Peace Traveling Quilt

With the importance of Peace to MCC's story, MCC asked for a Peace Quilt.  To incorporate the vision of peace, we asked individuals around the world to make a "Peace Block".  There were no requirements on size or color, as we wanted the creator's interpretation.

Peace Quilt Blocks from donors from around the world were received and have been logged separately in the blog.

A Fiber Artist and friend, Diane Swallen, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, heard about my challenge of creating a "Peace" Quilt from a variety of artists was a challenge she wanted to talk and work through with me.  I had started the center panel with the three blocks on point.  With receiving two stained glass window doves in opposite directions, they needed to be in the center.  Working with the stained glass theme, additional sashings around the blocks with hand died Cherrywood Fabrics allowed the bright blue and yellow block to placed between the two peace doves to form a panel of three blocks on point.  To add to the global participation, the administrative staff person at the MCC office in Calcutta, India, provided the tatted objects which are in opposite directions and are appliqued to the open areas near the top.  Viewing the quilt close, the  Peace Blocks are surrounded by blue nautical fabric with oceans and directions listed on the fabric.

At this point in the making of the quilt center panel, the quilt's purpose was already in use.  The Peace Panel was requested and hung at Judson Church in Minneapolis, MN, in celebration of Peace Sunday.

From there, Diane, focused on the block above the doves with the Peace symbol of various colored hands and we surrounded them with the gold and patchwork. Placing of the various types of Peace blocks brought the theme of Peace to us as we tried to place and balance the blocks and surround them with 3 different shades of golds or the nautical blue fabric.

The Peace Quilt has been quilted by the MCC Quilt Room at the Materials Resource Center in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, under the directly of Connie Lapp.  While North American Relief Sale meetings in Pennsylvania, Connie had the quilt placed on the quilt frame for Relief Sale volunteers to participate in the process of having the quilt made ready for the Amish ladies to come and quilt.  The pictures do not include ladies quilting out of respect for the Amish faith.  Earlier that day, the room had been filed with ladies quilting.

The quilt has been bound in the gold fabric and is available by requesting from MCC office in Goshen, IN.

Blessings,
Marlys Wiens

Education Traveling Quilt Story

Education Traveling Quilt

To celebrate the Education/Global Family Program, a Traveling Quilt was made from gifts of silk scarves made from the parents of children funded by the MCC Global Family Program near Darjeeling, India. During a Learning Tour to India, a number of locations were visited and the thankful parents adorned the visitors from North America with a number of silk scarves (10 to 15) to each individual showing their appreciation for all the supporters of the MCC Education Program. It was clear that both the children and the parents understood the sharing that was being received.

(Ayesha Kader Thank you Marlys for your marvelous work on quilts - this is surely a special one for me too. I could not imagine that the yellow scarves which is called 'kha-da' a tradition to welcome guests with blessings could be used so beautifully. I will tell the project manager of Nepali Girls Social Service, Darjeeling about this and to other MCC staff. God bless.  (February 1, 2014).  Ayesha was once a participant in MCC's Global Family Program and now the Supervisor for the MCC Global Family Program in India!)

Due to the frailness of the silk scarves, strips were made of the scarves and woven into blocks for the Traveling Quilt. The strips were stitched together allowing the color of the various gold scarves to bring a beauty to the block. After visiting all the precious children, angels needed to partner with the silk blocks.

The red fabric of the Angels in the other blocks is also from India, the plain colored fabrics are donated hand died fabrics from Cherrywood Fabrics of Brainerd, Mn, and the purple fabric is “Northern Lights” purchased at a quilt store along the “North Shore” of Lake Superior in Minnesota.

The view of the Pacific Ocean - inspiration!

Due to timing issues and the need for the quilt at the Oregon MCC Relief Sale, the quilt was designed, made and quilted at Pacific Beach, Washington.  In haste to catch a plane to Seattle, the backing for the quilt had not been purchased.  As we (my cousins and others) were at the ocean to create charity quilts, Ione offered to go through her fabrics to find a backing for the MCC Global Family quilt.  When she came across a yellow fabric with the red polka dots and the name of the fabric was Joy, Love, Peace, we knew we had the backing fabric for the quilt.  It was exactly the correct yellow and red for the front of the quilt!

Oregon Relief Sale - next to the Tractor for Auction

The first Relief Sale to utilize the Global Family Quilt was Oregon!  James Wheeler, the MCC Global Family representative had the vision and together the goal was accomplished.

While the quilt was on loan to the Twin Cities MCC Relief Sale in October of 2013, Judson Memorial Baptist Church hung the quilt bringing awareness to the Relief Sale and celebration of Relief work in Thailand.

