A Season of Love and Light

As this year comes to a close, I would like all of us to use a few moments to reflect upon the holiday season.  While 2021 probably didn’t look as we expected, we have a lot of things to be thankful for that helped to share the love and light of our quilting community.  We surpassed our goal of completing baby blankets for those going through infant loss.  As the only guild in Colorado working on this project, we successfully gathered almost 300 blankets to help those going through the unimaginable.  We also collected and donated over 200 completed quilts to several different charities, including those helping those struggling to get back on their feet, children who are hospitalized, and young mothers.  This alone is quite a feat - yet that is not the only accomplishment of love and light our guild has had this year.

We continued to thrive during uncertain times, finding ways to get together even if it meant in smaller groups.  We had several drive-through events to collect and disseminate charity quilts, swap patterns, purchase panels and books, and enjoy some time with our fellow quilters.  We hung a panel challenge in the parking lot of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum and had an opportunity to tour the museum and meet the makers of both the children’s quilt club and an exhibit.

We also found ways to bring love and light into our own quilting by participating in lectures and workshops that stimulated our minds and gave us new skills to enhance our quilting, bag making and fabric dyeing.

Although it may have looked different than years past, we accomplished all three pillars on which the guild was founded: charity work, education and fellowship.  The coming year, 2022, will no doubt bring different challenges and opportunities for us to build and grow.  We have a celebration of quilts through the 2022 Festival of Quilts coming in June, and hope that all members choose to participate in some manner - bringing together charity, education and fellowship in an event that showcases our work to the public.  We will also have more opportunities to connect, build and grow as a quilting community, while we continue to spread love and light in 2022.

Submitted by Jen Dietz, President