Darlene is taking a break from string quilts for the moment but I have a feeling she'll be dragging out her string bins before long. By the 31st of January she'd already mailed 247 HeartStrings blocks to Sue and we'd only officially begun the project the 1st of January.
"Since the beginning of January I have made.
5 tops worth of blocks sent to Sue
9 quilt tops for Cricket's homeless shelter project
1 quilt top for Quilts for Kids in Maine
1 queen sized top for myself
I've gone through a bolt and a half of 90" wide muslin. I just bought another bolt, so I have it on hand when I am ready to pull out my strings again."
Darlene and Cricket met the beginning of February and Darlene began working with Cricket on making quilts for the homeless.
Cricket tells me that these quilts will be donated to one of the shelters in Western Massachusetts, around Springfield. "The way I determine it is to see how many quilts I have, what sizes they are, and then call a shelter that uses those sizes. I give one quilt to each person in the shelter at that time, and the quilts are theirs to keep. I donate to 5 or 6 shelters in this area, depending on how many quilts I have. They are a treat to the residents and cause great excitement among residents and staff each year. "
She reminded us all during a discussion about the attractiveness of our string quilts that these quilts will be valued by the recipients and she should know because she's been making quilts for homeless families for 10 years as well as spending time volunteering in shelters. There's still a lot of work to be done to make these tops into quilts but I can tell Cricket is up to the task.
4 comments:
Love seeing all the variations created by using different starting central string colours :)
Darlene couldn't stay away from her strings! I read on SB that they are back out again! I tried to put mine away too, but mine are back out too. I am using some flimsy black with white pin dots as the center strip with a thin strip of white on either side. I'll post a photo on HS when I have more blocks done.
Amy in CO (aka QuiltyBird)
Thanks Mary for sharing this spotlight on Darlene - I'd say you titled it perfect "Queen of Strings" as she has made quite a contribution to both the project and to her homeless. Great job and I love the photos!!! ~Bonnie
Your efforts are inspirational Darlene. So, not only are you benefiting the homeless directly with your quilts, you're inspiring others to make quilts to donate to for their local causes. One person CAN make a difference!
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