The quilt was designed and made by Marlys Wiens of Love Joy Piece, a project of the North American MCC Relief Sale Board.

NA MCC Relief Sales looks for organizations the Traveling Quilts can be used throughout the United States and Canada to promote their stories and fundraising.

Health Traveling Quilt's Story

The creation of the idea for the Health/AIDS quilt started the day after the Mennonite World Conference in Acsention, Paraguay.  One of the sessions included various denomination world leaders on a panel discussing how  they could, which included Methodists, Catholic, Lutheran and Mennonites work together around the world. The session brought an awareness of how we all live in the world and need to work together to address the needs of the world.

At the Conclusion of the conference, a Sunday, my travel partner and she was also a pastor from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Ruth,  went for a walk on the streets of Ascension.  In Ascension, people did not travel and do things on Sunday as it is a "Day of Rest" so the streets were extremely quiet.  As we walked to observe some graffiti or a painted story on a building wall, two other young gals did the same and then they started taking pictures.  As I realized they spoke English, I offered to take a picture of them with their camera.  In response they asked where we were from and why we were in Ascension.  We had all been at the Mennonite World Conference, only they came from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.  My long time friend worked at Conrad Grabel and so I mentioned I had a friend from Waterloo.  By this time, my travel partner was realizing who we were talking with and tried to guide our conversation as the woman I was speaking to had been her child's music teacher at Conrad Grabel and Ruth respected her highly.  But I continued on putting the puzzle of friendships together as Carol told of a Professor at Conrad Grabel had encouraged her to write a song to bring awareness to the global issues surrounding AIDS.  His research had showed that every four seconds someone dies from AIDS in the world. After a sometime of encouragement by the Peace Professor at Congrad Grabel, Carol received her song with every a beat of every four seconds.  Carol Weaver and I soon realized we had the same friend, Lowell Ewert.  Ironically, Lowell and I grew up a half mile apart as children on farms near Delft, Minnesota, and through my life my nick name was "Neighbor".  How fitting that Lowell wasn't their but through friendships, a neighborhood developed their on the streets of Ascension.

During North American Relief Sale meetings in Iowa City, Barb Schrag and I sat and she had a vision for me to make a Health/AIDS quilt.  It was one of those moments when you don't say "no" as there is just an air around that I knew this was about the work of MCC and I needed to figure out how to raise funds for the children of the world who didn't have their parent(s) which meant they didn't have education and probably enough food.  So, I went back to Minneapolis with a purpose - but how?

Shortly after while at a South Minneapolis Quilters meeting, I won a door prize of fabric and was told, "If someone can figure out what to do with plain colored fabric, it's Marlys".  Yes, there was my answer and the Minnesota Shop Hop fabric had included some linear fabric for the sashings between the solid colored Kona fabrics. Due to my work schedule, quilting at home is limited and when I headed west to quilt with my cousins at the Pacific Ocean, the fabrics went in the suitcase and a pattern would be developed.  From the smaller picture above you can see the quilt started with the yellow (lighter) color at the top and the purple (heavier) colored at the bottom.  And yes, there needed to be four colors in the quilt and somehow I had envisioned an EKG on the top color (which was yellow).  That just didn't work for numerous reasons.  Then the answer came, the quilt needed to be "upside down" to symbolize the "Upside down" worlds the people live in who have lost family members from AIDS!  Once I gave the quilt the new direction, it all worked and the EKG was added with bright green bias tape.

Once Connie Lapp at the MCC Resource Center Quilt Room received the quilt, she also questioned how to have the quilt hand quilted.  They had never quilted something like this but in her search; you can see the beautiful simple hand quilting that has bound the quilt together.

The Traveling Health/AIDS Quilt is available by contacting Les Gustafson Zook a the Goshen MCC office.

Water Traveling Quilt for MCC Relief

The  Water Quilt is made with Landscape Quilt original design - with the Sun, sky, lake/river, trees and people celebrating the water in a mosaic style.

Traveling Quilts along with Blessings Bids have generated some great funds for MCC,  We look forward to hearing what the theme of Water can do for raising funds! Traveling Quilts assist in Blessing Bids and we ask that you provide the totals to us as we tally the funds for MCC.

Water Quilt:  The landscape quilt includes the sunrise/sunset along with the skyline with a river or lake below and African women on the shoreline.  The quilt is machine quilted with trees and roots/limbs reminding us of being in Africa.  The water is quilted with ripples and waves.  The sun is quilted with circles and brings light to the quilt.

Size:  78 by 80 Inches

Available:  To Relief Sales in the United States

Made by:  Marlys Wiens

Machine Quilted by:  Jane Harder Goering and the Bethel Church Worship and Sew of Mountain Lake, Minnesota, donating the funds for the quilt.

