2024 Charity Projects

This year we have a brand new charity project! We will be working with Ryan's Case for Smiles, a pillowcase project for children with cancer.

Here is the link that shares the details about the project : PALM BEACH/BROWARD/MARTIN COUNTIES - Ryan's Case for Smiles

Please remember all pillowcases must be made with 100% cotton fabric.

Here is the link for directions to make the burrito pattern pillowcase : How to Make a Magic Pillowcase | with Jennifer Bosworth of Shabby Fabrics - YouTube

Also, a link for a directional fabric pillowcase : How to Make a Magic Pillowcase Using Directional Fabric | a Shabby Fabrics Tutorial (youtube.com)

We will still be collecting lap size quilts to donate to the local nursing home, the quilts are in high demand! Feel free to email me SusanC., or Chris M. with any questions you may have. We plan to collect pillowcases and quilts at all the in-person meetings. Laura's Sewing and Quilt Shop is also a pillowcase drop off site if that is more convenient for you. This looks like a fun charity project for 2024, I hope you all will participate!

2023 Charity Projects

Link for the charity block for 2023 to be discussed at the May meeting. Each member will mail a block and names will be listed in hopes of 100% participation. 

It's Time for a Charm Pack Challenge! Play the video to see how to make this easy block using 25 ~ 5” scrappy fabric blocks.

To make a complete quilt you will need 6 blocks, the quilt will be about 40x60 inches in size.

2022 Charity Projects

This year South Florida Modern Quilt Guild decided to chose two non-profit organizations, one for the young and one for the old to receive our charity donation project. SOS Children's Villages Florida HOME | sosvillage and Edward J. Healey Rehabilitation and Nursing Center Edward J. Healey - hcdpbc.org. The links tell about each non-profit organization located here in South Florida. I spoke with Brenna H. the volunteer director of SOS Children's Villages Florida and she was overjoyed that the children would be given handmade quilts to keep forever. Also, Shelia F. the activities director from the Healey Center was ecstatic that residents would receive a colorful lap quilt to keep them warm and brighten their rooms.

We are going to make quilts this year, the pattern is up to you. Healey Center requested lap size (approximately 40x56 inches) quilts that would keep the residents warm. Children's Villages would like throw size (approximately 50x70 inches) quilts for school aged kids, anything Disney, sports themed or colorful would be great. If you can we would like you to make the top, sandwich the quilt, quilt it with your home sewing machine (give it a try) and bind your quilt for this year's SFMQG charity project. Chris and I will get the label on it before it is donated. You are also welcome to make a quilt top, but I will need those by September to get them finished by the end of the year.

Below is an easy lap size quilt that finishes at 40x56 inches. This is only a suggestion for a quilt, do what makes you happy and have fun sewing. I used one charm pack plus 1.25 yards for blocks/border to make this blue and white floral quilt. You could use yardage or scraps instead of a charm pack. Using a 5 inch block from your charm pack sew a solid 2 x 5 inch rectangle to the bottom of each charm square. Sew a solid 2 x 6.5 inch rectangle to the left edge of the square, the block should now measure 6.5 inch square. Make all 42 blocks this way, follow the picture for the layout and add a 2.5 inch solid border all around.

I don’t have a pattern for this quilt. I made this with 1.25 yards of background and one charm pack. The background fabric was cut into 1.5 inch strips (3 for cross in the first picture) WOF and the rest of the quilt was made with 2.5 in strips. This was a fun and easy quilt to made for SFMQG charity project. SusanC

We will start collecting your charity quilts in May at the meetings. If you need to mail your quilt top just email me for my address.

Thank you for participating in the 2022 SFMQG Charity Project, this can not be a success without your help.

Susan C. and Chris M. SFMQG Charity Committee

Questions or comments: email SusanC

2021 Charity Projects

Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Inc. mission is to promote violence-free relationships and social change by of...

South Florida Modern Quilt Guild has chosen AVDA a domestic abuse shelter here in Palm Beach County this year to be the recipient of our 2021 charity project. The link above tells about AVDA a non-profit organization. I spoke with Ginger Poole the assistant director from the shelter, she said they have 64 beds and could use twin size quilts for the beds.

