KENT, Conn. – The Kent Quilters, a local community quilting group, met Friday evening, Dec. 13, for their holiday potluck, and to celebrate their year-long fundraising efforts for the Kent Volunteer Fire Department.
In their tenth year, the Kent Quilters raised more than $10,000 in 2024 by participating in craft fairs, Sidewalk Sales days, and the two-month-long Quilt Trail Sale in the fall, when 15 merchants in Kent hosted 25 quilted items for sale. Beyond raising money, the Quilt Trail Sale also functions as a family friendly scavenger hunt, with small hand-made prizes available at Sundog Shoe & Leather.
The large group quilt dubbed “Red-y Responders” was displayed at J.P. Gifford Market on North Main St. during the Quilt Trail Sale. “Red-y Responders” is a sampler block quilt, with each member of the group making one to four blocks, in addition to assembling parts of the border.
Traditional blocks such as pinwheels, bear claws, Ohio stars, and 16-patches are intermingled with more modern blocks including intricate flying geese patters and scrappy crumb quilt blocks. The border is a scrappy modification of a piano-key border, made of fabric strips left over from making the main blocks.
John Russell, the president of KVFD, was in attendance at the potluck to receive the large quilt the group created. Kent Quilters co-chair Andrea Schoeny gave brief remarks about the nonprofit organizations the quilters have supported in the last ten years and thanked KVFD for their service to the community.
Schoeny also serves as president of Kent News, Inc., the parent company of the Kent Dispatch.
Schoeny also thanked Mickey Rolfe and Bruce Tracy for their generosity and continued patronage of the quilters’ efforts. They were in attendance as guests of the quilters. They purchased the quilt and gifted it back to KVFD to put on display at the firehouse.
“I’ll present this to my boss—that is, our membership—at our next meeting,” said Russell, adding, “We are a member-run organization.” Quilter Alicia Winter recently joined KVFD as an emergency member.
The quilters raised $10,004 this year, of which a small portion is held back to pay for materials for the next year. Russell reported the donated money would go towards the ambulance fund. Two members of Kent Quilters noted that they had ridden in the new-to-Kent Ambulance 2 during November.
Each year, a local Kent nonprofit organization is chosen to be the recipient of the quilting group’s fundraising. At its November meeting, the group voted to benefit the Kent Dispatch in 2025.
The group will next meet Sunday, Jan. 12, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the large meeting room of Kent Town Hall, 41 Kent Green Blvd. This is a sewing meeting; members will work in small groups to create throw-sized quilts (approx. 5 feet by 6 feet) for children who will attend Camp Compassion in Kent in May 2025. Those interested in joining Kent Quilters should contact Andrea Schoeny, co-chair.
Submitted by Jane Suttell Zatlin, member of Kent Quilters and Quilt Trail Sale committee chair. To find out more about the group and their engagement Kent over the last decade, visit kentquilters.org.