As I made this quilt, I kept thinking of the children in this world who are out fetching water for their family or themselves instead of getting an education.  The theme of water can be directed in a number of directions and MCC has great pictures and information on their website on "Water".

(The Actual Quilt is a piece of art - the picture doesn't do it justice).

The story of the designing of the quilt:

  

In the cold of a Minnesota winter, blue, green and some yellow/tan  batik fabrics had been purchased.  The pattern was a picture of a quilt I had seen at a Quilt Show in Brainered, MN, a year earlier.  The organizer of the Quilt Show had helped me locate the owner/designer and maker of the pictured quilt.  There was no pattern which was freeing and at the same time, limiting.  The quilt did not have a copywright and the designer was so pleased to have the quilt made for Mennonite Central Committee as a Fund Raiser.  

Jana's back yard was full of snow and the cardinals and squirrels would visit us through the window as I would cut the fabric in strips and Jana would sew what I ever gave her.  After sewing a number of blocks, Jana started to understand the process we were using.  

As we quilted we talked about issues she was living with.  The prior Christmas season, Jana had been diagnosed with cancer that was affecting her pancreas and part of her pancreas was removed and followed by radiation and chemotherapy.   During that process, Jana's kidneys had been affected and she needed to be on dialysis three times a week.  The physicians were surprised she had survived the procedures.  Looking forward, the physicians also knew that she also has lung cancer and we needed to enjoy each day we had.  With the appreciation of our own lives, we focused on making the water quilt for MCC and the children and people who would be the benefactors. 

Jana also assisted her adult daughter on Sunday mornings at a church in Oakdale, Minnesota, and we would talk about the sermons from her minister, Rev. Greg Boyd.  The sermons were in alignment with the work we were doing for MCC.  I kept hearing about Greg Boyd, the minister, through my other friends as he was also a speaker at Hesston College in Hesston, Kansas, and other Mennonite places.  The importance of peace and justice was growing in both of our lives.

As we continued to sew, make 

blocks, and lay the blocks out on the living room floor, the atmosphere was very unique.  I could hear Jana sewing in the room with the wonderful view of the outdoors.  Here I was in the living room and someone was with me or watching me.  I moved around and did not notice anyone.  After several minutes, I had to investigate and I needed to know what was surrounding me.  I looked around and there to my left and then also on the right, was two of P Buckley Moss prints.  One of the framed pictures was “Community Spirit”.  I stopped Jana’s sewing of the "Water Blocks" and she was confused by my questions/comments and how I knew about P Buckley Moss and that the name of the print was “Community Spirit”.  I explained that the print was a donation and fund raiser from P Buckley Moss for MCC.  Al, her husband, had purchased the prints the week before at an estate sale in a suburb of Minneapolis and they wanted the framed pictures in their living room.  Al and Jana had no idea of the story behind the pictures.  Jana looked at me and said, “you mean the P Buckley Moss picture is a fund raiser for the same organization we are making this quilt”? 

With that we worked on in peace and contentment.  So many unspoken questions and issues were answered.

The next step was finding a Machine Quilter with the understanding of "Water" with the many definitions of MCC.  

With the sponsorship of the Sewing Circle from Bethel Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Jane Goering shared her artistic ability in the machine quilting of the quilt.

(Note from 2014:  Woodland Hills Church, Pastor Greg Boyd, has invited the 2014 Twin Cities MCC Relief Festival to their facility on October 24, 2014).

Food (Basket) Traveling Quilt

Mennonite Relief Sale
Food (Basket) Traveling Quilt

This traveling quilt is being used as a symbol of God’s love and caring for the hungry people of the world. It will be displayed at relief sales throughout the United States.

The Pattern Design is by Bev Patkau, Calgary, Alberta.  The fabrics for the baskets are donated by Lois and Art Kennell of Rochester, MN, and are a product from waxed dyed Java print in brilliant colors and patterns unique to the Congo, Africa.  Dr. Kennell worked for the Zairois (Congolese) and they have the stories and heart felt in the fabric of this quilt.  The various blue shades are fabrics donated by Cherrywood Fabric located in Minnesota.

The picture of the quilt (to follow) was taken at the MCC Relief Sale in Colorado.  "Blessings Bids" were requested and the auctioneers comments before the bidding was, "this is the easiest bid request I've ever done".  After the bidding, he was speechless as he had just received over $5,000!  .

You can assist in alleviating hunger during the auction when donations will be accepted via your bidders card or make a donation at the cashier booth.

The quilt, made by Marlys Wiens.

YOU CAN HELP
Pray for the people who are hungry and for the MCC workers who, with your help, are providing food and comfort to those most in need.

