Introducing Michele Vinbury, QOVF Newsletter Editor.

Email: newsletter@QOVF.org

 
Michele with Lily at the park.

I have been surrounded by quilts and quilt-making my entire life.  My mother filled the house with fabrics of every shade and description, her "stash" gaining infamy as it quickly grew and spread to fill several bookshelves, creeping over table tops in her sewing room and inexplicably filling the top shelves of all of our closets.  The machines; feather weights and Berninas, the needles, the scissors, the lingo - longarming, applique, fussy cuts, log cabins and the tree of life.  I have witnessed scraps of fabric, piled high, waiting their turn to be inspected, measured, cut, transformed into works of art, visually stunning, physically warming and emotionally uplifting.  I still have the first quilt my grandmother gave me, a prized possession through the years.  Now, I cover my two children with quilted treasures from their grandmother.  It is easy to say that quilts, in our family, hold an esteemed place.

As does public service.  My mother spent several years in Latin America serving in the Peace Corps when she graduated college.  This desire to give back was instilled in all of her children.  I have volunteered continuously since high school.  These positions have ranged from work in domestic violence agencies and rape crisis centers to running college voter registration drives, from answering suicide hotlines and collecting data for costal bays projects to teaching inmates at medium security prisons. 

My siblings felt a different call to duty, and chose service dedicated to protecting and defending our country.  My brother as an MP in the Army, and my sister as an Ensign in the Navy.  It was through my brother's deployment to Iraq 8 years ago in Baghdad, that the war was humanized for me.  There has not been a day since that I have not thought about our overseas service members; their dedication, bravery and patriotism.

It is now my pleasure to return as the QOV Newsletter Editor (a position I held briefly before the birth of my second child,) to combine my enthusiasm for volunteerism, my love of quilts, and my heartfelt appreciation for our courageous service men and women.

Please feel free to email me (newsletter@QOVF.org) with your questions, thoughts, concerns, and of course, your articles!!