Thursday, September 8, 2016

A Quilt For Pulse

I recently sent off one of two quilts from the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild to the Orlando MQG as part of their "Quilts for Pulse" drive. The quilts will be given to victims, families, first responders, and others involved in the tragedy that occurred in June at Pulse Nightclub. According to the Orlando MQG's recent September meeting minutes, their president, Alissa, anticipates having over 1,000 quilts to donate in the end. Yes, you read that right: ONE THOUSAND QUILTS. That is some serious love and generosity from the quilting community!


In the face of such an event, what can you do? The only way I know how to cope with so many feelings of anger and sadness is to quilt. So I asked our guild for help.

Members donated enough blocks for two whole quilts. Thank you SO much, everyone! They could send any rainbow color in bright, modern fabrics (we received such a beautiful, wide array!). Some members made smaller hearts, which looked so beautiful next to the large ones (tutorial by Cluck Cluck Sew). Laura Schafer (@helloquilts) and I each took responsibility for one quilt. We were able to work together and figure out layouts during one of our guild's sewing days.


I love improvising (as you might know already), so I just "went for it" and added in negative space of various sizes to each row. I wanted the the hearts to be unbalanced but still cascade in rainbow order down the length of the quilt. The multicolored blocks seemed to work best at the very bottom! Then, I quilted the whole thing with one of my favorite walking foot techniques - the wave - with Aurifil 2024 (white).


I have been holding onto this GORGEOUS rainbow "cheater" fabric from Northcott Fabrics for a few months and it just seemed appropriate for the back of the quilt (here's a link to more from the Colorworks Concepts line). The panel is surrounded by Cirrus Solids from Cloud9 Fabrics - a soft but stable shot cotton. It washed up so nicely.

 

Laura passed her quilt on to Janet Bergman (@quiltedhorse) to quilt - check out her detailed quilting!


Some quilts are more meaningful to make than others. With every stitch, I thought about where this one was meant to go, and I hope it comforts someone even more than words can. Thank you so much again to the CJMQG and everyone who has helped with this cause!


12 comments:

  1. Lovely, both of them. I'm certain both quilts will be well loved when they arrive at their destination. I do like the smaller hearts, it adds an extra pop to the layout.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I just saw on IG how many people are already signed up to receive the quilts, too, and it makes my heart so happy that we were able to do so much as a community. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great use of the smaller hearts in the top. The cheater fabric is perfect. I'm off to press another top and hopefully finishing quilting a second to send next week. 1,000 quilts is amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lovely! I like the mix of large and small hearts, and the cheater fabric is perfect! Beautiful "hugs" to pass along.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Projects like this make me so proud to be a part of the quilting community. These quilts look wonderful! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I agree with everything you said. My finished lap quilt was mailed last week. Pulling it together was an incredibly meaningful and moving process for me. I also love being a member of such a loving and generous community of talented sewers. We need something happy to quilt for next time. Maybe quilts for every previously delinquent student who graduates High School, or kids who are the first college grad in their families, or teachers who last year after year of working in rough districts, or volunteer firemen who give of their time. Let's put our heads together and come up with a positive meaning for our quilts as well.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What you made and sent was lovely. Quilting is such a healing "thing" for the makers and the receivers. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What wonderful gifts of compassion from all of you. I'm sure they will be treasured.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jess, that's such a heartfelt gesture and yes, those quilts definitely will bring comfort, warm fuzzies too:)

    bluestarof2(at)yahoo(dot)com

    ReplyDelete
  10. I made two lap quilts for the Pulse cause. I'm thrilled that they expect to receive 1000. I hadn't heard that latest number. I mailed them and they should be in Alissa's shop today!!! I was pleased to be able to do something for those people affected; how helpless we feel when these horrors happen around us! You can see my Pulse quilts at http://quilterinmotion.net/quilted-and-ready/

    ReplyDelete
  11. You have a decent point here!I absolutely concur with what you have said!!Thanks for sharing your views...hope more individuals will read this article!!! Best Basement Dehumidifier

    ReplyDelete
  12. These are beautiful Jess. I really like the combination of smaller hearts with the larger hearts.

    ReplyDelete

Let's start a conversation! I love comments and I'd be happy to reply to all who have an email address accessible. Thanks for commenting!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...