- Voluntown Library presents Extreme Community Quilt
(L to R) Cheryl T., Janice S., Sharon G. (VPL Staff), Deborah Fleet (Library Director), Melanie C.
Just a quick update on the quilt. Wednesday evening several women met together to tie the quilt and to blind stitch the binding at Voluntown Public Library in Voluntown, Connecticut. We completely finished by 9 p.m. Wednesday evening, having begun planning the previous Saturday morning. I spoke once more with Billy Roberts, Design Producer for Extreme Makeover, and was told to call Thursday morning. Due to the Extreme busy-ness of finalizing everything at the build, I could not reach him, so a small entourage of the quilters joined me to walk to the site. We waited in the icy rain, sloshed about in the mud, then were moved to the VIP tent. While standing in the VIP tent, I met (the late) Thom Girard’s sister, Elaine, and so I told her the particulars and details about the quilt and its conception so she can share it with Carol Girard after all the excitement. A couple times we were moved on to the garage, only to be forced back to the tent due to filming. Eventually, I was the last one holding the bag with the quilt, so I waited in the laundry room, amidst the painters touching up, and caught glimpses of Ty and the crew, and got to scream in the background “Wow, look at that chair!” and similar such things as furniture was moved in. I wore the mandatory white hard hat propped on my signature red beret!
After speaking with several different people, I was finally sent to bring the quilt into the Master Bedroom, but as we went in, Ty was being filmed, and we were again sent out to wait in the laundry room. I did see a couple Voluntown locals volunteering, but they couldn’t help me, until one of the volunteers, Kara Giroux, who also worked on the quilt with the group, came by. Thus, I commited the quilt into her hands as she set off to find the designer. Failing that, she approached Ty Pennington himself by the Master Bedroom, and told him the story of the quilt and the community quilters. He personally took the quilt!
There have been a number of people still wanting to sign the quilt, but it is out of our hands, and in the hands of the Girard family at this time.
This has been an exciting an interesting project that was initiated with social networking tools – mainly facebook, and its instant messaging potential, e-mail to some extent, and telephone calls. I am amazed at how this project brought together a bunch of people from the community who never cross paths at the library, and also drew people who do not typically use the library. Well over 100 people signed the backing, and 23 various women created quilt blocks, planned, laid out the pieces, trimmed squares, tied and finished the quilt. Several plan to continue meeting with our “Nutty about knitting, Crazy about crochet” group. In early 2009 we plan to harness the power of the group to create warm cozy quilts and afghans for Project Linus! Who knew that creating such a positive community collaboration would also strengthen programs and outreach at the library! This has been a highly appreciated, exciting and rewarding collaborative effort of women of the community of Voluntown.
Deborah Fleet, Library Director
Voluntown Public Library Blog 