Quilters Dream takes the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS!

Why is everyone dumping buckets of ice water over their heads you ask?

If you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, lets catch you up to speed on the latest viral sensation that's getting out of hand...in the very BEST way!

It all began when Massachusetts resident Pete Frates, 29,  who's been living with ALS since 2012 and his family  came up with the idea. The challenge involves people getting doused with buckets of ice water on video, posting that video to social media, then nominating others to do the same, all in an effort to raise ALS awareness. Those who refuse to take the challenge are asked to make a donation of at least $100 to the ALS charity of their choice.

People all over, even celebrities such as the Kennedy's, Justin Timberlake, and NFL football teams have accepted the #icebucketchallenge. And since we are determined to find a cure and raise awareness for this awful disease, of course we took the challenge as well!

Those brave enough to get drenched on this sunny warm Friday (thank goodness, could you imagine this during the winter?) came prepared with bags of towels and extra clothes to change into afterwards. I even think I saw a hairdryer in the bathroom haha.

Buckets of all sizes, NONE too small were filled with ice and water to the rim! They were placed under the trees out front of Quilters Dream Batting Headquarters as 7 thrill seekers waited for a chill. Kathy Thompson, owner of QDB, decided it would be fun to "nominate/challenge" other batting companies. You will have to watch the video to see who she will choose.

Soooooo COLD!!!!!!!!!!!

Sharon

Jane

Jason

Kathy K.

Gina

Neva

How could we leave out the boss?? Kathy Thompson

We couldn't be happier to be soaking wet amongst many others in the hopes to find a cure and raise awareness for ALS! 

We hope to come across your video in the social media world. 

"The Quilt Ninja"

Hello Quilters Dream extended "Dream Team" family members! We are always thrilled when someone uses and promotes our batting AND even better, includes tutorials for your (okay, our) enjoyment. Well, today is a bonus day for all of us!

Jackie O'Brien, affectionately known as "The Quilt Ninja" to those of us in the Virginia Beach, VA area, is a master quilter. Her specialty is the "One Block Wonder" quilt and her classes on this quilt sell out locally. We were fortunate to have Jackie as part of our working "Dream Team" at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA a few weeks ago.

Jackie has her own blog titled; "If These Threads Could Talk" and we are sharing a link to her blog below. Why? Well, two reasons. Jackie has created mini You Tube videos of the process of making a One Block Wonder. (CLICK HERE TO SEE YOUTUBE TURTORIALS)

 If that isn’t fabulous on its own – Jackie’s latest One Block Wonder she is currently working on (pictured below) will be graciously donated to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS!

OBW “Soho Sunflowers”.

We are way beyond thrilled to receive this beauty and equally thrilled that Jackie is a friend of Quilters Dream Batting. You might want to become a follower of Jackie's blog as she always surprises us with happiness. THANKS, JACKIE!

Happy Quilting!

~The Dream Team

 

QuiltCon & Mid-Atlantic Festivals.

February is a busy month for us here at Quilters Dream Batting.  We are hitting the road and bringing our batting to Austin, Texas and Hampton, Virginia for two big quilts shows.

Join Kathy and Neva at booth # 410 in Austin, Texas as we help celebrate the excitement of the Modern Quilt Guild at their first Quilt Con Quilt Festival at the Austin Convention Center the weekend of February 21 – 24, 2013 http://www.quiltcon.com/ .We are excited to showcase our extremely soft and drapeable batting at this show and are equally excited to see YOU and some of the best Modern Quilters in the country, like Angela Walters, Material Girls, Swirly Girls and many others – all of whom either use or sell our batting.

 

That same weekend, February 21 – 24, we will have a very special exhibit at the 24^th Annual Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival at the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton, Virginia http://www.quiltfest.com/activities.asp?id=8 .We are thrilled to be able to showcase quilts donated to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  This is a wonderful opportunity for us to share with the 10,000+ people anticipated to attend this quilt show just how your love of fabric turned into quilts has truly provided warmth to the laps and hearts of people diagnosed with ALS, and how your quilts are helping to raise much needed funds for ALS Research.  Join Jane and Jennifer at Booth #1015 where you can look at and purchase additional Hopes & Dreams quilts, with 100% of the proceeds going to ALS Research.  http://www.quiltersdreambatting.com/HD/ALS.htm

We’re on the road in February and look forward to seeing you in Austin and Hampton during this month of love. Stayed tuned for pictures and video of all our adventures!!

Happy Quilting!

~The Dream Team

 

Keep Calm and Let It Snow.



