Golden Triangle Quilt Guild

Community Service News

WORKDAY PLACE & TIME:    Tuesdays at the Nederland Library
                                                         9:00am to about 3:00pm
                                                        Contact: Marlene Wilson

DIRECTIONS:

Quilts presented to Shirley Dement, United Board of Missions, Pt. Arthur, TX at the August guild meeting.

Quilts presented to Paula O'Neal, Some Other Place, Beaumont, TX at the August guild meeting.

Quilts presented to Coquese Williams, CASA, Beaumont, TX at the August guild meeting.

Letters from recipients: Casa, Family Services, Burn Center, Quilting for Valour, Some Place Special

The FMCA, Family Motor Coach Association, will have their annual rally at Ford Park in Beaumont September 26-29. They hold a rally each year and present the quilts that they have made to the guild in the city where the rally is held. Their quilt challenge this year is Blessings for Beaumont. Our guild has been asked to find recipients for 500 quilts and to present a quilting technique to the rally women. Patsy Broussard, Becky Bridges and Dian Fournet have volunteered to work with this project.

The Golden Triangle Quilt Guild Community Service group meets most Tuesdays to work on quilts and other projects that are donated to charitable groups in our area. We have found a wonderful new place for our Tuesday workdays. This is the Port Neches Library in their Community Room.. We will be there most Tuesdays with the exception of the second Tuesday of each month as the library uses the room that day. We meet from about 9:00am to about 3:00pm but anyone can come at anytime between those hours. We go somewhere for lunch which takes about an hour. There is a kitchen there with a refrigerator which we may use - no microwave. We have a nice closet in which to store our supplies and a very spacious working area. We have ongoing projects that we work on from week to week until completion. We cut, assemble, pin, quilt and bind the quilts. We give quilts to individuals if we learn of the need for a quilt. We find that the safest way to give the quilts away is to go through agencies, such as Casa, Some Other place and others, as they have a counselor or some person who is screening these people and determining the need.

We use donated fabrics and the guild furnishes the batting used in our quilts. We sometimes get fabrics that we cannot use. In this case, we make up a box of fabric, thread and scissors that a local church takes to Mexico where it is needed for a ministry to these people who live at poverty level. This is a means for them to further their income by selling their wares made from this fabric.

We also pin quilts for the public for a fee of $10. This money, along with the sale of some of the quilts, is used to buy supplies such as rulers, thread, pins for pinning and any other supplies that we might need. Also from the sale of the quilts we are able to make cash donations to various organizations in the area.

Kits that are prepared by this group are sometimes passed out at guild, completed and returned to us at a later meeting. We then put a back and batting with these quilts, pin them and either quilt them at our Tuesday workday or bring them back to guild for quilting. This enables more guild members to participate in Community Service, as not everyone can attend workdays.

We always make some items to be sold at the quilt show and quilt auction boutiques. Another of our projects has been making doll dresses for the dolls given away by the United Board of Missions in Port Arthur at Christmas time. We cut out dresses, bring them to guild where they are passed out to members to take home to complete.

In 2007 with only 4 regular participants we have given many quilts to places like Some Other Place, Women's Shelter, CASA, and soldiers in San Antonio. We will also have some for sale at the upcoming quilt show.

Boys' Haven Quilt Project. This project was organized several years ago by Mavis Luquette. Boys' Haven is a residential facility for boys between the ages of 8 and 16 who are unable to live with their family for various reasons. The facility has a maximum capacity of 30 residents. Staff members state the boys are attached to their quilts and it is not really possible to assign a quilt to a bed The boys are allowed to take their quilts with them when they leave if they are in good standing with regard to grades and behavior. Guild members donate quilts that are 60 inches by 72 inches which fit the specific beds at the facility. The boys especially like theme quilts involving any kind of sports, animals/wildlife, motorcycles or Nascar. Quilts are presented to the boys at various intervals during the year. Anyone interested in participating in this project or has a quilt to donate, please contact: Carol Taylor or Kathy Worden.

There are 8 new boys who need quilts at Boy's Haven and the guild has enough for each to choose one.

Community Service from Hardin County. One person can make a difference!! Juanita Johnson is that person in Honey Island. Fabrics for her projects are found at garage/estate sales, and by shopping for store bargains. Her bee, The Bear Threads, help put together the tops and contribute some of the backing fabric s. Donations of any kind (exp. cash, fabrics, batting) would bed gladly accepted, especially quilts that can be passed on where needed. So far in 2006 she had donated 17 quilts to the Hardin County Foster Children program. She "just knows that having a quilt to wrap up in means a lot to the recipients". To help out or get more information contact Juanita.