Live simply so that your lifestyle in this interconnected world is not a burden on the poor and provides an inspiration for others to do the same.

Speak out on behalf of the poor and hungry so that they are not forgotten by world governments and those in a position to help.

I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
Matthew 25:35

Quilt Copyright - Light in the Valley (Especially)

 

Quilters, drop your needles.  Or at least pause and double-check what pattern you are quilting.

From now on, Light in the Valley, a quilt pattern that creates an optical illusion that lends it a three-dimensional effect, can no longer be quilted.


That particular pattern has been copyrighted, and Almost Amish, the company that bought the copyright, has sent letters from its attorney to representatives of Lancaster County quilt shops and nearly every volunteer fire company here that hosts a mud sale, telling them to cease and desist selling that quilt.  Not exactly what quilters and quilt sellers like to hear. 

"I was shocked. I had no idea it was copyrighted," said Emma Witmer, of Witmer Quilts in Leola. "I don't think it's something a Christian would do."  Witmer said she sells about 500 quilts a year and has her own original designs. She said she would never dream of restricting others from copying them.  If they want to make it, let them make it," Witmer said. "They will have to work a while to make it like mine. I got an "A" in art but not in arithmetic and spelling."

A Strasburg company called Almost Amish, owned by Ken and Sally Treadwell, sells products, 98 percent of which are advertised as created by Amish, on the Internet.  "A number of  years ago, an Amish woman created a pattern for the quilt," Ken Treadwell said. "A friend of hers got her to register it, but being Amish, she truly didn't enforce the copyright."  But Almost Amish bought the copyright, and the owners intend to vigorously enforce the design rights.  "We have stopped numerous people from selling and making this quilt," Treadwell said. "We have an attorney that has informed the Mennonite Central Committee that they can't sell it anymore."

Local fire company officials were the latest to get the notice.
"I think it's a bunch of bunk," said West Earl Fire Company mud sale chairman Wesley Martin. "For us, as a fire company depending on donations and things from our personnel who want to help, it's not the most pleasant way to help."  Martin estimates the March 22 mud sale will auction off 75 quilts.  "This copyright thing just seems like they're infringing on us a little bit," he said. "Even though it's not going to affect us that much."  There are at least 18 mud sales in the county each year, from which many local fire companies make money to cover annual expenses. Will Hutchinson, assistant chief of the Strasburg Fire Company, said the organization received the same letter telling supporters not to sell the Light in the Valley quilt or face the threat of legal action.
"We just didn't know," said Hutchinson of the copyright. "The Almost Amish company, in a way, is protecting people's creative rights."  Hutchinson, whose fire company holds the year's first mud sale Feb. 22, said sale organizers met with representatives from the company to make sure they didn't violate the copyright.
A copyright for the quilt design was registered with the U.S. Copyright office by a Mary C. Beiler on Feb. 10, 1999.  Almost Amish bought the copyright from Beiler several years ago, they said.  "Only a couple people are upset that they have not been able to sell this pattern," Treadwell said. "People seem to understand the point that this is a truly unique design that this woman came up with."  Treadwell said he "seriously doubts" if copyrighting quilt patterns is going to be a problem.  "Unless they come up with a really unique pattern that is not based on any other pattern," he said.

A Light in the Valley quilt is hanging in the King's Cottage bed and breakfast in Lancaster.  Ann Willets, one of the owners, called it "amazing and shocking" that the wall hanging the B&B purchased last year, which it planned to sell, can't be sold because of the copyright.  "I can see from a proprietary standpoint, that if you created this design, then you wouldn't want other people making money off it," Willets said.  "But I'm really surprised, and I may not be able to sell it now. This must be something new in the 21st century, "  

Sylvia Petersheim, of Petersheim Quilts, Fabrics and Crafts in Bird-in-Hand, has heard people talking about the Light in the Valley controversy.  "It's just selfish — plain downright selfish," said Petersheim of the copyright.  "I've been here for 30 years. I have had people copy off of my quilts right and left, and I never put a complaint in about that. That's very, very selfish, especially if the quilts are going to mud sales and fundraisers."  Petersheim said the handmade nature of the product should prevent it from being copyrighted.  "We don't have the quilt, but if I found someone to piece it for me, I would make it," she said. "But I don't have to. I can make something else just as beautiful."


"Art is art," Witmer said. "Every piece is different, so how can you copyright that?"  Witmer's original designs have names like Emma's Springtime in Pennsylvania and Emma's April Reeds.
"There's enough room for all of us to do our thing," Witmer said.
Here is an article that was in the Lancaster New Era/Intellencer Journal newspaper (Lancaster County, PA) this week.