Activities and Community Service

Here are some of the activities and community service projects that Brandywine Valley Quilt Guild members participate in.
Click any of these links for details...

COMMUNITY SERVICE GUILD ACTIVITIES SPECIAL EVENTS Patterns and Instructions

Charity Corner BVQ Bees 25th Anniversary Celebration Three-Seam Pillowcase

Earn Rebates for BVQ! 2010 Raffle Quilt, Doll New Member Tea Fleece Hat, Scarf

Ronald McDonald House 2011 BVQ Challenge Annual Retreat Stockings for Soldiers

Cut! Sew! Quilt! Archives of Previous Events The Jelly Roll 1600 Quilt

Charity Corner

Charity News ** Stockings for Soldiers ** Who We Support ** Charity Project Details ** Patterns and Instructions ** Pillowcase Requests

Charity News

From Betty Dix: We delivered 33 Quilts of Valor to Coatesville Va. Hospital on December 21st. Six of them went to the men in the Hospice Unit and 17 were delivered to the Womens’ Unit. Deb Kelly and her parents went with us (Deb’s dad, a veteran of almost 85 years old, is interested in volunteering at the VA, and her mom contributes to our Quilts of Valor program). We left the others with the donation unit to distribute as they choose. This is a very special cause for our guild.

January’s Guild meeting program was a charity workshop. Many members brought sewing machines to piece blocks for Quilts of Valor and Hannah House. Hannah House is a non-profit organization that assists women in the criminal justice system in making the transition from incarceration to living in their local communities productively. We also cut squares from donated fabric for charity quilt kits. Members who brought 8 1/2" squares to the meeting were eligible to win prizes! Betty Dix helped us string-piece blocks for Quilts of Valor from the fabric strips she provided.

Now that Safe Harbor is in its new home, we can again make fleece scarves and hats. Safe Harbor of Chester County is an independent, nonprofit organization providing food, shelter, friendship, counseling and recovery opportunities to homeless men and women. The pattern is on our website. Bring them to the next guild meeting and we will deliver!

Stockings for Soldiers Update

Many, many thanks for all the help that the guild provided to make this project succeed. We gave them 250 stockings and many other items donated by our generous members. We will report to you in January what was sent to the soldiers.

Click here to read a letter from Judy Travis, Stockings for Soldiers Delaware Project Coordinator, detailing all of the accomplishments of the SFS staff and many volunteers. Job well done!!

Charity Project Details

Quilts of Valor: Minimum size is 55" wide by 72" long, patriotic colors preferred but not required. (Need ideas? visit www.persimmonquilts.com/QOVMysteryHomePg.html and choose from numerous quilt designs!) If you don't want to quilt it, just assemble the top and one of our longarmers will quilt it. Or you can just make one or more blocks, in red, white and blue and 12½" unfinished. Any block will do!
Presentation cases (pillowcase): They can be any red, white, and blue fabric. Even florals - there is a women’s unit at the VA hospital, and they are so appreciative that we remember them.
Charity quilts: These can be as simple as fabric squares in a straight set in the following recommended sizes:
Use juvenile prints for baby/child’s quilts or appropriate colors/prints for adult quilts...from your stash or the quilt shop (a good excuse to go fabric shopping!), or pick up a kit at the Guild meeting. A good opportunity to practice your machine quilting! If you want one of our longarmers to quilt it, please cut the backing 4 inches per side larger than the top. Note: Baby quilts must be quilted (not tied).
“Quilts for Kids”: You can make your own or request a kit from the Quilts for Kids website (www.quiltsforkids.org/patterns/), or attend the weekly sewing event at Quilter’s Corner.
Infant quilts: These are given to Healthy Start for “Tummy Time”. Kits are available at BVQ meetings, or grab some juvie fabric from your stash or the quilt shop and make it 36" x 36".
Stockings for Soldiers: This Delaware organization sews stockings which they fill with special items and send to the members of our armed forces of the who are deployed in harm's way. BVQ members are encouraged to make stockings or donate fabric to this cause. We need holiday-themed, plaid or solid color cotton fabric (1 yard per stocking) and red, white, blue or green felt (no sparkles, please). Click these links to download pdfs of the pattern and instructions: Pattern - Directions
Pillowcases: Donated to ConKerr Cancer, who distributes them to hospitals for their young patients with serious or terminal illnesses. Download instructions and make one or more pillowcase in bright, cheerful fabrics, or pick up a kit at a Guild meeting. Please wash and dry each pillowcase, place it in a clean Ziploc bag and bring it to any BVQ meeting.
Tote bag project: Make a 12½" block (or add a border to an orphan block to make it 12½") and bring it with 3/4 yard coordinating fabric to any BVQ meeting. Bettye Altzman is collecting these for the American Cancer Society’s “Reach to Recovery” program, where they are assembled into tote bags with pillows and filled with helpful information for women facing breast cancer.
Selvages: These are donated to be made into hospice quilts. Bring any selvages you have (with the writing and color marks that are 1½" wide and at least 4" long) to any guild meeting and give them to Katy Hoess.
Scraps: Bring your quilting fabric scraps (1" square or larger) to the Guild meeting for our “Scrap Bag”. There are many projects that are great for using up scraps! (For example, our 2010 Challenge utilized scraps from the Scrap Bag to make small quilts that were sold at our 2010 quilt show, raising over $500 for the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative!)
Dog pillows: Toss your fabric “shavings” and batting scraps you would otherwise throw out (those that are too small or strips too narrow for BVQ's Scrap Bag) into a grocery bag and when it's full, give it to Bobbie Spaid, who uses them to stuff dog pillows for the SPCA. She'll also take upholstery fabric for the pillows! Note: Bobbie will not be collecting again until spring - hold onto those snippets and upholstery fabrics for now!

