Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) will hold a quilt preview from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28, and Friday, March 1, as well as from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, March 2, at MCC East Coast's Material Resources Center, 517 W. Trout Run Road, Ephrata. Admission is free. The preview will offer an opportunity to view the quilts slated for auction at the 63rd annual Pennsylvania Relief Sale. Thousands of hours have gone into creating the more than 100 quilts.
Unique to the preview this year will be quilts and wall hangings made from submissions to the Charity Block Design Challenge through The Old Country Store in Intercourse and Jaftex Corporation, a fabric manufacturer in New York City.
The Old Country Store won a Jaftex Facebook contest through the company's CEO, Scott Fortunoff, and chose MCC and the Pennsylvania Relief Sale as the charity recipient. The store decided to hold an event, with Fortunoff as the main speaker, and paired it with the Charity Block Design Challenge, where registered participants received a mystery pair of fat-quarter fabrics beforehand from one of five featured designers from the corporation: Kaffe Fassett, Kim Diehl, Tula Pink, Tim Holtz, and William Morris. The corporation donated the fabrics.
Participants were then asked to use the two fabrics they received to create a 10.5-by-10.5-inch quilt block in any pattern. At an event on Nov. 29, 2018, at Shady Maple in East Earl, attendees voted on their favorites in five categories - best use of color, best pieced, best applique, best nontraditional, and people's choice - with winners receiving prizes. Winning blocks were sewn into individual wall hangings while many of the other submissions were made into sampler quilts. More than 150 blocks were submitted for the challenge.
During the preview, quilt viewers will be invited to vote for their favorite quilt by donating money. Each cent counts as one vote and goes toward the Pennsylvania Relief Sale's My Coins Count collection. This year's collection will support MCC's peacebuilding initiatives, which aim to give people the skills they need to work for peace and understanding, to speak out against injustices, and to build resilience through trauma healing.
Preview visitors can also shop Quilter's Corner for fabric, linens, spools, and related items, as well as upcycled items crafted from repurposed materials by volunteers. Used books and other contributed items will also be available for purchase by donation.
In addition, tours of the Material Resources Center warehouse will be offered. The warehouse serves as a collection point in the U.S. for the receiving, packing, and shipping of material resources donated by people responding to aid requests from MCC partners worldwide.
The 63rd annual Pennsylvania Relief Sale will be held on Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6, at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. The event will benefit MCC's global relief, development, and peacebuilding work. Last year's sale raised $450,000 for MCC.
For more information about the quilt preview, readers may call 717-733-2847. Details about the Pennsylvania Relief Sale are available at http://www.PAReliefSale.org or by calling 717-208-4152.
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