2015 Collection for Native Americans

Laura Freeman passed along this update on the blanket drive:

We drove up to Presque Isle on Saturday (Halloween) and met with the Micmac's on Sunday. We delivered a total of 79 quilts, 50 blankets, 13 afghans, 48 fleece throws, several bags of knitted items for adult and children and two bags of baby clothes. Those were the new items. Then we had 17 bags of used blankets and several bags of used baby clothes, children's clothes and children's shoes. We only had $5.00 in cash donations. We will have to work on that. They are in desperate need of fuel assistance.

We will begin collecting again in April of 2016. In the meantime we will be working on a contact for another reservation in Maine. We are trying to stick with the request that we keep it local. We delivered everything ourselves, but we still have free shipping available to us if we go further away.

The first picture is of Wolf and the coordinator, Kandi, at the reservation community building unloading our truck. The second picture is Kandi with her husband and son who also helped us unload. Those three people will be controlling the distribution of goods. The third picture is of the front door of their community building.

Kandi has promised us many pictures of people receiving their gifts. We stressed the need for pictures. After two failures we are keeping our fingers crossed.




If you would like to help with the 2016 collection, please contact Laura at 207-743-6822 or email at wolfandlaura@hotmail.com

Country Square Quilters Lecture on String Quilting

Barbara Black of CSQ shared their chapter's latest event--

Last week Country Square Quilters enjoyed a special guest, Anne Baker, who taught us her 

technique of "string quilting".  Here is one of her beautiful quilts:

She suggested we think of color as we gathered strips of all blue, green or pink and made 9" blocks of a single color.

Her quilts are exquisite( and I wish I had remembered my camera).  Now we know what to do with all those strips of fabric that often get stuffed into a bag or box. Our blocks will probably become another Community quilt.

Laugh Of The Day

Project Linus

In order to have an outlet for members to do charitable quilts, I will have links to posts with information on the right-side of the blog page.


Our first post will be for Project Linus. We have a local Cumberland-York County Chapter that provided 1,530 blankets in 2014. Melodie Provost  is the coordinator for this chapter and is always looking for donations of quilt blocks, fabric and of course, finished quilts.

Project Linus blankets can be made of various materials, such as fleece, knitted or crocheted. Quilts can be tied. The important key is that they must be new, handmade, washable and free from odors or pet hair.

Sizes they accept are as follows:

Preemie-36" x 36"
Toddlers-36" x 42"
Older children-40" x 54-60"
Teens-48" x 65+" (This is the size they need most)

Drop-off points are:

Biddeford-Seacoast Sewing
Freeport-Cotton Weeds Quilt Shop
Windham-Rosemary's Gift & Yarn Shop
N. Windham-Calico Basket Quilt Shop
Sanford, Scarborough-Marden's
Sebago Lake Village-The Korner Knitters
S. Portland-A.C. Moore

You can find free patterns and more information on Project Linus at www.projectlinus.org

If you would like to contact Melodie directly, her phone number is 207-284-5606 or email her at mprovost@maine.rr.com

Laugh Of The Day

Candy Cane Kiss Cookies by Polish The Stars

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar

1 1/4 cups Unsalted Butter, softened

1 teaspoon Peppermint Extract (optional)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

1 Large Egg

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 cup Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses (about 18), finely chopped

Granulated Sugar

36 unwrapped Candy Cane Kisses

Preheat oven to 350F.  In a large bowl, mix powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg.  Beat at medium speed 2-3 minutes or until creamy.  In a small bowl, blend flour, baking powder and salt.  Gradually add to creamed mixture and beat 1-2 minutes until well blended.  Stir in chopped kisses.

Use a cookie scoop to shape dough into 3/4-inch balls and roll in granulated sugar.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake about 10 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned.  Let sit for a minute then press a candy cane kiss in the center of each cookie*.  Move cookies to a cool cookie sheet and place in the freezer immediately so that the Kisses will set quickly and keep their shape**.

Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Makes 3 Dozen Cookies.

*The original recipe said to put the Kisses on the cookie immediately and then place in the freezer.  I did this but the Kisses still melted as you can see in the photos (they actually melted even more than this so I had to snap the pictures quickly).  So I would suggest letting the cookies set a minute before putting the Kisses on.  Just don't let the cookies cool too much or the Kisses won't want to stay on.

Quilting Tip of the Week 11.19.15

Pipe cleaners? They have many uses! Try taking a piece, twisting a loophole at the top. Push through your bobbin and into your matching thread. You can also use a cotton swab.

You can also use bended pipe cleaners for cleaning your sewing machine.