Back to Charity Corner

Patterns and Instructions

Stockings for Soldiers: Pattern, Directions (both updated for 2011)
3-Seam Pillowcase: Instructions
Fleece Hat and Scarf: Instructions

Back to Charity Corner

Dupont Children’s Hospital has sent a big thank you for kids’ pillowcases and have requested more! There have been a few “requests” from the kids - pillowcases made of the following fabrics:

NY Yankees Hannah Montana

Boston Red Sox Winnie the Pooh

Pittsburgh Steelers Dora the Explorer

Philadelphia Eagles Thomas the Tank Engine

Dallas Cowboys Tinkerbelle

Washington Redskins Princesses

Penn State

So, if you can find any of the above fabrics, please help by making a pillowcase or two.

Back to Charity Corner

Organizations Supported by BVQ

Here are some of the organizations that Brandywine Valley Quilters support:

Quilts of Valor (quilts and presentation pillowcases)
Quilts for Kids (quilts)
ConKerr Cancer (pillowcases)
Safe Harbor of Greater West Chester, Inc. (polar fleece hats and scarves) (click here for instructions)
Healthy Start Program of The Maternal and Child Health Consortium of Chester County (baby quilts/pillowcases for siblings/baby supplies)
Stockings for Soldiers
Domestic Violence Center of Chester County (quilts)
Hannah House, Philadelphia, PA (lap quilts for women) (BVQ contact: Ellen McLaughlin)

Back to Charity Corner

Cut! Sew! Quilt!

...is held on the 3rd Tuesday of each month, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., in the Bethel Township meeting hall. The building is located at 1082 Bethel Road, Garnet Valley, PA 19060, between Garnet Mine Road and Foulk Road, not far from the Rachel Kohl Library.

Come and use this sewing fellowship to work on a project for our Quilt Show Boutique, enhance the charity projects our guild sponsors OR bring your own project!!

In February we will be making wallets for the Boutique, using the instructions Kathy Silvon provided with the January newsletter.

There are tables and chairs available for our use in the room; everyone is responsible for setting up, breaking down and cleaning up their own area. Bring what you need to sew or cut, bring a lunch and be ready for a good time You do not need to be there the entire day - just come whenever you can!

Why not join us? Contact Jody Beitzel if you have any questions.

News from the Bee Keeper

“Back in the day”, small groups of neighborhood quilters gathered on a regular basis to work together on a project, such as a wedding quilt for a bride-to-be, and to share concerns and provide friendship and support. These groups were referred to as “quilting bees”, and this concept continues in contemporary times.

