OceanWave Quilters
Ocean Wave Quilters is excited to have this opportunity to share our activities and our love of quilting with our local community! Many of you know of us, but for those who don’t, we’ll use this first column as a way to introduce ourselves.
Ocean Wave Quilters is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization with 65 members. Our mission is to encourage the appreciation and experiences of quilting and provide education about its history and techniques. We also encourage the use of our ability to quilt to benefit members of our North Coast communities. Membership is open to all who have an interest in quilting, regardless of experience. Our members range from beginning quilters to internationally recognized award-winners.
Ocean Wave Quilters began meeting in about 1991 as the “Scrap Happy Squares”. Community projects at that time included making quilts for the Friends of the Hospice Christmas sale. In 1996, partnered with the Soroptimist International of Fort Bragg, we began holding a quilt show on Memorial Day weekend each year.
In 2015, we moved the show to the last Saturday and Sunday in June because it was difficult to get enough volunteers to participate on the holiday weekend. We now partner with Soroptimist International of Noyo Sunrise to put on the show.
Each year, the quilters make two Opportunity Quilts that are raffled off at the show; you’ll see us selling tickets at various locations in the community during the year. Proceeds from the sale of raffle tickets help pay for materials used in our community projects, as well as for Soroptimist scholarships for women in our community.
Our current community projects include making a “Warm Welcome” quilt for every new baby in our North Coast communities. These are delivered to the Mendocino Coast Pediatric Office and the Adventist Health Family Practice Office, who give them to the babies at their first newborn visit.
We also make quilts for the hospital chaplains to give to patients who may need extra comforting. We make “touch” quilts — quilts that have interesting textures — for patients with dementia, who find the textured lap quilts soothing. We make dresses for an organization called Dress a Girl Around the World which provides new dresses for girls in 87 countries, including the U.S. This may be the first new dress these girls have ever had.
We give quilts and pillowcases to local organizations like Project Sanctuary, Safe Passages, Hospitality House, and The Living Room in Santa Rosa. We’ve made quilts for many local non-profits to use in fund-raising. With our scraps, we make pet beds for local animal rescue groups.
Although the COVID pandemic has curtailed our being able to meet face-to-face, we hope to reinstate our regular meetings at the Redwood Coast Senior Center on the second Sunday of the month at 1:30 p.m. in the future. We currently meet via Zoom. We also have a group of dedicated hand quilters who are anxious to get back to meeting in person; they used to meet every Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Senior Center. A frame with a pulley system is lowered with their current project so they can sit and quilt, then it is raised back up to the ceiling to be out of the way.
A relatively new activity is ourHand Sewing group, which also used to meet on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. at the Senior Center. Members bring whatever hand project they’re working on — hand piecing or quilting, embroidering, or needlepoint. That group is currently working on a meeting via Zoom. Twice a year, we hold a multi- day quilt retreat to give ourmembers an opportunity to socialize and to work on projects together.
This month, we’ll be “retreating” via Zoom with games and activities we can share remotely.
We always welcome newmembers! Formore information, log onto our website: oceanwavequilters.com or email info@ oceanwavequilters.com. We are also on Facebook at facebook.com/Mendocinoquilters.