The heart of the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Va

 

We speak to so many customers’ everyday and hear about the weather from all over the country. After hearing what some people tell us, some of us in the office want to move to Florida to bask in the warm sun while others prefer to visit the mountains to breathe in the fresh cold air.

This past weekend Virginia Beach got some snow. It wasn’t much maybe a GOOD inch or so. We never get much snow here so the whole town usually freaks out and the grocery stores are packed with people fighting over cases and cases of water and canned goods! It’s kind of funny to be honest. My preparation was a pot roast and a few bottles of wine. It was so nice to be cozy with a full belly lounging in my pajamas on the couch by 5pm but by 5:30 I started to go a little stir crazy. I had cabin fever within an hour?!  What do you do to entertain yourself when you are cooped up in the house?

 

Happy Quilting!

 ~The Dream Team

Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS

 

Every day is Christmas here at Quilters Dream Batting because every day Fed Ex, UPS and our postal carriers bring in packages that pile up in the office, blocking doors, and creating a wonderful labyrinth of gifts!  It is so exciting – just imagine, Christmas every day, with gifts of quilts arriving from all over for ALS patients through Quilters Dream’s Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.


We love Mark! He brings the best goodies!



 



What makes Neva smile? Bright & cheery florals.

We are in the fifth year of Hopes & Dreams, and, once again, we have been made aware that quilters are the most thoughtful, generous, and loving people around.  As Jennifer opens each box, it is a new surprise of colors and wonder.  Even though these quilts will not end up on our own beds, we rejoice in the unpacking, admiring, and coveting of these beautiful quilts that have been lovingly made for ALS patients and ALS research.  Although all the quilts are appreciated, each of us in the office is drawn toward a different style.   Kathy’s favorites are always the batiks and the hand-stitched lovelies.  Gina, our beachcomber, enjoys the peaches and teals of sea-themed quilts.  The pastels are Pat’s favorites, who feels the soft feminine teals, pinks, and blues are warm and calming.  Neva, an avid gardener, is immediately drawn to the bright and cheery florals.  Personally, I like the funky modern piecing designs and unique machine quilted patterns that accent them. 

 Jennifer, our photographer, is fortunate to be able to see each and every quilt unfolded, and enjoys posting the pictures on Facebook for an admiring audience of over 5,000 fans!

 

Look at all these jewels we get to open!!!!

 
 

Every day is Christmas at Quilters Dream because every day we are reminded of how blessed we are to be a part of the caring, generous community of quilters who have made Hopes & Dreams a success.

 

 

Check out all the quilts that have been donated by visiting http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quilters-Dream-Batting-sponsoring-Hopes-and-Dreams-Quilt-Challenge-for-ALS/150913912237?ref=ts&fref=ts

 

 

For more information about the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, click the link below.

http://quiltersdreambatting.com/HD/ALS.htm

Happy Quilting!

 ~The Dream Team

 

 

Pennsylvania Quilting Friends Travel 300+ Miles

Pennsylvania Quilting Friends Travel 300+ Miles

Delivering 108 Quilts for ALS

When Virginia Beach resident Kathy Thompson decided to raise awareness and research funds to help find a cure for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, she knew quilters would embrace the challenge.  As the co-founder and owner of Quilter’s Dream BattingÒ, a Virginia Beach based business that manufactures high quality quilt batting; Kathy knows how generous and caring the quilt community is.  What she didn’t know was how much they would touch her life and the lives of thousands of individuals living with ALS, including her own son.

 In early 2007, Kathy’s 32-year old son Josh was diagnosed with ALS.  The disease has taken Josh from a strong, happy, athletic young husband and new father to being completely paralyzed – unable to eat, speak, or move.  He is on life support.

 “To say his diagnosis and this experience have been devastating is a true understatement,” Kathy says.  “It was shocking to learn that a disease that was discovered well over 100 years ago has absolutely no treatment or help available.”

 So Thompson and the staff at Quilter’s Dream BattingÒ created a unique way to raise awareness about ALS and raise much needed funds to support research.  The HOPES & DREAMSÔ Quilt Challenge for ALS was born.  The challenge encourages quilters to design, sew and donate lap or bed quilts that are given to individuals with ALS.  In addition, select quilts are sold to raise funds for ALS Research.  Each individual donating a quilt is eligible to win great prizes.

 “Each day is a mixed blessing of joy and sadness,” Thompson says. “I watch this most horrific disease take over my son Josh’s life, an then meet people like Pat, Diane and Debbie who drive here from Pennsylvania to hand-deliver over a hundred quilts.  It’s their willingness to serve others in this way that truly makes hopes and dreams come to life.”

