Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop

Pieceful Gathering Quilt Shop

Monday, October 18, 2010

Hello Pieceful Quilters,


I want to tell you about a project that we got involved with. A few months ago, Jim Kreher, Deputy Fire Chief here in Fox River Grove, approached me about doing a quilt to raise funds for a scholarship in honor of the children that were involved in the bus accident here in 1995. As most of you probably know, seven high school students were killed, and many were injured when a commuter train hit the back of their bus, which had not cleared the crossing here at Algonquin Road. I lived here at the time, and it was a time I can never forget, so, of course, I agreed to do the quilt - not realizing just how involved it would get. I thought it would be a lap size t-shirt quilt featuring the local fire departments that had responded. Instead, we ended up with 42 patches and t-shirts from all the fire and police departments that responded, along with various other entities that were involved. It was a little overwhelming, to say the least.


Since we received mostly patches, we decided to do a star quilt with the patches centered in each star. Katie took the lead on the project and cut out all the pieces we needed to assemble the quilt. Then we called in staff, teachers and faithful friends to help us stitch it up. In one afternoon/evening, we put the entire center together! The borders were added, Vonnie quilted it, and all that is left to do is the binding and label!


Here are some pictures of the "sew-in" and almost finished quilt. Please read the end of this post to find out how you can help:








The Finished Quilt Front


And, the back...
How you can help:
I know, the poster is a little blurry, but what it boils down to is that the raffle tickets are available now, and at the blood drive this Saturday, October 23rd from 9-3 at the FRG Fire Station (just over the tracks on Algonquin Road).

We have suggested that they extend the time for ticket sales until the annual Fire Department Poultry Party in November, so we hope they will do that. In any case, I will have tickets here, at the shop, hopefully by tomorrow, for you to purchase. I hope you will consider supporting this worthy cause.

Thanks!
Carrie

Monday, October 11, 2010

Schoolhouse Quilt - Finished!

Hello Pieceful Quilters,


I had mentioned awhile back that I was planning to do a reproduction of the schoolhouse quilt from the International Quilt Study Center in Nebraska, that Jo Morton and Gail Kessler had used to create Andover's Schoolhouse fabric line. I had always wanted to do a traditional schoolhouse quilt! Our month in the recent shop hop was September, so it seemed like a perfect chance. Here is the original quilt:

And, our quilt:
Oklahoma Schoolhouse Quilt

I was determined to come up with a way to do this without templates, so my pattern uses the Tri-Recs Ruler set. The quilt finishes to 70" x 94", but you could easily make it bigger by adding another border or two. We have several kits leftover from the shop hop, and they include the pattern, for $109.99. Patterns are also available seperatly for $8.99. I don't think Katie has had time to put them on our website yet, but feel free to call the shop to order over the phone.
(847) 516-7911

Happy Schooldaze!
Carrie