This year the charity committee is planning something different from what we have done in the past, we are going to make nine-patch blocks only. Please use your extra 5 inch squares with a white 5 inch square in the center of the nine-patch. We would like every member to make five blocks using the nine patch pattern. Later in the year we will collect the blocks at a meeting or mail in. To make the twin size quilt, we will be using 5 blocks across and 7 blocks down for a total of 35 blocks. In November, we will recruit a few members to sew the blocks together and make twin size quilts to donate.

Link for the quilt block

The nine patch block uses 5 inch squares with a white square in the center. We will also be collecting completed twin size quilts using this pattern or other patterns for the AVDA donation. Need help or have questions email SusanC

Thank you members for participating in the SFMQG charity project for 2021. We had 24 twin size quilts to donate! Each quilt was made of 35 blocks or a total of 840 blocks to complete 24 twin size quilts. We asked each member to make five tossed nine patch blocks during 2021, the year of the pandemic. Thank you to all the local members for getting your blocks in and assisting with quilting and binding. We had many blocks mailed to us from out of state members all over the USA and even Canada. There were even a few overachievers that made an entire quilt! The recipient for the 2021 year was AVDA (Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse) https://www.avdaonline.org/.

The quilts were delivered to AVDA of Palm Beach County this week and the office staff could not have been happier. They held several of the quilts up to admire them and said how beautiful they all were. The staff all said they had fond memories of their own grandmothers making quilts when they were young. They needed some additional blankets for the shelter because of the cooler weather this month so they were very glad to receive the quilts. I was not able to take any pictures because I dropped off the quilts to an off-site location. All I can say is the quilts will be be loved and bring lots of joy to many residents at the shelter.

Thank you SFMQG members!

Susan C. and Chris M.

SFMQG Charity Project Committee

2020 Charity Projects

Thank you members for participating in the SFMQG charity project for 2020. This year we had 80 lap quilts and 15 placemats donated. The recipient for 2020 was Menorah House Nursing the Rehabilitation Center in West Boca, Florida. This past week we delivered the quilts to Joanne Ball the activity director and some of the staff outside the facility with our masks on of course. Joanne was overjoyed with the beautiful quilts for the residents and remarked how colorful they would look in the patient's room. Joanne also said the quilts that were donated two years ago were still being used and a very prized possession. We took a quick picture to put in their newsletter and they thanked us for this wonderful donation. This had be during this difficult year at the nursing home with the pandemic and they couldn't thank us enough. The administrator Seth Wiesel even came outside to thanks us for all our beautiful sewing. Thank you everyone for your generous donations.

Placemats

Make a rectangle size, approximately 13x18 inches. Just use whatever batting you have at home to sandwich your place mat, nothing fancy is needed.  No religious/holiday prints or white fabric please. We will plan to collect charity place mats at the end of the year along with any lap size quilts for the nursing home.

How to make the Quilt as You Go Friday Fiesta Placemat | Fat Quarter Shop

Quilt-As-You-Go Place Mat Pattern

How to Make a Beginner Charm Pack Placemat! With Sherri McConnell and Kimberly Jolly

No Binding Self Mitered Placemats

Quilts

This is an easy charity quilt project using 8 ½ inch blocks. We used pieced strips/scraps for 18 of the blocks and used a solid/low contrast fabric for the remaining 17 blocks. There are 35 blocks total in this quilt, five blocks across and seven blocks down. Start with a scrap block in the top corner and alternate solid and scrap blocks throughout.

You will need one yard of solid/low contrast fabric. Cut your fabric by WOF (width of fabric) 8 ½ strips, try to get five blocks out of each strip. If your WOF is short and you only get four blocks per WOF then you will have to piece the 17th block.

The back and binding will require two yards of fabric. In the example we cut five 2 ¼ inch WOF strips for the binding and used the remainder of the fabric for the backing. You are welcome to use fabric scraps/strips/blocks or any combination you choose to complete this quilt. The final size of the quilt will be 40 X 56 inches. This is a great size to machine quilt on your home sewing machine. Take time to practice your machine quilting skills, try some straight line, ruler work or free motion styles you have never tried before!

Thank you for participating! We will gladly accept fabric, batting or finished lap quilts of any pattern for donation. This year we will have one or two additional charity projects running along with the lap quilts. Details will follow after we receive board approval. Thank you again for making 2019 our best year ever by donating 105 charity quilts!

Questions or comments email Susan or Chris

Ryan’s Case for Smiles

SusanD has kits for you to sew pillowcases if you wish. Details on website