Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Many of the Olympic games have had associations with quilts and textiles of all sorts. The upcoming games in Sochi are no different. Here is a link to a site showing the patchwork designed for this year’s games.   When you get to the page, click on “look of the games”. It will take you to pages with explanations of many of the Russian textile traditions featured in the patchwork. If you click on “collection”, or “catalogue” in the upper right hand corner, you’ll see some of the clothing using this patchwork design. So very interesting.  (Click here.)

Here’s another link to the Kansas City Star quilting website from a 2011 posting with lots of information about this patchwork branding for the Olympics. Within the article is a link to another with photos of many ways the patchwork will be used in publicizing the games. I think you’ll enjoy it. I hadn’t yet noticed this patchwork in the publicity for the games I’ve seen recently, but I am not an avid sports fan. I’ll be paying more attention now, hoping to spy the “quilts”. (Click here.)

On a completely different topic, does anyone know of groups doing projects for charity (other than our own guild) who could use donations of fabrics? Not just quilting cottons-any sorts of fabrics. In a conversation with some quilting friends we talked about trying to reduce our stashes down to manageable sizes. It would feel so much better to see the fabrics we give away going to groups who would actually use them, rather than just putting them in a donation bin where they may end up being sold as rags. If you send me the name(s) of any organizations or groups in our area that you know of, either via a comment at this blog or through my guild contact information, I will organize and pass them on. Thank you.