[Quick Thumbnail View] [Detailed Thumbnail View] The 2008 Quilt Gallery The 2008 Quilt Gallery is now open with the first 74 quilts viewable, and more coming soon! Please check back in a few days as we will keep adding quilts as they come in, up until the quilt submission deadline (end of March). Donating something for the Quilt Auction? Print out your Quilt or Non-Quilt Registration Forms here.

The Quilt Auction

The Quilt Auction -- a sale favorite -- features some 200 beautiful hand-made quilts, wall quilts, afghans, comforters and other quilt-related items. The quilt auction tradition is one very special way that Mennonite women and men of Kansas use their abilities to provide resources for those in need throughout our world.

Viewing of displayed quilts begins at 4pm Friday, April 11, when reserved seats for the auction also go on sale. Individuals are limited to eight reserved seat tickets (Please note: Seat selection for this year's auction is scheduled to be sold from a seating chart based on last year's set-up. The seats on Friday will be set-up to accommodate the special music program featuring the Kansas Mennonite Men's Chorus. Following the conclusion of the concern, seating will be returned to the normal arrangement.) The quilt auction begins Saturday, April 12, at 8:45am, continuing into mid-afternoon in the Meadowlark Building.

Please note that items which in the recent past have been auctioned in a special noon mini-auction, such as dolls, afghans, quilt racks and other similar items, will be interspersed throughout the quilt auction this year.

A picture Quilt Gallery of the quilts are now available for viewing here.

Quilt Auction is accepting Visa and Discover cards.

Quilter's Corner

While taking in the Quilt Auction, don't forget to stop by Quilters' Corner and stock up on your quilting supplies. The booth is complete with fabrics, quilt tops, magazines and more.

Quilters' Corner, located in the Meadowlark Building, generated over $12,000 in donations last year, (earned over $100,000 in the last 11 years), and expanded its space this year to better accommodate sale shoppers.

Items being offered include finished and unfinished tops, quilt blocks, old or damaged quilts, and linens (such as dresser scarves, pillowcases, tablecloths, chenille bedspreads, doilies, potholders, aprons, and cloth sacks). Also available are quilters' equipment, quilt books, magazines, buttons, wooden spools, patterns, and fabric (including denim, corduroy, flannel and wool).

Those who wish to donate these quilt-related items may bring them to a participating Mennonite Church, or to the MCC Central States office, 121 E. 30th St., North Newton before March 21. For more information contact Mary Beth Goering at 620-241-4107 (mjgoering@dtnspeed.net).

Help build Shelters of Love for Bangladesh

The "Homes for Bangladesh" quilt is a traveling quilt and will not be sold at the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale but will be used as a symbol of God's Love. Funds raised will help build houses for victims of the recent Bangladesh cyclone through Mennonite Central Committee and will travel to many relief sales in North America until it reaches its final destination to be sold at the Mennonite World Relief Sale in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in November 2008.

Sale attendees have an opportunity to raise funds for this project through donation bids during the General and Quilt auctions or by placing a donation in a collection can at the MCC display booth.

The powerful Cyclone Sidr tore into Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of people are homeless, left with nothing but what they could carry as they fled. MCC, with your help, is rebuilding simple houses where the old houses stood.

This traveling quilt was an inspiration of Colleen Graber of the Mennonite World Relief Sale who led children in creating blocks of houses in the children's activity center during the sale.

Many volunteers throughout the United States and Canada have created quilt blocks containing houses to be incorporated into textile projects to raise additional funds to help those in need of shelter. More information on the House Block Project here.

Special quilts to be featured in 40th KMRS auction

Among quilts forming the rows of remarkable "artwork in cloth" at the 2008 Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale will be two specially featured quilts. One, designated the 40th Anniversary Feature quilt, is an ornate Victorian crazy patchwork quilt. The other, called a Special Tribute Feature, is named "Thelma's October Garden.":

Special Tribute Feature Quilt: Thelma's October Garden

Named to honor its designer, the late Thelma Hostetler Kauffman, "Thelma's October Garden," [Quilt Auction item #110] combines pieced Ohio Stars with an original ten-inch border of appliquéd leaves, stems and berries.

"It's very colorful," said Ellen Voran of the Piecemakers of Harper's Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church. "The colors are mainly golds, blues, and red violet, with the border (background) in dark beige--using mostly batik fabrics."

