Nobody gives back quite like quilters, and it’s part of why I love being a member of my local guild in Dallas.  

In January, the Dallas Modern Quilt Guild asked membership to make twin size quilts and pillowcases to donate to graduating high school seniors who have been in the foster care system.

The Dallas MQG is just one of many guilds and individuals making quilts, in an answer to a call put out by a Texas organization called Day 1 Bags.  Their main mission is “to provide brand new duffle bags and backpacks to foster youth instead of trash bags as luggage when being removed from their homes or moved from shelter to shelter.”  The need for quilts and pillowcases is an extension of their work, to aid in the transition from foster youth to young adult with a personal quilt and pillowcase in hand.

 

The donated quilts and pillowcases at our last Guild meeting.

This year, over 600 quilts have been completed and donated, ready to go off to Texas graduating seniors.  In fact, the goal has been so far surpassed that Day 1 Bags is pre-registering quilters for 2023!

For the quilt I made, I knew I would be making something specifically with this donation in mind, rather than pulling from my existing quilts.  I rarely work in a twin size shape and scale!  Also, knowing the philanthropic story behind Creativity Glows by Creativity Shell fabric, it just felt right to use it for this purpose.  

Holding up my donation at the meeting - that's me on the left.

Not to mention the fact that I happen to love the fabric too!  (It should be arriving in shops some time in April.)

There’s no pattern to my quilt, just alternating Nine-Patch blocks out of 2.5” squares (2” finished), half with Black prints & Bella Solid in White Bleached (98), and the other half with the Bella, White prints, and center color squares.  You could easily make this a Jelly Roll project if you wanted—all of my blocks were pieced into strip sets and then cut down to the units for blocks.

 

Thinking back to when I was graduating high school, I wanted to work more with the black and white prints from the line rather than go all in on color; for a young adult, it felt like a good mix of still youthful, but a more mature color palette with pops of color rather than a color explosion.  Similarly for my matching pillowcase: black and white, with just a pop of color to coordinate.  The final quilt is 66”x102”—specifically a tall twin size, knowing that someone going off to college (if that’s their next step) likely will have a XL Twin size mattress rather than a standard twin.  Quilting was done by Maggi Honeyman.

The Dallas MQG gathered all of our quilts to donate in our March meeting last week.

Two of the donated quilts.

Two more quilts donated by Dallas MQG members.  

And you can see the stack of pillowcases with quilts inside just waiting to be opened up by lucky seniors.  

I wish we could be there when they’re received!

Thank you to AccuQuilt, Baby Lock, and Moda Fabrics for letting me share this story.  

Making quilts, and sharing them with others, is what quilters do best.

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For more about Day 1 Bags:

https://www.day1bags.org

https://www.facebook.com/day1bags/

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Be sure to join the Facebook Group - Covering The World - to see more donation stories, and ideas for where to donate.  And if you share a donation on social media, please tag it with - #quilttheworld2022.  

If you would like more information about this campaign - Covering The World 2022.