EAST LONGMEADOW – For 23 years now, East Longmeadow business Quilts & Treasures has been hosting their Quilt-For-A-Cure fundraiser to support breast cancer research. With COVID-19 in the midst, Quilts & Treasures knew they had to be creative this year, which prompted them to not only host a virtual fundraiser, but to create a cookbook for sale with all proceeds going to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Quilts & Treasures owner Valerie Morton explained that this year was different from many years past.

“No pink balloons, no refreshments, no pink ribbon shirts, no greeting of old and new friends,” she said, adding, “Being our 23rd year we wanted to do something. So we decided to be creative and do something fun virtually.”

Each year, they host a silent auction to go along with their Quilt-For-A-Cure fundraiser. This year, they chose Handbid to host their online auction.

“I put out a call to my quilting community for finished quilts, wall hangings, table toppers, and other quilted items,” Morton said. “They came through! We had 72 quilted items from queen sized quilts to tote bags.”

Now on an online platform, Morton explained that they knew they could reach people outside of the normal town confines, so she encouraged her customers to share emails and announcements of the virtual fundraiser online and with friends and family all over the country.

“We had people from Maine, New York and Indiana win the bidding on some of the items,” Morton shared. All of the funds raised at the event are being donated to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The fundraising will be continuing through the month of October at Quilts & Treasures, as they are raffling off a quilt. Morton explained to Reminder Publishing that this replaces another part of their in-store event, which was a fabric swap and mystery quilt pattern. This year, the staff at Quilts & Treasures decided to each make a block for a staff quilt. An inspiration fabric was chosen so that all of the quilt blocks would work together color-wise, and the team named it “Snowy Magic,” after the line of fabric the inspiration fabric was from. Patterns for the resulting quilt are now available for sale, and in addition, raffle tickets are now being sold until Oct. 31, with the winner receiving the staff-made quilt. Tickets are $1 a piece, and the winner will be drawn on Nov. 2.

In addition to the auction and raffle, one customer of Quilts & Treasures taught a Zoom class on making pillowcases with the class fees being donated, smaller items such as books, patterns and kits were sold on a special page on the Quilts & Treasures website – with many of these items donated by Wilmington Prints and Checker Distributors for the event.

Approximately 70 people registered for this year's auction, in past years around 100 people registered with about 75 attending.

“This event, while being held differently, was part of the old normal and people were so happy to be participating and helping. I had so many tell me that they were glad I had held the event and so many share stories of how breast cancer has affected their lives,” Morton shared.

While this year’s event was a virtual success, raising over $7,000 and counting, Morton explained she and her quilters are looking forward to going back to their usual format.

“Nothing could replace the fun of our live block auction,” Morton said. “I know my quilters are making quilt blocks for next year and looking forward to the fun and laughs we share during this part of the event.”

Currently, Quilts & Treasures is working on their 2020 Quilt For a Cure Cookbook that will be for sale and monies will be donated to the event. Customers of Quilts & Treasures were asked to share a recipe or two that they made during the shutdown that received “rave reviews” from family members. The cookbook is still in the works, but they’re hoping to have it available by the end of October.

“I wanted to involve as many customers as possible in our fundraising efforts so they felt that they had helped and contributed,” Morton explained how the cookbook came to be. “We had done a cookbook many years ago and I thought this would be a good time to do another.”

Over 75 recipes were submitted by customers from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Michigan, and Texas. There are several chapters in the book that focus on brunch, soups, main dishes, cookies, cakes, pies and breads. Many recipes are family recipes passed down from generation to generation.

The cookbook will be available in the Quilts & Treasures store, located at 56-58 Shaker Rd. in East Longmeadow, as well as on their website https://www.quiltsandtreasuresinc.com/ for purchase. Availability will be announced on their Facebook page, in an email, and on their website.