Quilters Dream Batting Quilt Shops Featured in Quilt Sampler Ultimate Shop Hop Spring/Summer Edition

Each year Quilt Sampler Magazine puts out their Spring/Summer Ultimate Shop Hop Edition to many readers delight. Thousands of people grab hold of this edition each year and make it a point to stop in these shops and see just how fabulous they are.

23 Days Left in 2013 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS

We received lots of calls in the summer about when the deadline is to donate a quilt to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  For the 2013 Challenge, the deadline is 23 days away - July 31.

In the past few weeks we've seen a number of boxes arrive and had members of The Sew Happy Together quilt guild in Dover, PA drive to Quilters Dream to deliver more than a hundred quilts bundled into small groups.

There is still time to enter a quilt(s) into the 2013 Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  If you have a package of Quilters Dream Batting you will notice an entry form included with your batting.

You can also find a fill-in/print Entry Form on the Hopes & Dreams website at http://www.hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com. While you are visiting the website, click on the "Prizes" link to see all the different categories where an individual in each category will win $1,000 in prizes, including lots of Quilters Dream Batting.

Want some quilt inspiration?  Check out the Hopes & Dreams Facebook page where we post a picture of every quilt donated to the challenge.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quilters-Dream-Batting-sponsoring-Hopes-and-Dreams-Quilt-Challenge-for-ALS/150913912237

The countdown is on!  We look forward to sharing pictures of the quilts we have received and look forward to additional boxes and packages in the coming weeks.

Happy Quilting - and a very big - THANK YOU!

The Dream Team
Quilters Dream Batting
Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS

A Challenge of Hope for the Dream of a Cure

"To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, that is to have succeeded."

                         Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 

This August 2013 marks the beginning of the 5th Annual Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  Many of you know this challenge and read these words with passion.  You have taken of your time, talents and treasures in picking out and purchasing fabrics, threads, needles and batting to design a quilt that you then donate to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge.

Just a few of the more than 3,300 quilts sent in from across the U.S. to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.
 

For some of you, this is your first introduction to the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS.  A little bit about the quilts:  Kathy Thompson and Juanita 'Mimi' Kelly (Josh Thompson's mother and grandmother) owners of Quilters Dream Batting in Virginia Beach, Virginia started the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS after Josh was diagnosed with ALS.  The challenge is an effort to raise awareness of ALS, to give the gift of a handmade quilt to ALS patients, and to raise money for ALS research by selling selected quilts.

PALS (patients with ALS) love receiving quilts from those donated to Hopes & Dreams.

The response from YOU - quilters from across the nation - is amazing!

In the first three years 3,333 quilts have been donated to the challenge and of those, 2,482 quilts have been given to ALS patients (often with beautiful cards attached). 

But that's not all.

In May, which is ALS Awareness month, the quilts were featured in an art, jewelry and quilt exhibit and sale at Richard Stravitz 30th Street Fine Art Gallery in Virginia Beach.  100% of the proceeds of the sales of quilts and 20% of the proceeds from sales of art at the gallery were donated to ALS Research.  On June 25, Kathy Thompson and Richard Stravitz presented Emory University Neurosurgeon Dr. Nicholas Boulis with a $50,000 ALS Research grant.  Here's the presentation:

Dr. Boulis works in stem cell research and performed the first FDA approved stem cell surgery at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as all surgeries for the first ever stem cell trial in ALS.  he is training surgeons across the United States and the world in this very specialized surgery and will travel to Italy later this summer to help with their first stem cell surgery.  Dr. Boulis received this research grant to continue to work in MRI guided implementation of stem cells and drug therapy directly into the spinal cord.

 

Many of the Hopes & Dreams Quilts 4 ALS are at the Richard Stravitz 30th Street Fine Art Gallery (30th Street and Pacific Avenue) in Virginia Beach, Virginia. 



Hopes & Dreams Quilts are on permanent display and available for purchase with 100% of the proceeds going to ALS Research at the Richard Stravitz 30th Street Gallery (30th Street and Pacific Avenue), 3004 Pacific Avenue, Virginia Beach.

