Shannon Fabrics Supports the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS

Greetings from Shannon Fabrics! Can we just say how much we love Quilters Dream® Batting?  In fact, almost all of the quilts that are made by our Cuddle® Specialists are made with Quilters Dream Batting. It’s easy to work with, soft, fluffy, warm, and it makes our applique quilts especially fluffy! We made this cute elephant quilt with Dream Puff. Shannon Fabrics is also so proud to be a sponsor of the Quilters Dream Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge forALS which raises awareness of ALS-Lou Gehrig’s Disease, provides quilts to ALS patients and raises funds for the cause. 

  

Quilters Dream® Batting is amazing. We especially love the Dream Puff for Cuddle®. It is light and lofty. It doesn’t add weight. And it is 1.5 times warmer than down. We used Quilters Dream Puff for our Elephant Quilt and it turned out great.

Since the majority of our quilts use a “quilt as you go” method, using batting like Quilters Dream Puff makes our quilts look extra fluffy and plush, and here at Shannon Fabrics, we are all about the extra softness and yummy goodness! Here is an example of one of our applique quilts…pattern will be available from the Shannon Fabrics website soon!

You can find Shannon Fabrics at many local quilt shops and fabric stores, and online at fabric.com, theminkyboutique.com, and fabricdepot.com. You can also view our Store Locator to find online shops and shops near you.

Stay up-to-date on what’s happening! Join our mailing list. Subscribe to our blog, Sewciety. Connect with us on social media too on the following: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Google +, and Flickr.

Thanks for letting us visit with you today. If you’d like to find out more about the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, click here.

Making The World a Softer Place™

Hugs from your friends at Shannon Fabrics

Wrapping up the 2015 Challenge year!!

   My name is Kathy Kent and  since coming to Quilter’s Dream Batting, I have been the one to log in each and every quilt that we receive for the Hope and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).  I am a hand quilter and have truly developed a love and appreciation for machine quilting.   The beauty in the stitches is incredible.   I never knew machine quilts were so gorgeous.   So much more goes in to making the quilts than you could ever imagine:  choosing the fabric, pattern, backing and the batting.  It is truly a gift of love.

Being a quilter myself, you can imagine my excitement when receiving quilts every day by mail!    These quilts are stitched with love in memory of a treasured one or simply just because. Whether machine quilted, hand quilted, tied, large or small, each quilt is unique and special.   My job is to open the packages, photograph each quilt, thank their owner then display the quilt on Facebook.  I then separate the quilts to either be distributed to ALS patients all over the country for comfort or set them aside to be sold with 100% of the proceeds going towards ALS research! 

Sometimes we get a little overloaded with quilts, the table behind my desk is piled high with quilts. 

 Quilters are so generous with their time and passion. We receive quilts from guilds, shops, individuals, professional quilters etc. Did you know that you could be a winner of fabulous prizes including Quilters Dream Batting, fabrics, notions and books by simply donating one quilt? The photo below explains each category and prizes that could be won. 

  

Click HERE to see exactly what our generous sponsors have donated!

The pictures and letters of ‘thank you’ we receive from PALS (patients with ALS), are so heartwarming. Truly touched by your quilts, these patients are so grateful for the gift of love that they receive!  

Teri received her quilt from the DC/MD/VA ALS Chapter

                                               

Bill was thrilled to receive his special quilt which will keep him nice & cozy in his favorite chair. 

Janet from Clenton, MS sent this pic along with a thank you note. She says it makes her feel so  warm :)

    

We will soon begin wrapping up the 2015 Hopes and Dreams Challenge. 

Please keep in mind quilts or creative items MUST be postmarked no later than July 31, 2015. Anything dated after that will be entered into the 2016 year challenge. 

We are still hoping to get many more quilts to pass along to our PALS.  Surpassing last year’s total would be wonderful.  

Thank you in advance for all of your donations and your generosity!!!   Hope to see your quilts in my office soon.    We love our quilters!

Kathy Kent
Hopes and Dreams Coordinator 

Sending quilts to ALS patients around the country.

One of the many rewarding parts of the Hopes & Dreams Challenge is sending quilts so generously donated to ALS Association chapters across the country. From there, those chapters will hand deliver the quilts to ALS patients (PALS).  Yesterday, we shipped 617 quilts totaling 67 boxes!! There are still a few more ALS chapters we are waiting to hear back from so that technically isn't the grand total. But who is really counting, right? The fact that one single quilt can bring joy and comfort to someone battling such a terrible disease is more than just numbers. 


Prior to shipping, one of our #battgirls here in the office, Neva, spent the day touching base with the ALS Association chapters to get an idea of how many quilts they needed. The response was great. Take a look at the warehouse with boxes of quilts piled up before and after!  Although we sent out 617 quilts, we could have used at least 500 more to cover all the requests we had from the ALS Association chapters! 

Ivanka and Kathy double checking each box before giving the "go" to ship.

Almost finished! Just keep sorting. Just keep sorting. 