A number of these groups, made up of BVQ members and some of their friends and family members, enjoy this camaraderie while working together on individual projects as well as community service projects. Read below for the latest “buzz” from our Bees!

If you are a member of a BVQ bee, we'd like to hear from you! Where and when do you meet? Are you accepting new members or is your bee closed? Who is your Bee Queen (organizer)? What kind of projects does your bee work on? Do you have any news you'd like to share? Let Betty Jean or Deb Kelly know.

Brandywine Snippers

The Brandywine Snippers Quilting Bee is looking for new members! We meet twice a month in the morning, rotating between the members' houses. We live in the area of Media, Glen Mills and Newtown Square. We also are having lunch together which adds to a nice “social”! Call Gail Kozicki or Heidel Gerhard for details.

Valley Girls

Valley Girls will meet again in January on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, at the home of Ann Tolman. Please let Ann know if you plan to attend. Contact Betty Jean Boyd if you would like to host one of our monthly (4th Thursday) bee meetings.

Upcoming meetings:

January 26, 2012 - Ann Tolman
February 23 - ?
March 22 - ?
April 26 - Gretchen Gobris
May 24 - Lee Hickman

2010 Raffle Quilt

BVQ's 2010 raffle quilt, “Cocoa Galaxy”, is a pieced Friendship Star variation, which will complement any décor with its neutral palette.

Chair Ellen Nobles-Harris coordinated the project and planned the quilt; Barbara Gross donated enough fabric from her stash for almost half of the quilt top! Peg Miller's enviable basement workroom was the site of several work “parties”, where participants shared laughs and snacks while cutting fabric for block kits and then assembling the quilt top after numerous members pieced the blocks. Moria and Eric Fischer of Fyshwyk Custom Machine Quilting once again did an exceptional job quilting it on their longarm machine. Jane Shea and Peg Miller spent hours tying the many loose thread ends and binding the quilt.

BVQ thanks all of our members who contributed their time and skills to this project. We were rewarded by our efforts, as Cocoa Galaxy was awarded Second Place in the Bed Quilt (Group) - Pieced category at Undercovers' 2009 Quilt Show. It was again a winner, taking First Place in the Group Bed Quilt category at BVQ's 2010 quilt show!

The drawing for the quilt with matching pillowcases and pillow was held Sunday afternoon of the show. The lucky winner was none other than the quilter, Moria Wikstrom-Fischer! Needless to say, Moria was ecstatic, and BVQ is very happy for her.

Congratulations to Peg Miller and Lil Koster, the two top ticket sales persons, who received gift certificates for one year's guild membership.

Visit the BVQ ARCHIVES to view raffle quilts from previous years.

American Girl Doll Raffle

American Girl Doll with bed, quilt and wardrobe

This year we also raffled the 2010 American Girl doll, “Lanie”, along with a 4-poster/canopy bed, quilt and wardrobe consisting of numerous outfits made by BVQ members.

The winning ticket was drawn at the quilt show in October, Sunday afternoon immediately after the drawing for the raffle quilt. The lucky winner was Anne Denney's granddaughter Lindsey!

Thanks go to Heather and Betty Jean for coordinating this activity, and to everyone who sewed clothes and the quilt and donated accessories, patterns, trims, etc.

2011 BVQ Challenge

2011 Challenge Chair Barbara Gross presented a different and interesting challenge for us this year! The theme was “Help Save Grandma’s Garden” and was based on Grandmother’s Flower Garden (GFG) blocks that Barbara bought a number of years ago (someone else's UFO!) with the intention of finishing. The challenge was so popular that Barbara extended it to include some old “Rail Fence” blocks as well.

The challenge was to use the GFG or Rail Fence block from a Challenge packet to make an 18" square quilt. The only rule was that the entire block had to be used!

Barbara got the idea for the Challenge from Mary Kerr's “Vintage Revisited” project, in which she distributed antique quilt blocks to some quilting friends and challenged them to remake them into a 24" square quilt. These quilts have been in a traveling exhibit which you may have seen if you attended Quilt Odyssey or PNQE in 2010. Visit Mary’s website, www.marykerr.com, to see pictures of the quilts and to learn more about the project. Mary’s book, “A Quilt Block Challenge: Vintage Revisited”, is available in the BVQ library or can be purchased on Amazon (if you GoodShop, you'll earn cash for BVQ!).