For 46 years Pat Matthews has been quilting with the last six years focused on using her sewing machine as a way to help others.  Pat and her quilting buddies, Diane Wilson and Debbie Weaver, made the 314 mile journey from Dover, Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach just to deliver 108 quilts.

 “We just can’t stop quilting,” laughs Matthews.  “All of our children, families and friends have plenty of our quilts, so we now focus on sharing our passion with others who can use these quilts. Individuals with ALS often find their bodies get cold as they fight this disease and these quilts warm them and let them know they are loved.”

 Pat, Diane and Debbie are part of a quilting group called the “Sew Happy Together Quilters.”  The 13 women who make up this quilting group meet the second and fourth Wednesday of each month and sew together.  They meet at the “barn” and many in the Dover area know this is the place unused fabric turns into creations of love.

 
“This barn is fabulous,” cheers Debbie Weaver.  “Pat and her husband renovated an old barn into a two story place of beauty.  The bottom floor is fitted with 10 sewing machines and all the comforts of home.  Because we sew lots of quilts and walker bags for veterans and nursing homes, people in the community stop by the barn and drop off yard and yard of fabric knowing we will turn it into something good for someone else.”

 “This is a magic barn,” says Matthews. “Our friends and other quilters drop off their pieced quilt tops and they suddenly become quilts,” she adds through laughter.

It’s this laughter and the genuine love of quilting that contributed to these ladies winning first place in the “Sew Generous Guild” category of the 2011 HOPES & DREAMSÔ Quilt Challenge for ALS that and her team at Quilter’s Dream BattingÒ coordinate annually.



“The staff here is incredible,” says Thompson.  “They, along with each individual that makes and submits a quilt, embrace this challenge and the vision of supporting ALS research as if my son Josh were their own son, grandson or brother.  It makes the heartache of this excruciating disease a little less painful.”

The 2012 HOPES & DREAMSÔ Quilt Challenge accepts quilts through July 30. Quilts received after this date will be accepted for the 2013 challenge year.  All quilts are eligible for prizes with additional winners selected for the quilt best selecting the HOPES & DREAMSÔ theme, the quilt voted the “people chose,” and the individual, teacher and quilt group donating the most quilts.  To see the entry form and learn how to participate visit the Quilter’s Dream BattingÒ website at www.QuiltersDreamBatting.com. You can also view photos of the quilts submitted for the challenge on the “Quilter’s DreamÒ Batting sponsoring Hopes & DreamsÔ Quilt Challenge for ALS” page on Facebook.

The HOPES & DREAMSÔ Quilt Challenge for ALS has received more than 2,000 quilts and raised more than $50,000 for ALS research from the ongoing sale of these quilts.  If you are interested in purchasing a quilt for a family member, friend or even as a corporate gift, contact Kathy Thompson, Jane Kinzie or Jennifer Griffin at (757)-463-3264 or QuiltersDreamBatting@juno.com.

Happy Quilting!

 ~The Dream Team

I love when the mailman comes!

The mailman has come today and brought yet another box that I just know is for the 3rd annual “Hopes & Dreams” Quilt Challenge for ALS. Those packages, all small, medium and large are very exciting to receive! It’s like a birthday every day here at Quilters Dream!!

You should see us when the box is about to be opened. We all stand around it huddled anxiously waiting for the tape to be removed. You would think there was an unheard of species or a magical treasure inside!

Sometimes the quilts are inside a plastic bag or pillow case to ensure they are protected inside the box and when removed all you hear is………….

 “OOOOH!!”

“I love the colors on this one.”

“Feel how soft this quilt is.”

“That is all hand stitched? WOW!! What amazing talent.”

Every quilt we have received has its own personality and uniqueness to it. Not to mention how touching some of the stories that have been attached to these quilts are. That is just as much a treat as it is to see the quilt.

Some stories are about a connection that someone had with ALS patient and how happy they were to make a quilt to be donated. Sometimes they are personal reasons why they chose a specific pattern, color scheme or technique to be associated with the quilt. And sometimes it’s just a simple “I hope you enjoy this quilt as much as I did making it!”

I am personally touched that quilters have come together and worked so hard on their quilts to be donated. It feels good to know that people do care and don’t expect anything back and are willing to share out of the goodness of their hearts!!

So thanks to all that have already sent in their quilts to the “Hopes and Dreams” challenge. Speaking for all of us here….we are certainly looking forward to when the mailman comes tomorrow !

Happy Quilting!

 ~The Dream Team