How We Did a Community Quilt — The Story
This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to how Unity Christian Church has successfully made several community quilts. For the subsequent posts, click here and here.
Written by Sandy Kennedy:
It was a few days after the 2010 Harvest of Talents and several of our church family were headed to rural Nappanee for an Amish outing. We were still buzzing about God’s blessing on our Harvest, as we traveled in the church van. The idea sprung up about doing a group quilt where the quilting would be done by hand. One of our group was a regular quilter herself and she mentioned that our hostess did beautiful quilt work and would probably be happy to show us her quilt room and projects.
Our Amish hostess did indeed show us her setup for quilting and offered some ideas. She suggested using a fairly simple pattern to start, such as the “nine square”. Our church is gifted with several quilters, so the inquiries began: would you help if we get something started? I was encouraged to be the “ring leader”. Kathy Nall said she would do whatever would be needed and would show us how to start. Kathy wanted to stay in the background. I would do all the talking. Kathy worked out a timeline of about how long it would take for each step of the project. We have kept the quilt plan between the two of us. Then when we are ready to piece, we ask for anyone’s help who is interested.
Since I had never quilted either, I found it easy to encourage anyone with any interest at all to try their hand at putting a piece together. We had a sample of the nine square, but each person chose their own nine squares to assemble. Kathy and I chose the material, harvest colors, of course. Kathy cut the pieces. Everyone who took pieces were instructed to make the seam ¼ inch and to press the seams together NOT open. This phase started about March 1st and all finished blocks had to be returned by April 15th.
Then when four of us with machines could spend a day, we assembled the squares. There was not one block exactly the same as another. Kathy being the experienced quilter, instructed us in the assembly. It took the four of us all day to assemble the top and press the seams. This was in May. We borrowed a PVC pipe quilt frame and set it up in the recreation room of the church where the lighting was pretty good. This area was also close to a storage area so that we could move the frame to protect the quilt during the quilting. When we left the project, we covered it with a plastic tablecloth protector.
We spent one day sandwiching the quilt, marking the leaf motif on every other block and getting it on the frame. Then the quilting started in mid July. We quilted Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2-4 pm and again from 6-8 pm. We finished quilting near the end of August. Kathy finished the quilt and named it. The quilt was back to church for display the last Saturday of September and the Harvest was the third Saturday of October. We had had enough blocks to make a queen size quilt (not bedspread), two shams, 3 throw pillows, and one block for a framed “quilt story”. The quilt story showcased the quilt design and named all those who had a part in making it all happen. It sold in the auction with all the parts for $600.
The second quilt started with Kathy’s ideas for another “simple” design. This time it was five strips using fabrics of turquoise, green, brown, and blue tones. We used the same time line. The block pattern was “fields of flowers” and the quilt template was “Harriet Tubman”. This year we had acquired an antique quilt frame with a community history. Since Vacation Bible School was in full swing, the quilt was set up in the Kennedy parlor. We quilted two days, Tuesday and Thursdays from 2-4pm and 6-8 pm. The quilting started in June with interruptions and ended in August. This year over 100 squares were returned. We had enough squares for an oversized queen quilt, three throw pillows, two shams, a table runner, a crib sized quilt and a square for the framed quilt story. The quilt with shams, two throw pillows, and the quilt story sold at auction for $400. The other throw pillow was a “first fruits” for a 9 year old first time quilter that was also sold in the auction. The crib sized quilt also sold in the auction for. The table runner was sold in the silent auction for $16.
This entire project came about because of a lot of folks worked together and prayed together for it to be successful.