The Challenge quilts were displayed at our August 2011 meeting, when we voted for our favorites. Congratulations to the winners: 1st place, Arneda Crichton; 2nd place: Nancy Saporosa; 3rd Place: Barbara Gross. This year’s theme was “Help Save Grandma's Garden”. Stay tuned for pictures!

Visit the BVQ ARCHIVES to view the Challenge entries from 2010 and previous years.

Earn Rebates for BVQ!

(Note: eScrip information has been removed from our website, as eScrip no longer supports non-profit organizations that are not associated with children. If you have supported BVQ through the eScrip program in the past, we thank you!)

USE GOODSEARCH.COM AND BENEFIT BVQ WHILE YOU SURF THE WEB!

GoodSearch.com, the search engine with a unique social mission, is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations to BVQ add up!

GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 30 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you'll be supporting your favorite cause.

To start supporting BVQ with GoodSearch/GoodShop, Go to www.goodsearch.com. In the box below the grey bar in the middle of the screen that says “enter your charity here…” enter Brandywine Valley Quilters and click Verify. Your response screen should fill in Brandywine Valley Quilters (Concordville, PA).

Use this search site for all of your searches and BVQ will get about 1 cent per search. This doesn't seem like much, but after using this site to benefit BVQ for about 8 weeks, one BVQ member earned over $11.00 for BVQ!!!! It adds up, and you do more searching than you realize!!!!

GoodSearch is powered by Yahoo so you get great search results. Once you discover you LOVE Goodsearch.com, then you will want to add the GoodSearch toolbar to your computer, for quick access to GoodSearch and GoodShop. You can do this from the GoodSearch website by clicking where it says Get the GoodSearch toolbar or add us to your search box, just under where you added BVQ as your charity, or by clicking here. You can also see how much money BVQ has made by clicking on the Amount Raised button.

Why Google for free when you can GoodSearch for a cause? SPREAD THE WORD - Ask your friends and family to use GoodSearch for BVQ!

Ronald McDonald House Flip Tab Program

A flip tab seems like such a little thing…but they add up! Save your soda, beer and food can flip tabs and bring them to any BVQ meeting. Ellen McLaughlin collects them and periodically donates them to the Ronald McDonald House.

FAQ...

Q: What does Ronald McDonald House do with the flip tabs?
A: The Ronald McDonald House gains from the flip tabs by recycling them. They are paid by a recycler for the aluminum and the money generated is used to offset the difference between what they charge a family (about $10.00 a night) to stay at the house and what it costs to operate ($54 per night).

Q: Why just the tab?
A: Tab collection is a clean way to collect aluminum. Collecting cans can cause sanitation and storage problems. It seems like a tab is a small thing -- but to date they have collected over 55 tons of tabs generating over $38,000. Our BVQ collection is up to 36 pounds!

Q: Does BVQ get “credit” for donating tabs?
A: Yes, Ellen collects tabs from almost everyone she knows and started the program as a charity program at work. When tabs are taken to the Ronald McDonald House she tells them how many tabs came from each source. They are always very happy to see the tabs arrive. Ronald McDonald House is always listed as one of the charities the Guild supports.

TIP: To remove a flip tab from a can, lift the tab up and then rock it up and down about 3 or 4 times and it will come right off!

The Guild is doing a great job of collecting tabs and spreading the word. Many members have collection receptacles at their offices. Summer is a big time for cookouts and also a good time to grab those tabs from all of the cans of soda and beer! Don’t forget about the tabs on other canned food too!

The Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House, a 44-room facility, is a home-away-from-home for over 2,100 families a year from all over the world. The families pay $15 a night to stay here, whereas the actual cost to operate a room each night is over $50. No family is ever turned away due to an inability to pay. Although they receive 20 percent of their operating expenses from the Ronald McDonald Children's Charities of the Philadelphia region, they must find ways to raise the remaining 80 percent. Collecting tabs is one way. Since November 1996, they have collected over 79 tons!!

New Member Tea

We will not be having a New Member Tea in 2012 but will be honoring our new members at our 25th Anniversary Party on May 19. Double the fun!

