In our own quiet way, the Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild has been supporting our community through quilts for raffle, quilts for comfort to individuals, and other handmade items for ten years. Most recently, we presented twenty quilts, made and donated by our members to Mary’s Place by the Sea in Ocean Grove NJ. Mary’s Place is a respite for women battling cancer, a place where they can take a pause and relax in the most beautiful, serene setting one block from the ocean. While there, the guests are treated to a plant based diet, oncology massage, Reiki, counseling, yoga and so much more and it is all available at no cost. Mary’s Place is funded through local and corporate donations, grants and volunteers.

On the last day before the world shut down for the pandemic, we delivered a sizable batch of quilts to Mary’s Place. Two years later when they opened back up for guests, we received a beautiful, heartfelt letter of thanks from a woman who spent the first weekend they were back open there. Reading that letter was so heartwarming. We rarely get feedback directly from a recipient of our work and it got us all excited to continue doing this. It’s the collective thing that we all love to do and it’s truly making a difference. A win win!

2022 has been a whirlwind of a year for this guild. We are wrapping up the year with 28 paid members and a few more promised, that is more than double where we were when the world shut down. That is crazy! We had a full house in December, literally, with members, a half dozen guests, the local press and their photographer. And our long awaited guest speaker Kathy Cunningham, board member and top fundraiser for Tunnel To Towers. We have been partnering with Kathy and her Team Shamrock for quite some time, providing a quilt for her big fundraiser every summer at Bar Anticipation, as well as making quilts for the catastrophically injured service members for whom Tunnel to Towers and Team Shamrock build smart homes. Most of our members hadn’t previously met Kathy so we invited her to come speak. Kathy told us about how her brother perished on 9/11 and she made it her mission to do good and never forget. She gave us so much insight into what the organization does and it’s plans for the future. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and now there’s a face to the name.

Laura was our Block Lotto winner this month. She literally won a forest full of trees!

Here’s next month’s

This year, we challenged our members to take a step outside of their comfort zone and make a mini art quilt. Shortly after that challenge went out, an opportunity arose for us to have our first ever public quilt exhibit. So, as part of our exhibit there will be a special display of our shore themed art mini quilts, each of which will have a reference to the number ten in honor of our tenth anniversary and as a challenge to our guests to find the number 10. Here’s a peak at a few that have been

It was also our holiday party. There were lots of treats to eat and a pincushion swap. A fun time was had by all!

2023 is already shaping up to be another fun filled year. Stay tuned for lots of details about our upcoming exhibit in February at the Belmar Arts Council, so exciting!!

Happy holidays!!