Susan White if interested. Many thanks for your support

March 2024
At our March meeting, six beautiful veteran quilts were displayed and given to Lucia Herrera of the VNA. Recently four fidget quilts were delivered to Vista Del Monte and 10 fidget quilts to Maravilla. As a result, our stash of fidget quilts, as well as our stash of veteran quilts, is now depleted. We have fabric for both kinds of quilts plus “knick-knacks” for fidgets. We’ll bring these supplies to the next meeting.

Our next aim is to place fidget quilts in assisted living facilities, so if you happen to be working on a fidget quilt, or would like to begin one, please let us know. We have fabric, gizmos, gadgets and trinkets to complete one.

February 2024
We received a request from another guild to use the patterns on our website. We appreciate that they asked. Basically, the answer is that, because our website is not password protected, anyone can access and use those patterns. Please check out the many patterns available to you on the Community page of the Guild’s website. Coastal Quilters Guild of Santa Barbara & Goleta

At our February meeting, Loretta Johnson accepted 14 baby quilts on behalf of Villa Majella. The quilts were paraded around the room for all to see. Also paraded were 17 lap quilts made and donated by former Guild member, Nancy Snyder.

14 baby quilts for Villa Magella being presented at our February meeting.

January 2024
Checking out the locker, we have 30-40 miscellaneous quilts of various sizes: 25 or so baby and kids quilts; 5-10 fidgets; 5-10 pillowcases. We are checking with some of the organizations we’ve donated to in the past, including Domestic Violence Solutions, Friendship Manor/Village in Montecito, Unity Shoppe, and the VNA.

Recently, volunteers from Community Projects delivered nine veteran quilts to VNA. Thanks to all who participated in making these items, they were greatly appreciated by the recipients.

Once again, it being a new year - we were at the Guild’s upcoming January 11 meeting with bins of fabrics to make crib quilts for the babies at Villa Majella, cradle quilt kits for Unity Shoppe and fabric for veteran quilts. Our supply of patriotic red, white and blue fabric is rather slim. If you have some of these fabrics you would like to donate, please stop by at our next meeting and drop them in the veteran’s fabric bin.

At our February meeting, we will present a representative of Villa Majella with at least a dozen baby quilts for those who are staying at the residence. Please feel free to stop by at our table and speak with Kathy, Susan, Nancy and Michelle for more information regarding on-going needs.

Our  Committee has the following items available for Guild members:
· fabric and trinkets for fidget quilts
· fabrics for Meals on Wheels placemats
· cradle quilt kits for Unity Shoppe, with or without fabric
· fabrics for veterans’ quilts
· fabrics for quilts for hospice and Domestic Violence Solutions
· batting
and … a variety of unfinished quilts looking for someone who would like to complete them.

December 2023
The quilt locker is overflowing with donated fabric. We hope to get to it soon and organize the chaos. If you need fabric, email one of us and we will try our best to set up a date and time to meet. Our email addresses can be found in the directory. We also have 30 - 40 kits ready for sewing, so please let us know if you’re interested in picking these up!

We received a special request from Hospice for veterans red, white, and blue quilts. The Guild is short of this kind of fabric, so if you have some and it is just sitting around unused, a donation would be greatly appreciated. Another recent request is for baby and crib quilts. The Committee will be looking to put together some baby fabric kits in the near future but would really appreciate some of these in the meantime. At our January 11 meeting, we will be there with fabric to use in making these quilts.

Many thanks to all our members who give so generously of their time and resources to make these quilts for our community!

November 2023
Linda Estrada received a request from Villa Majella, a home for unwed mothers, for baby quilts and crib quilts. We plan to look through the fabric we have and make up packets of “baby quilt” fabric to hand out at our meetings.

We ordered more batting from The Batty Lady. There is still some in the locker, but we will probably need it soon so that you can use if for your community quilt projects.

We recently gave 212 placemats to Meals on Wheels. In the future, they would appreciate getting more placemats with red, white, and blue themes for their veterans.

October 2023
Our guild donates quilts to recipients of all ages. You may use any pattern you like. If you’re donating a quilt and would like fabric, contact one of the Community Projects members to get access to the locker where we have many fabrics as well as batting. Labels are available at the Guild meetings.

