From the very beginning, our guild has given back to our community through quilt making and other projects. These projects helped organizations raise funds or provided needed textile items to community members.
We have ongoing community giving projects, which do not have deadlines and members can do on their own at their own pace. We also do group community giving projects where members work together to create one thing to donate, most often a quilt.
Here are a few of our charitable endeavors:
MQG Charity Challenge

The Modern Quilt Guild hosts a Charity Challenge each year in which guilds design and make quilts to be exhibited at MQG’s QuiltCon. The MQG chooses the color palette and the theme. We choose the charity.
2017 QuiltCon Challenge: The James, Not to Scale
This quilt, The James, Not to Scale, was our first MQG national challenge and exhibited at QuiltCon in Savannah, Georgia in February 2017.
We donated it to James River Association for its annual auction.
2018 QuiltCon Challenge: Road to Home

We created this quilt, Road to Home, (right) for the 2018 QuiltCon Charity Challenge. The theme was Modern Traditionalism. We made Road to Oklahoma blocks in a revised way. The quilt was exhibited in Pasadena, California.
We donated it to Henrico CASA.
2019 QuiltCon Challenge: Change the World

We made this quilt, Change the World, (left) for the 2019 QuiltCon Charity Challenge. The theme was small piecing. It was exhibited at QuiltCon in Nashville, Tennessee.
We donated it to Change the World RVA.
2020 QuiltCon Challenge: Love Wins
We chose the RACC Foundation this year because of their efforts to save Tommie, a bit pull that RACC tried to save after he was set on fire in February 2019. They have since started the Tommie Fund to help save other abused or abandoned animals. You can learn more about Tommie and the Tommie Fund here and the RACC. The quilt will be auctioned by the Foundation to support the Tommie Fund.
The full quilt. The embroidered label; thanks to Megan Martin!
Other Community Giving Projects

One of our first community giving projects: Carolyn Friedlander’s pattern, Shirts in pink to benefit the Virginia Breast Cancer Foundation.

Members used patterns from the Modern Quilt Guild to create three quilts (pattern at left by Melanie Tuazon and pattern by Brenda Ratliff, not shown) for Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ refugee program.
Ongoing Community Giving Projects

We make fidget quilts and walker totes for the Memory Center of Richmond and other assisted living facilities in our area.
At right, Ann Connolly models one of the walker totes we donated to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Richmond, Virginia.