The 2011 New Member Tea was held on May 22 at the Lincoln Room on Market Street in West Chester. 26 members, including 8 new members, were in attendance. It was a very lovely and fun event! We enjoyed tea, tea sandwiches, scones and cookies, played a couple of games, and got to know each other better. Our thanks to Sue Nann for pulling it all together and providing decorations and game prizes, and to Deb Kelly for making the new members’ name tags. Congrats to game prize winners Lee Hickman, Ellen McLaughlin and Bettye Altzman!

Our 2010 New Member Tea was held on Saturday May 15 at the Special Teas Tea Room, in the Olde Ridge Village Shoppes in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. Fifteen members were in attendance, including three members who joined BVQ in the past year. A lovely time was had by all, thanks to Carol Gillespie, who arranged the event. Afterward, we migrated over to Quilter's Corner to enjoy shopping for fabric and patterns.
(Move your cursor over the pictures to identify the new members.)

BVQ New Member Tea 2010 - new member Bobbi Spaid, 3rd from left

BVQ New Member Tea 2010 - new member Diane Camarote, 2nd from left

Visit our Archive page to see pictures from our 2009 tea.

BVQ Annual Retreat: April 1 - 3, 2011

2011 ** 2010 (including photo slide show!)

2011 Retreat

BVQ 2011 RETREAT was awesome! As ever, a good time was had by all! A hearty THANK YOU to Ellen McLaughlin for a great job planning the retreat. We broke our attendance record with 39 attendees! Stay tuned for pix!

2010 Retreat

BVQ's 6th annual BVQ Retreat was held the weekend of April 16-18, 2010, at Black Rock Retreat Center in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. 29 BVQ members and friends attended - a record number! A good and productive time was had by all, as usual. We participated in many fun activities - Pizza social, notions exchanges, Quilt of Valor group project and a string piecing group activity. Chair massages were available and much enjoyed!!! Stay tuned for pictures - thank you for your patience!

Click on the picture (at left) for a slide show of the festivities.
(Be patient - it may take a few seconds to load!)

Visit our Archives page and click on any year following the “BVQ Events” captions to see pictures from previous Retreats.

National Quilting Day

2010 *** 2009

National Quilting Day 2010

National Quilting Day is observed each year on the third Saturday in March. BVQ celebrated National Quilting Day 2010 (March 20) with a workshop with BJ Titus. The all-day workshop was held at the Goodwill Fire Company in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where participants made a daffodil wall hanging using BJ's applied appliqué technique.

National Quilting Day 2009

BVQ celebrated the day with a special event at Borders in the Brinton Lake Shopping Center in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania on March 21, 2009.

We were given an area to display some quilts and to set up sewing machines. Borders provided some quilting books for us to include in the display. We demonstrated various aspects of quilting and had hands-on activities for the children.

It was a lot of fun for participating members Betty Jean Boyd, Barbara Gross, Lil Koster, Ellen McLaughlin and Jane and Marty Shea, as well as visitors to our table. Thanks to Ellen and Betty Jean for organizing this event! Thanks also to the folks at the Brinton Lake Borders for giving us the opportunity to share our love of quilts and quilting with the general public.

National Quilting Day 2009 at Borders - Betty Jean and Jane

National Quilting Day 2009 at Borders - quilters in training!

COMMUNITY SERVICE	GUILD ACTIVITIES	SPECIAL EVENTS	Patterns and Instructions
Charity Corner	BVQ Bees	25th Anniversary Celebration	Three-Seam Pillowcase
Earn Rebates for BVQ!	2010 Raffle Quilt, Doll	New Member Tea	Fleece Hat, Scarf
Ronald McDonald House	2011 BVQ Challenge	Annual Retreat	Stockings for Soldiers
	Cut! Sew! Quilt!	Archives of Previous Events	The Jelly Roll 1600 Quilt

NY Yankees		Hannah Montana
Boston Red Sox		Winnie the Pooh
Pittsburgh Steelers		Dora the Explorer
Philadelphia Eagles		Thomas the Tank Engine
Dallas Cowboys		Tinkerbelle
Washington Redskins		Princesses
Penn State