At our November meeting there will be a treasure table with kits, fabric, etc. Two ladies from the Global Registry of Quilts want to take photos of “important” quilts, e.g., the Santa Barbara quilt. The next day will be Community Quilts Sew Day. We’ll promote it as a kind of Thanksgiving, Quilting for Others. Fabric, instructions, batting and fidget quilt equipment will be available as well as red, white and blue fabric for Veterans’ quilts.

October 2023 Donation to American Cancer Society:

We’d like to thank the generous quilters who sew and donate various projects so we can distribute them to the agencies our Guild serves. None of this community service would be possible without your dedication and generosity.  So many thanks!

At our October meeting, Angela Miller-Bevan, Executive Director, of Unity Shoppe accepted 147 cradle quilt sets.  This donation allows Unity to get the cradles ready for the holidays, when thousands of children and their families are invited to the shop.

Also at that meeting, we had more cradle kits ready for pick up (getting a start on the 2024 year), and some kits for veterans quilts (we are currently low on these). As a reminder, there are free, printable, simple quilt patterns available on the Guild website under the Community Projects heading. Look in the left margin!

Finally, mark your calendars! Community Projects will sponsor:

CHQP Evaluation AND “Thanks-Giving Back” Sew Day
Arlene Stevens and Rebecca Blosser, the CHQP ladies, will demonstrate how to photograph and document your quilts for the CHQP online database. They will start with the Guild's wonderful "Santa Barbara" quilt and include other notable quilts in the Guild inventory. In addition, Community Projects will host a no-cost “Thanks-Giving Back” Sew Day in a separate workshop room. Guild members are invited to make postcards, sew community quilt projects and make items to be donated to the Boutique at our 2024 Quilt Show. We will have supplies, a treasure table, space to set up your sewing machine and snacks. Just come with your usual workshop supplies. There is no charge for this sew day, but we will need to set up tables and chairs ourselves. - Nancy Butterfield

Sept. 2023
Visiting Nurses will contact us in mid-November with the number of veterans’ quilts they need. The vets quilts are in short supply, so we need to work on these. We hope to use some fabric from a recent donation by Leslie Seimon to make some of these kits.

Unity Shoppe will need a total of 144 cradle kits this year. They would like to film our presentation of the kits for their Telethon. They offered to attend one of our meetings to receive the kits, or we could schedule a time at another location. There will be a cameraman present to film in order to spotlight all the community volunteers that make their mission possible. - We will do the presentation at our October meeting, Chris Knight, our public relations person will publicize it on social media and locally.

Labels! We have beautiful new labels. The ones that were left in the locker were faded and really didn’t look good. If you need labels for your many projects, pick them up at the Community Projects table at our meetings.

Our website is the place to find patterns, project instructions and a listing of our speakers going back for years. If you loved the technique taught by a speaker you can track them down on our site and see what classes they are offering currently.

August 2023
On November 10, 2023, the Guild will have a Community Quilts Sew Day at St. Andrew’s Church. Members will bring quilts to be photographed and entered in the Registry of Quilts. This will also be the topic of the program at our Guild meeting the night before. Soon we will have more details about the Registry and the Sew Day.

The foam we need for the cradle kits is now here. After ordering ink and fabric sheets, Nancy printed some very nice labels for us to use on our quilts; we’ll bring them to the next meeting and will give them out to anyone who wants them.

The Guild donated a large quilt to the Kiwanis Club of Santa Barbara for a raffle that was held on August 27, celebrating 100 years as a service club here in SB.

July 2023
The Community Projects Committee held its first meeting at the Guild’s locker on July 18th. We looked at the huge amount of fabric stored there and began to think about how to sort it. Nancy will look into printing new labels, since the few remaining labels in the locker are all quite faded.
Susan volunteered to report to the CQG board. Michelle will do the newsletter write-ups. Nancy will reach out to the charities to see what they need. Kathy will look into ordering more foam for use in the cradle kits.

Among the suggestions we received from last year’s committee was to donate to a maximum of 4 agencies. Also, since the Guild is in good financial shape, we don’t need to sell fabric at our meetings. Susan and Kathy inventoried cradle kits in the locker; we counted 107. We will reach out to the Unity Shoppe to see how many kits they need this year. Making these kits is our priority right now!