Quilt for a Cure Day to benefit breast cancer research

Date: 9/3/2014

EAST LONGMEADOW – Valerie V. Morton and her staff at Quilts & Treasures Inc. are busily putting the final touches on Quilt For A Cure Day to benefit breast cancer research.

“Quilts & Treasures has had many customers, employees, and friends be diagnosed with breast cancer and treated; some have survived, some have not,” Morton said during a recent late afternoon interview with Reminder Publications.

Morton noted that her shop is marking 10 years this month with the Sept. 27 fundraiser and hopes to exceed the $10,000 raised last year.

“This event started in 1998 with our predecessor store, Thimbleworks,” she said. “It felt right to be helping so we continued the tradition. Since then the event has gotten bigger and raised more money each year.”

While the event is titled Quilt For A Cure Day, little sewing is done on that day in this delightful, color-filled shop.

“Activities relating to quilting are conducted to help raise money,” Morton said.

A registration donation of $25 allows participants to engage in a fabric exchange, receive directions for a mystery quilt project one can make at home, enjoy silent and block auctions, and be eligible for door prizes.

“It’s a full, fun day,” Sandy Talbot of Longmeadow, who had stopped in to purchase supplies and socialize, said. “There is always something going on, whether you come for part or all of the day.”

Talbot, who has been quilting for more than 40 years, said the shop’s annual fundraiser is a “wonderful family” who gathers together “as a community” for a great cause.

The day’s events start with registration from 10 to 10:30 a.m., followed by Morton’s welcoming remarks, the fabric swap distribution, silent auction, and mystery quilt project revealed.

At 11 a.m., Jan Gilbert, an employee of Morton’s, will provide a miniature quilt trunk show.

“In the afternoon there is a live block auction of quilt blocks people have donated to the event,” Morton said. “A single quilt block can be the inspiration for a whole quilt. Many times we see the blocks sold in the block auction one year come back as a finished quilt for the silent auction the next year.”

One of the special quilts to be auctioned off was donated by Longmeadow resident Bobbie Sanofsky, who had received several quilts following an essay she posted as part of a contest sponsored by the Carol Doak Yahoo Quilting Group. Sanofsky, a breast cancer survivor and patron of the shop, donated the quilts to Morton with one being auctioned off each year. The intricate pink and white quilt features the breast cancer logo and has a calico print single backing. A tag quilted on the back reads: “This quilt is donated by members of the Carol Doak Yahoo Quilting Group in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month – October 2012. We hope it gives comfort to whomever receives it.”

“We host this event but couldn’t do it without our customers,” Morton said.

Door prizes are donated by customers, vendors, and local businesses. High school students run the registration table, tend the food table, and act as runners in the auctions in exchange for community service hours.

“It’s a family here,” Morton said, adding that the fundraiser wraps up at 5 p.m. after a day of socializing, shopping and sharing.

Auction proceeds, 10 percent of the day’s sales, and 100 percent of the registration fees are donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (bcrf.org), according to Morton.

“Any quilt tops or finished quilts donated will be on display the week before the fundraiser,” Morton said, noting all proceeds raised will be donated to the cause.

Morton also encourages quilters to make a few blocks of one’s favorite pattern and finish them into a wall hanging to donate.

The deadline to submit a silent auction donation is Sept. 20.

“Being a business whose customers are primarily women, this day also gives us the opportunity to encourage them to watch their health and get their annual checkups and mammograms,” Morton said.

Copies of the shop’s Quilt For A Cure Cookbook will also be on sale for $12.50, featuring recipes for quick and easy meals.

Morton shared one recipe of Eugenia Barnes called Quilter’s Cobbler.

2 cans cherry or apple pie filling
1 package white or yellow cake mix
1 stick of butter
Lightly grease a shallow rectangular cake pan. Pour in pie fillings. Sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

For more information and to register for the event at 56 Shaker Road, visit www.quiltsandtreasuresinc.com or call 525-4789.