Included in the boxes, was a letter from Kathy Thompson to each ALS chapter: 

On behalf of Quilters Dream Batting and the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, we are pleased to send you these quilts to share with your PALS. Each quilt was handcrafted with love from quilters across the country who have given their time and talents to bring warmth to the laps and lives of individuals diagnosed with ALS.

As the co-founder and owner of Quilters Dream Batting, a Virginia Beach based business that manufactures high quality quilt batting, I knew just how generous and caring the quilt community would be. What I didn't know was how willing these quilters were to embrace the challenge and not only touch my life, but those living with ALS, including my son.

The Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS was created in 2009, when I decided to raise awareness and research funds to help find a cure for ALS. In 2007, my now 40 year old son Josh, was diagnosed with ALS. The disease has taken Josh from a strong, happy, athletic young husband and father to being completely paralyzed. He is currently on life support.

This annual challenge has been an incredible success over the years and has received thousands of quilts! More than 4000 quilts have been given to PALS through ALS chapters across the U.S. More than $80,000 has been raised through the sale of select quilts donated to the challenge and 100% of the proceeds have been given in the form of grants to support ALS research.

We appreciate your chapter distributing these quilts to your PALS. Many quilters have attached stories with their quilts- others did not. We encourage you or your PALS to contact the quilter as most are anxious to learn who received their quilt.

We are hopeful that the gift of these quilts will let PALS know that there are many people who care and they are surrounded by love and concern.

Thank you for all that you do.

 Sincerely,

 Kathy Thompson (mother of Josh Thompson)



With the holidays just around the corner, consider the gift of a quilt to a family member or friend and help find a cure for ALS. 

Select donated quilts can be purchased by visiting our Storenvy shop and stopping into Richard Stravitz's art gallery located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Because Quilters Dream Batting takes care of all Hopes & Dreams expenses, 100% of the money received from quilt sales will go towards ALS research.

Are you a quilter and wish to donate a quilt? Head over to the Hopes & Dreams website for more information. There are plenty of categories you can enter and chances to win fabulous prizes from our generous sponsors. Click HERE to see what 2015 prizes have already been sent in!

A big thanks to the staff at Quilters Dream Batting, who worked hard moving and shipping all those boxes yesterday! It was an exhausting effort, but filled with great joy and excitement for those patients who will receive a quilt.

We'd also like to say thank you to EVERYONE who participated in the 2013-2014 challenge! Without your quilt donations and our generous sponsors, we wouldn't have had such a rewarding day! 

Meet Forever In Stitches- $1,000 Grand Sponsor

Meet the owners of Forever In Stitches, Ruth and Rick Grihalva. 

This photo captures the memory of Forever In Stitches's grand opening in 2004.
Ruth (with scissors), Rick (second from right) and son Peter (between both)

Forever In Stitches, LLC is a full service quilt shop located in northwest Ohio at the center of Bluffton. The 130 year old building houses 3,000 square feet of quilting delight. Forever In Stitches, LLC is the home of the Perfect Corner Ruler™ (which Ruth invented!)  and Raggedy Ruth Designs™. With products including more than 2,500 bolts of fabric displayed with their 5,000 fat quarters, wide backing, batting, notions, gifts, patterns, magazines, longarm services, and over 1,100 proprietary digitized quilting longarm designs...we are pretty sure their quilting customers, friends, and family can all find something to keep them busy in this shop! 

This is not the first year that Forever In Stitches have been Grand Sponsors of our quilt challenge but it wasn't until now we became aware of the personal connection Rick had with ALS. 

Twenty-four years ago I was talking to one of my best friends, Dave, and president of my company, Executive Insights. Dave Alderman asked me to raise my hands above my head. He wanted to see how difficult it was for me, which it was not. It turned out that he could not raise his left arm higher than his shoulder. Being a stout, strong man, the situation troubled him. Shortly thereafter he was diagnosed with ALS [Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - Lou Gehrig's disease]. He rapidly deteriorated physically into a wheelchair. He resigned his position to seek ways to make his mark on the world before he died. As Dave moved from one level to the next, always lower, his cheerful, gregarious nature remained. Dave was fortunate that his wife, Helen, was a nurse. When you have a friend with ALS, you do things you did not think you would normally do. This is because ALS "disconnects” all of the nerves from the muscles. This makes it almost impossible to function in a normal fashion. These disconnects also include the muscles needed for breathing. One basically suffocates. Fortunately for Helen, David died in his sleep, even though he was using a breathing machine. I pray that our donation will help others.   Forever In Stitches is proud to announce that we are a Grand Sponsor of "Hopes & Dreams: Quilt Challenge to ALS."

                   
We are touched that Rick chose to sharing his story. As part of their $1000 Grand Sponsorship in prizes, Forever In Stitches has graciously donated an assortment of their patterns which include the Perfect Corner Ruler and Intersection Indicator.

If you have a moment, please click here to tell Forever In Stitches

 THANK YOU for continuing as a member of the Hopes & Dreams 

sponsorship team.  

You can also follow them on Facebook and get updates on what's going on in their shop!  

To Ruth & Rick, 

Quilters Dream Batting and the Hopes & Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS are incredibly thankful for your tremendous support!