Beginning with first choosing materials in October of 2006 during the Quilt Shop Hop (an area promotion by about 12 area quilt shops), the women assembled Ohio Star block packets for this year's sale quilt under Thelma's watchful eye, then took them home to piece.

Voran explained that for the border, templates were made for each leaf and acorn and were traced on freezer paper, cut out, pressed to the fabric, and cut out again. Following Thelma's markings on the background, four women appliquéd the pieces in place, also using some hand embroidery. When the blocks were complete as well, the challenge was to arrange them to everyone's approval.

"One outstanding feature is the stippling (fine close quilting) on the light background of the star blocks," said Voran. The rest of the quilting is done as outlining. Voran estimated that at least ten women had taken part in producing the 2008 sale quilt.

And what's the reasoning behind all this meticulous quilt-making by the ladies at Harper? Said Voran, "We do it because we feel we want to help those that are in need--truly 'in the Name of Christ.'" It's the same reasoning that motivates participation in all areas of the KMRS--at times seemingly beyond human capabilities--because the Lord himself ha promised His blessing.

Calculations give evidence that this will be the 38th quilt coming to the auction from the women of Pleasant Valley Mennonite Church.

About Thelma Hostetler Kauffman

A people person--as well as multi-talented in gardening, cooking, cake decorating, and quilt making--Thelma knew and cared for a host of friends and relatives. For 59 years she was the wife of the late Joe Kauffman. Several days before succumbing to pancreatic cancer on Oct. 25, 2007, the 84-year-old spoke individually with every family member of her concern that each would accept Christ as their Savior.

Leaving this earth triumphantly, she left a legacy of love for her Lord, her family, her friends and her quilts.

Victorian Crazy Quilt to honor 40th Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale

A good quilt is a lot like a good book. It tells the story of its creator. Walking through the Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale quilt display, one can only imagine the stories of the many beautiful quilts on display.

In honor of the 40th Kansas Mennonite Relief Sale two quilts were selected as feature quilts in honor of the sales milestone--each with its own story to tell. The following is the story of the ornate Victorian crazy quilt [Quilt Auction item #147]:

"For a while now, I have thought it would be fun to do a whole crazy quilt for the sale," said Val Bothell, The Pink Bunny, Wichita, "I teach crazy quilting and when I sent out my class schedule last spring, I included an enrollment form to sign up to do a crazy quilt for MCC.

That is how the seven of us got together." The seven being Val, Dixie Derksen, Pat Grout, Ginger Lawson, Chris Norris, Lori Schen and Barb Warkentin.

The group was formed and Val chose to create the quilt as a round robin project.

"I pieced all the squares and then each person would do four things on the square.either four seams embroidered or four open spots on the square or any combination of that," said Val.

The first of every month, the squares where passed between the seven ladies. "I know everyone was always excited to get their square in the mail," said Val. "One of the members said that her husband would hide the tube behind his back just to tease her when he got the mail because he knew how much she looked forward to getting it."

Val collected all the completed squares and sewed the sashing on. The quilt was inside tied by the quilting group at First Mennonite Brethren Church, Wichita.

Val said she spent on average 45 minutes piecing each square. Each group member spent 2 to 4 hours per month doing their embellishments on each square. Plus, she spent 5 hours sewing the sashing on. It took a group of four an additional three hours to inside tie the quilt.

What is a crazy quilt? (information provided by Val Bothell)

According to the dictionary a crazy quilt is....a quilt made of pieces of cloth of various colors, patterns, shapes and sizes. It is thought that early on a crazy quilt was made out of necessity. That when a quilt wore out it was patched and eventually the quilt was so patched that it looked well....crazy!

The very early crazy quilts for that reason were probably made out of wool. The oldest American crazy quilt dates to around 1835, but the height of crazy quilting was during the Victorian era 1875 to 1900. This was a time when Victorian women had servants to do all of their housework and they had a lot of time on their hands. Handwork was a valued skill and was even taught in school.

Val says in those days, crazy quilts also served as a personal scrapbook and that is evidenced by the things they put on their crazy quilts.

"In this crazy quilt that we made for MCC, we have also done that," says Val. "Words such as love, joy, grace etc...is embroidered on the quilt. Favorite motifs of the stitches such as butterflies, roses and bunnies are also on this quilt. There is a wreath with a robin charm in the middle of the wreath to represent that the quilt was made in a round robin. There is wheat embroidered on the quilt as well as sunflowers that represent the state we all live in--Kansas. The year the quilt was made and MCC are also embroidered on it.