MOUNT CALVARY’S QUILTERS REACH OUT TO HAITI!

During the June 13th worship service, the congregation participated in the third annual “Blessing of the Quilts.”  The sanctuary was a spectacular patchwork of color with sixty-two quilts and afghans draping the pews, the communion rails, and the balcony.  The beautiful, colorful quilts were all cut, pieced and tied by the Mount Calvary’s quilting group.  There continue to be nine ladies in the group – Gloria Chambers, June Hyde, Mary Ann Mahoney, Pat McKee, Anita Miller, Barb Pifer, Debbie Pride, and Mickey Williams.  Crystal Minnick was not able to join them on their quilting days but she made all the afghans.  The children in our Sunday School even helped by tying several of the quilts.

Once again the group has been gifted with beautiful fabric.  The Search Thrift Store donates fabric on a regular basis.  In return they were given several of the quilts to sell in the store.  Members of Mount Calvary continue their wonderful support with monetary donations as well as supporting the quilt raffle held every year.  All the yarn in Crystal’s afghans was donated by church members and Crystal worked her magic in making those donations into beautiful afghans.

The majority of the blessed quilts and afghans will go to Lutheran World Relief.  This year the quilts will go to Haiti, where the uses will be versatile.  Some will be used as blankets, some as canopies to provide shade, some to carry belongings from shelter to shelter.  Most of the baby quilts and baby afghans will go to the Pregnancy Center in Edinburg.  Several quilts were donated to the Thrift Store and sold with proceeds supporting the addition to the Search Home.  Two quilts were made from antique handkerchiefs that were donated to the quilters by a local resident.  One of these was purchased by another local church to use as a raffle and the other one was used as a raffle at the Search Thrift Store Spring Fashion Show.  One baby quilt was given to the church day care for a raffle with funds being used to upgrade their bathroom.  Several will be given to shut-ins from our congregation.

The quilt ladies also found the fellowship as rewarding as the quilting.  They celebrated birthdays and continued to enjoy breakfast at Denny’s now and then.  They even got together for lunch and a quilt show during the summer!  After taking the summer off, they will resume quilting in September.  If you have the time, consider joining this special group of Mount Calvary ladies.
~ Barb Pifer