We will soon have an online presence on Store Envy.com where quilts will be available for purchase.  100% of the proceeds from sales of quilts will go to ALS Research

If you are learning of the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS for the first time, or know of the challenge and want to participate, please visit our website at http://hopesanddreams.quiltersdreambatting.com or "like" us on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Quilters-Dream-Batting-sponsoring-Hopes-and-Dreams-Quilt-Challenge-for-ALS/150913912237.

We will be blogging more on the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, including updates on people with ALS who are receiving your quilts and the extraordinary research that is taking place that will one day provide the hope of treatment and the dream of a cure for ALS.  You can subscribe to this blog post by clicking on the link below.

Thank you - for your love and support as we find a cure for ALS - one quilt at a time!

The Dream Team

Quilters Dream Angel- Flame Retardant Batting

QUILTERS DREAM ANGEL BATTING

The first quilt batting made 100% from Flame Retardant Fibers.

We have had quite a few calls and emails lately inquiring about the unique feature of our Quilters Dream Angel batting. It may sound as if this wonderful product is made from feathers and clouds but that might make a mess of a quilt!
Although the process of creating Dream Angel is our trade secret, we are excited to give you a little more inside knowledge!

What is it made of?

Dream Angel fibers are neither cotton nor polyester - they are specially engineered fibers created to be flame retardant. These man-made fibers contain no PBDE's, bromides or chemical additives. You cannot rub or wash off the flame retardant quality due to the fibers being inherently flame retardant. We have spent years of research in developing this proprietary product. We did not take any 'shortcuts' on this batting and use ONLY Flame Retardant Fibers.

Gidget (office mascot) showing off the Dream Angel

What makes it flame retardant?

Dream Angel is self-extinguishing. This means it draws oxygen away helping to extinguish a flame. When in contact with flame the batting will not melt or assist to 'kindle' or support the flame. The Dream Angel fibers have met international flame retardant standards.

Test results were….?

Dream Angel's test results were exceptional!
During the testing by an independent testing laboratory, the batting was placed between 2 layers of cotton fabric and elevated on to a mesh rack (to promote airflow). The top layer of fabric was caught on fire and the batting formed a barrier preventing the bottom layer of cotton from being damaged at all! Dream Angel passed this difficult test standard: the California Dept. of Consumer Affairs - Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation Draft - Technical Bulletin 604 for Filling Materials Component Test Open-Flame Resistance.

Why would I use this?

The Dream Angel is very soft and breathable and quite easy to handle and use. This lightweight cream colored batting washes and handles similar to the Dream Cotton but has the added feature of being made from Flame Retardant fibers. Safety can never be guaranteed, but we feel that Dream Angel is an excellent choice for children/baby quilts, teen and college quilts, nursing homes, Christmas tree skirts.

Want to see for yourself? Give us a call for a free sample. 888.268.8664



Happy Quilting!

~The Dream Team

To Stash or Not to Stash....is that the question?

By Juanita K Bard   
(With apologies to Shakespeare's HAMLET)
 

To stash or not to stash...is that the question?

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous mis-organization

Or to take arms against a sea of clutter
And by opposing end it? To organize?
To give away? To sew not more?

Nay...To sew I must..perchance a new patchwork
Or try a new paper piece pattern
For who can bear the whips and scorns of
The ever present 1/2 price sale ads
That makes a calamity of our credit cards..

To file or not to file my patterns
To group by pastels and darks
And by organization to say we end
The heartache of rummaging around
For just that right piece of fabric

That our sewing is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd..to organize,
To conceal in boxes...and boxes galore
In plastic containers that overflow on the floor
To organize, perchance to achieve it....ay, there's the rub;

For in that great organization of fabric what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal unorganization
Must give us pause there's the respect
That makes calamity of so organized a sewing room;
For who can bear to whittle down her Stash...

The pangs of that separation of fabric
To grunt and sweat under the strain
Of not seeing forever the beloved Stash...
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd boxes...from who boundary

No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And make us rather think we have
To give to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make swappers of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution

Gives way to the pale thought and enterprises
Of that great moment with this regard
To our current Stash...Organize...give away!!!!
And lose the name of clutter... Soft you now!
Oh, fair quilters... in they orisons
Be all my Stash remember'd.....
 

 Quilter: Cindy Richard
Website: cindyrquilts.com