2015-2016 Challenge Wrap Up

We would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2015-2016 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge.Through continuous support and spontaneous giving, this program has been an incredible success thanks to generous quilters & sponsors like you.   

In our seven years, Hopes & Dreams Inc. has been fortunate to receive over 9,000 quilts. Most have been distributed to patients with ALS. Not only are they filled with gratitude from the letters you send with the quilts but more importantly these patients are left with a glimmer of hope that action is being taken towards finding a cure for this awful disease.

 The Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge donates 100% of all proceeds from quilts being auctioned, sold or generous gifts towards ALS research! In our seven years, more than $141,000 has been raised for research towards finding a cure!

We have received many thank you notes already from patients and their families who truly appreciate the generosity of the quilting community. 

Thank you for the lovely quilt that you donated to my husband. That was truly a wonderful surprise!! My husband is only 45 years old and was diagnosed with ALS in 2014. It has been a very rough road for our family of four. Our boys are 10 & 14 years old. It has been difficult for all of us to accept how this devastating disease is impacting our lives. Your kindness & thoughtful gesture really brightened our day. Thank you for all that you do!! You are making a positive difference in the world of ALS.

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Hi, I am an ALS patient and I recently received a beautiful quilt made by Lucille Holsey as part of the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS. The quilt is so beautiful and I am just so touched that Ms. Hosely would go to the time and trouble to make it for someone that she's never even met...The quilt warms my heart and my body! Thank you so much for your incredible kindness!!

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I want to THANK you for the quilt.  I went to the doctors at Baylor ALS Clinic and they gave me one of your quilts.  I am so happy to receive it and it is so warm. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it.  God Bless ALL of you.

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I was quite surprised to find this gift of a lap quilt at the support group meeting here in Wichita, KS. In April of 2015, I was diagnosed with ALS. My particular version is Bulbar ALS which primaraly affects my speech and swallowing at this time. We are trying not to let this impact our life, but we don't know what the future holds.  Thanks for creating the organization to raise funds for ALS research.

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We would like to congratulate each category winner. We received some awesome prizes from our sponsors this year and we were able to stuff boxes with tons of goodies for these winners. 

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Please be sure to check out the Hopes and Dreams website and vote for your favorite quilt in the Sew Popular category!

Once again, thank you! Your support of Hopes & Dreams is truly immeasurable in providing Hope to our Dream of a Cure for ALS!

Sincerely,

Kathy Thompson & the team at Quilters Dream Batting

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To see how you can get involved, please visit :

http://hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com/

and don't forget to like our Facebook page! 

Bragging rights for the 2014-2015 Challenge Year!

2014-2015 

WRAP UP

We would like to thank everyone for their participation in the 2014-2015 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge. Through continuous support and spontaneous giving, this program has been an incredible success thanks to all of our generous sponsors &  quilters!

We'll just cut to the chase with a breakdown and acknowledge the winners for the challenge categories!

We have collected 913 quilts this year and that's not including all the other  creative items that we can sell with 100% of the  funds going towards ALS research!

We have given the ALS chapters over 600 quilts to be distributed to PALS (patients with ALS).

Your quilts have given these patients hope and have definitely warmed their laps and hearts! 

Thanks Pat for donating 75 quilts AND delivering them to us in Virginia Beach!

We had 13 quilt guilds participate in this year’s challenge for a total of 168 quilts and well over 100 various quilted items!

 The Virginia Beach Modern Quilt Guild generously donated 51 quilts. 

Three shops participated in this year’s challenge but it was Around the Block Quilt Shop that took home the trophy donating over 40 quilts.

Our professional quilters always are so generous with their donations. Joe & Bunny Filer won this category! 

   

In our Sew Creative Category, Hill 'N Hollow Quilt Guild of Mountain Lake,  Arkansas donated many items: runners, wall hangings, bags. These items will be great sold at local craft shows and festivals will all proceeds going towards ALS research! 

  

Did you know that donating just one quilt/creative item gets you a chance to win some awesome prizes?? That's right! Everyone is entered into a general drawing and 3 winners are picked at random. These lucky ladies scored some great gifts for participating! 

Also, as part of Quilter's World Magazine's sponsorship, 10 random winners will be chosen to receive a free one year subscription!

Last but not least we have the Sew Popular Category. This one is fun and we would LOVE for you to join! This year 12 quilts have been chosen. Each quilt is photographed at various angles and posted on the Hopes & Dreams website to be voted on for the duration of a week. 

The quilt with the most votes will receive a Baby Lock: Tempo sewing machine! Second place winner will receive prizes valued at $800 and third place a prize box valued at $500. 

Pretty awesome right? The new challenge year (2015-2016) has begun. We've already received lots of boxes filled with quilts. And our sponsors are amazing! Check out the PICS of what we have so far. We are constantly adding photos so be sure to keep checking in to see what YOU could possibly win. 

