“It takes a village…..”

I just re-read the blog post I wrote last year after the Quilts etc. Sale about the importance of thanking persons for their help..and it is especially true this year. We certainly would not have had the huge success without the help of each person and group listed last year. We don’t have the final total of sales yet, but believe it to be the highest number yet! Twenty plus women did not do the sale by themselves! And as the sale closed last week, I thought of the saying “It takes a village to raise a child”. Our village reached out and we had a great quilt sale.

Our church provided a great space and staff to host a sale.

Husbands and a guy friend helped moved stands, tables, and racks up from storage and down again…lots of stairs!

Husbands ran the check out collecting the cash, checks and helping with credit cards so the quilters would be free to answer questions and constantly rearrange the tables and displays as items flew out the door!

Non-quilters who set up a classy coffee shop next to the sale with yummy baked goods and delicious coffee donated by The Spice Merchant.

The Forum Theater, with productions from September to May, moved heavy sets and equipment for a two day quilt sale in October!

Several folks outside the quilt group donated quilts. We were gifted several lovely vintage quilts. These quilts found new homes and we added more money to our donations! This proved so popular that we hope to have a Vintage Corner next year.

Most of all, all the folks who came–some because they were purely interested in quilts and handcrafted items–but many came because they cared about an individual quilter. I had neighbors, co-volunteers from a non-profit where I spend one day a week, staff from the school from which I retired, and family–some from out of state! It was fun to see the children of quilters supporting their mother or best friends who don’t care a fig about quilts but support their friends interests. Church members shopped because they believe in the two ministries we support. A few visitors were viewers of the TV ministry we are helping support. Our village reaches far and wide!

The support our village gave us, allows us to help other members of our village. So please accept our sincere thanks!

And what are the Quilters at First doing after the sale? Why starting new projects or finishing up items that didn’t quite make to the sale this year! Do we ever get tired of this process…? Nope! Why, because we get feed back like this photo a friend sent me– Jack’s mother bought this quilt at the sale specifically for him.

The role of some members of the village is to appreciate! Jack’s smile was the best thanks I will ever receive!