I attended a quilt show Friday in Jefferson, Texas, an old town full of history and ghosts and charm. I’d set a book there years ago and spent a few days there doing research. I stayed in the old haunted Jefferson Hotel and I remember reading a Julie Garwood historical in the middle of the night because I wasn’t too keen about turning out the lights.
The town is charming and the hotel is lovely–midnight creaks and all. Unfortunately, Jefferson wasn’t quite as welcoming Friday morning because it was raining and bitter cold. The walk from my car to my destination was downright miserable. But when I walked into the gorgeous old building they use as their education center, I forgot all about the mud splatters on my pants and the sleet sliding past my collar. I walked into a world of colorful quilts and women who still like to do things the old fashioned way–hand quilting.
I attended the show to speak about a non-profit organization I have been involved with for years. Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation grants wishes to terminally ill breast cancer patients and I am a member of their Board of Directors. Our primary method of raising money for our Wish Fullfillment Fund is our Brides Against Breast Cancer program. BABC collects donated wedding gowns and sells them at gow
n sales all across the country. I discovered Making Memories not long after THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS was first published. Little did I guess that walking into a ballroom filled with wedding gowns in search of story ideas would have such a big impact on my life, but it did. My work with Making Memories has been the most fulfilling thing in my life and I’m excited about the direction it’s taking me now.
Quilts. Do y’all know there are 27 million quilters in America? Until recently, I didn’t. This is a whole new world to me–and my ignorance shows. Imagine me last Friday morning standing up to speak in a room full of quilters and admitting that when I need something hemmed…I take it to the cleaners. You could hear the gasps all the way to Marshall, Texas.
Anyway, I was there to talk about Making Memories Quilters Against Breast Cancer program. Our Brides program sometimes receives donated gowns that are damaged, stained, or otherwise unsuitable to resell. For our quilter’s program, we fill a box with 10 to 12 of these dresses and send them to quilters who agree to make a quilt and send it back for us to use to further our mission–granting w
ishes. I’m posting a few pictures of some of the quilts we’ve received, but honestly, the photos don’t do them justice. You can see the love put into these quilts by the talented women who made them. Between the gowns and the women who spent hundreds of hours making them, imagine the stories those quilts could tell if they could talk. (Yes, I have imagined and now there is yet another series in the works.)
I invite you all to check out www.makingmemories.org for more information about all of our programs. If you’re a quilter and want to make us a quilt, email me! Once again, I’m out of town on my blog day. This time I’m in San Antonio attending a seminar for Making Memories so I don’t know how often I’ll be able to get to comments today, but I will check in whenever I can. Have a wonderful day, everyone.
And do your monthly self exams, would you please? And don’t put off your mamograms!! Breast Cancer Awareness isn’t only for October, you know!!!!!
I wish I was a quilter. I have a bunch of different scraps of material upstairs that hold a lot of memories from what my mom made with the whole piece, getting scraps at the dump from a kids clothing manufacturer with my grandmother, the bridesmaid dresses I’ve worn, and scraps from the dresses my mom made for my cousin’s wedding. One of these days I’ll have to sit down and make one.
Geralyn, I’m not a quilter, but boy, would I love to be! My mother made quilts for each of my daughters, and we treasure them. Now I have 3 grandbabies and not a quilt in sight for *them*.
I saved all my daughters’ high-school T-shirts (and they had T-shirts for every organization, fundraiser, sport event, etc. for more than a decade) My intention being to make a quilt memoralizing their high school years. sigh . . . by the time I get it done, IF I get it done, they won’t care anymore.
But when I retire . . . I WILL make a quilt. How relaxing and what a sense of accomplishment when it’s done.
I’m impressed how you find time to dedicate yourself to Making Memories. Great blog!
I’ve got a sister who pieces quilts together but hires someone to do the actual quilting. I’m amazed at just the piecing she does. I have NO patience for that…and yet I’ve got endless patience to write 90,000 words into a book.
We are all so different, aren’t we? It’s what makes the world interesting.
Great cause, Geralyn.
I’m not a quilter, but I love quilts. I have several that my grandmother made and have bought a few more over the years. I prefer vintage over new–or at least the vintage look.
Great post, Geralyn, and how interesting to know your involvement in this great cause.
Hi Geralyn, I can tell how deeply passionate you are about Making Memories and I love it. It’s such a worthy cause too, in that it helps fight breast cancer. Darn it, I don’t know why I never learned to make quilts! I’ve always admired people who can. It’s definitely a fine art. And the finished product sure does keep a body warm on a cold winter night.
I can also tell how much you liked your stay in Jefferson. Except for the rain and cold. My sister lives there so I visit quite a bit. Once I stayed in the Excelsior Hotel. It’s very old too and some rooms are supposed to be haunted although I didn’t experience any unusual happenings much to my disappointment.
Have a good trip and have fun!
I’m not a quilter, but some day I would like to learn how so I can make one for my stepson, my daughter and grandchildren. My grandmother made me one a couple of years ago for my birthday. I got it in the mail the day before and I burst into tears. I didn’t realized that’s what she’d been up to when she’d email and mention she’d been “working on a quilt.” It was a beautiful surprise.
After mine, she did one for my sister and then all my cousins, in order of our ages.
My husband’s grandmother and step-MIL had also made us one the Christmas before that too. That was gorgeous too. I alternate each of them on our bed. Just beautiful!
Maybe someday I will take it up and start making them myself.
Lovely blog and what a great cause!
I have just started quilting and am enjoying it.
I grew up with a quilting frame set up in the living room off and on as my mother quilted by hand the quilts she had made, also by hand. It took her about a month to finish one quilt. When I was 15 I pieced a Flower Garden, my first hand-pieced quilt. When my kids were little and we had more foster kids than covers, I sewed blocks together on the machine and put those quick quilts together with easy machine quilting. You know, just sew straight across in rows with the sewing machine. Lately I’ve been making much prettier quilts and am still learning to quilt them myself with only my sewing machine. Not always an easy task, but rewarding. When my brain starts backing up from the pressures of writing, quilting serves as a relaxing pasttime.
Geralyn, I admire the work you are doing and the ladies who commit to sew those quilts for your group. They are to be commended for the time they so freely give.
Wonderful Post, Geralyn! I’m another who’s fascinated by quilting. Both of my grandmothers quilted and one of my favorite exhibits at local fairs is the quilting competitions—I’ve seen some breathtaking quilts with stunning and intricate scenes. A friend of mine quilts and I believe just made a quilt for her daughter with her wedding dress….now that’s something special–and I agree, you can see the love and care that goes into a quilt. Thank you for all the wonderful information and the web link!!
Thanks for the comments. I’ve spent today in a seminar to teach me how to write grants for MM and my head hurts! I’ve done a little bit of this in the past but it’s been awhile. My first reaction is that writing a grant proposal is a lot like writing a book proposal…except you can’t make anything up.
That takes all the fun out it….
Thought provoking post, Geralyn! My mother quilted and taught me. In turn I’ve taught my granddaughter–missed my girls along the way, however. I enjoy quilting when I have time, but can’t piece at all. Mother could piece really well, but my corners look like a two year old tried to sew them together. I could never quilt for competition, because my stitches aren’t as pretty as they should be. That’s one thing about Mother’s quilts, she used tiny stitches that made them look so good. And, congrats on your work with breast cancer. My oldest daughter, who lives in San Antonio, is with the American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, so a cure for cancer is very much a part of our lives. Keep up the good work and let’s pray we see breast cancer eradicated in our lifetime, if not that of our children and grandchildren. Hugs, Phyliss