The Community Quilt 2026

What started 8 years ago as a way to use up our ever-growing scrap pile, and introduce people to sewing (what's simpler than grabbing two scraps and sewing?) has morphed into a 6-month-long community effort with dozens of volunteers and dozens of quilts!

This past year, I've been quite busy with the America's Tapestry project, and my bandwidth for community projects (while running our full slate of classes) was limited. As a precaution against burnout, I decided that we would not be sewing blocks during our one-day "Community Quilt Day". All blocks would need to be made ahead of time, and the "Day" would be spent assembling tops, basting, and maybe even quilting. These are usually tasks that I rush to find volunteers for afterward. I truly expected this to mean we wouldn't meet last year's quilt total. While this saddened me, we can only do so much!

The 2026 Community Quilt Project kicked off with the "100 Block Drive" in October of 2025. The request seemed simple: make an improvisational block in a single colorway and drop it off by December. In 2024, we started this block drive to augment our Quilt Day, aiming for 100 blocks, though we received 160. This year, we received 250! Every time I showed up to the studio, there was a new pile to be sorted.

The project pauses over the holidays and kicks back into gear in January as I put out the request for even more blocks and donations of batting and backing. Friends, this year you all SHOWED UP! In the past, our requests for batting resulted in a couple of packages dropped off, and I scrambled to purchase more and piece together scraps. This year? My kids looked at our front porch in awe and asked, "What did you buy, Mom?!" as packages kept rolling in.

As they have in past years, Americana Fabrics generously donated a couple of bolts of backing fabric, and one particularly dedicated volunteer, Erin Lein, donated and sewed backings for 26 quilts from her stash. More than that —she sewed all the binding we used, too!

Every year, a day is set as our "Community Quilt Day". The preparation ahead of that day is a lot. Our studio isn't large to begin with, but every surface becomes covered with quilt blocks, batting, backing, and empty plastic bags for organizing. Sarah Poriss, one of our key volunteers, is in and out of the studio for the weeks prior, helping to rehab blocks that aren't large enough or need some attention, cutting batting to size, and piecing together tops.

This year, of course, our originally planned day was canceled due to snow. While disappointing, thanks to Erin and Sarah's preparation, we were able to create quilt kits with 20 quilt blocks, backing, binding, and batting. We rescheduled our day, and volunteers also stopped by in the meantime to pick up quilts.

As we assembled the bags, we counted... and counted... and counted... Last year, we made 24 quilts, and this year the number slowly continued to climb. When we hit 36, I stopped and counted again (and again). How was it that the year I decided to scale back, we created 50% more?!

I started to get nervous —I often end up doing a lot of the quilting and binding at the end of the project to get everything done, and with 36 quilts, I was sure I was going to end up sewing more than I planned to. But then our big day came. Despite the rescheduled date, we had a constant stream of sewers. Many of our Community Quilters show up every year, just for the quilt day, and it was wonderful to see so many people we hadn't seen since last year.

Then, most amazingly, by the end of the day, we were left with 3 quilts that hadn't been claimed! Even better-- all quilts were returned within the month!

Last year, my family and I hung the quilts on the fence at a local elementary school playground so I could get proper photos. Once they were all up, I took a step back and thought, "People should really see this". So this year, we organized a final "Quilt Send Off" for the end of March.

Despite rain in the forecast, I couldn't cancel anything else this winter, so the Send-Off went on as planned, with volunteers helping hang all the quilts on the fence. Sarah Wilson, Deputy Director of Journey Home, joined us to share more about the wonderful organization where the quilts were headed.

Volunteers were able to connect over coffee, trim the final threads, and prep the quilts for drop-off later that week. AND we finished right before the rain!

Why was this year such a great success? It could just be that word of the project has spread. Sarah and I both felt that it was also very likely that people want to do something meaningful. In today's climate, where news spins so quickly, and everything feels unknown and scary, it feels good to know you can help. These quilts, while simple, humanize and show the clients of Journey Home that they are seen and cared for. Contributing to this effort helps us all make a real impact.

Thank you to everyone who assisted or cheered us along from the sidelines! We are already planning The Community Quilt 2027 and have some fun kick off events planned!

Happy Stitching!

Laura