Once again, thank you! Your support of Hopes & Dreams is truly immeasurable in providing Hope to our Dream of a Cure for ALS!

Vote for your favorite quilt on Sept 3rd at 

hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com

Vote for your favorite 2014 "Sew Popular" quilt!

10 finalist have been entered into the "Sew Popular" category. 

(To see other prize categories you can enter, click HERE.)

It's now up to YOU to choose our winner! One lucky finalist will win a prize package valued at $1000. 

We want to thank everyone who participated, donated and sponsored in the 2014 challenge! Without your support we couldn't be so successful towards raising awareness and finding a cure. 

Let's keep our hopes up and have yet another awesome year. 2015 challenge... here we come!

Click HERE to cast your vote!

or

Check out more detailed photos from our FLICKR page!

**Voting ends Tuesday Sept. 30th**

Grand Sponsor Guest Blog: Judy Martin

                                                                                    

Hi everyone,

I’m Judy Martin. I design quilts. I make quilts. I write quilt books. The first was Log Cabin Quilts, written with Bonnie Leman in 1980. The most recent was Extraordinary Log Cabin Quilts, released last fall. In between I wrote 20 other books, including Scrap Quilts, Pieced Borders(with Marsha McCloskey) and Stellar Quilts. To see those books and many others, click HERE.

Over the years I've invented 5 tools, the most popular of which is the Point Trimmer. It allows you to trim the nub off any patch that comes together at a 45-degree angle. This helps you perfectly align neighboring patches and helps reduce bulk. I've also designed several fabric lines.

The most unusual quilt-related thing I've done is design a game called Quilt Show, which has only recently been released. My husband and I are avid game players, and in 2009 we entered Quilt Show in the Rio Grande Games Design Contest. Our game was one of four winners. Our prize was to have the game published by Rio Grande Games, the leading American publisher of European-style games. Quilt Show is a game for 2-4 players. The things you do in the game are the same things you do as a quilter: You collect fabric; you turn the fabric into quilt blocks; you turn the blocks into quilts; and you win big cash prizes at the game’s three quilt shows! 

Right now I’m working on a quilt for a contest. Until this year all the quilts I made were specific projects for whatever my next book was. It didn't hurt that I really liked most of them, but there was always that other motive: It had to be appropriate for the book I was writing. Let me back track and tell you about the last quilt I made.

"The Fabric of My Life: 1969-2014"
Featured in Quilters Newsletter
Dec/Jan 2015 issue

Earlier this year I designed and made a quilt for Quilters Newsletter’s 45^thAnniversary Contest. The quilt had to be exactly 45” square. Since I have been making quilts for 45 years and used to be a senior editor at Quilters Newsletter, the contest was just calling my name. It was a labor of love. I plowed through my fabric, itself the accumulation of 45 years, and cut one patch from each of about 2100 different fabrics. Each fabric almost dripped with fond memories of where it was purchased or how it was used in previous quilts. It was like finding an old scrap book in the attic.

So I made this quilt, in part to enter it in that contest, but primarily because the project spoke to me. The quilt will never be patterned in one of my books. I simply made it because I wanted to, and what a wonderful feeling that was! Oh, and the quilt was the first runner-up in the Quilters Newsletter contest and will be on display at Quilting LIVE! in Atlanta, September 11-13, 2014.

Now back to my present project. Since that Quilters Newsletter contest experience was so good, I didn't hesitate when another contest piqued my interest. I suppose there is a chance this quilt I’m sewing right now could end up in one of my books, but it doesn't matter. I’m enjoying the process of making it.

I choose to support the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for a couple of reasons. First, I can’t imagine the horror of watching a loved one succumb to this terrible disease. The mother in me wants to help in some small way.

The other reason has to do with giving back to someone whose products I use. I use Quilters Dream Batting for all my quilt projects. So when Kathy Thompson (owner) of Quilters Dream began this program, I was naturally more receptive. It’s human nature to help those who help you.

It would be nice if a year from now I didn't have to sponsor the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge because a cure for ALS had been found and the disease had been eradicated. More likely, one more year isn't going to be enough to wipe out ALS. But one year can make a difference, and eventually we’ll get there.

Judy Martin
http://www.judymartin.com

You can join me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/QuiltingWithJudyMartin

Read about Judy our Featured August #battgirls

End of year 2014 Challenge update

First and foremost, we would like to thank EVERYONE who participated in the 2014 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS! We are currently still in the process of wrapping up the 2014 challenge.

We received SO many quilts this year and hope you will be patience with us as we continue to log them in. Once that's complete, we will be able to post our "Sew Popular" contest on our Facebook page for you all to vote! We will also be announcing the category winners shortly after that. 

August 1st marked the 2015 challenge year and we have already been getting in tons of new quilts and prize donations from many new sponsors! We sincerely appreciate your time and efforts and hope you will continue to join us in raising awareness and much needed funds to help find a cure for this disease. Stay tuned...