Several women from the local area are planning a trip to share their quilting skills with women in Tanzania.
Four of the women - Barbara McCraw, Teresa Sherling, Carolyn Brittain and Hope Edwards - are members of the Denton Quilt Guild, and Elizabeth Kruger is a professional quilter. McCraw's husband, Ernie, and Edwards' husband, Wayne, are also making the trip.
Working with the group will be Edwards' sister, Nell Matthews, who has traveled to the East African country many times.
"The project started because my sister went to Tanzania two years ago and worked at a school for special-needs children," Edwards said.
Women in the area they'll be visiting make about $1.50 a day selling handmade items in local marketplaces, and the headmistress of the school asked Matthews if she could find a way to teach women how to make quilts to improve their incomes.
"The quilts can be sold to travelers," Edwards said.
The local quilters liked the idea of helping the African women make a better life for their families and villages.
"We all jumped at the chance," Sherling said. "Quilting is such a sisterhood; the ladies in Africa are just sisters we haven't met yet.
"Quilting since the beginning of time has been about teaching other women how to do it."
The trip is planned for late summer, but there is a lot of work that must be done before departure.
"In order to go, we need to raise money," Edwards said.
Each participant has to raise his or her own travel expenses, Ernie McCraw said in an e-mail.
"In spite of the reduced costs for room and board that have been provided for us after we get there, we still have extensive expenses," he wrote. "There have been some in the community that have already been so very generous to us and we thank them dearly. Still we will continue to work at fundraising with our goal ever present in mind."
Several quilts will be raffled to help raise money, and these will be put on display at area churches and other locations during the coming weeks.
The first display is planned from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at B&T Quilt Studio, which is owned by Barbara McCraw and Sherling. The informal open house at 5005 Oak Bend Circle in Denton will feature wine and hors d'oeuvres, and raffle tickets will be sold. Through the spring and early summer, more quilts will be added to the project, and additional viewings will be announced.
The Denton Quilt Guild has committed to donating tools including rotary mats and cutters, blades, rulers, thread, needles, seam rippers and batting.
Sherling said it's exciting to think that funds from the quilt raffles will help spread the word about quilting.
Contributions can be made to Sewing Hope for Tanzania. For more information, visit www.quiltasart.com  or www.dentonquiltguild.org .
Discussion to focus on Harlem Renaissance writer
The Professor's Corner discussion group meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday will focus on Harlem Renaissance writer Rudolph Fisher in celebration of Black History Month.
The group will meet at South Branch Library, 3228 Teasley Lane. Genevieve West, an English of at Texas Woman's University, will present biographical information about Fisher and lead a discussion of his stories "City of Refuge" and "High Yaller."
Fisher (1897-1934) was a physician and fiction writer who published his first short story at the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1925, only to die from stomach cancer nine years later. He wrote exclusively about life in Harlem and the conflicts that impacted the lives of those who left the South for urban opportunities in the 1920s.
For more information, call 940-349-8752 or e-mail fred.kamman@cityofdenton.com .
Genealogy group to host two speakers at meeting
Members of the Denton County Genealogical Society will host two guest speakers for the group's meeting Thursday at Emily Fowler Central Library, 502 Oakland St.
Fellowship and refreshments will begin at 6:30 p.m., and the meeting will get under way at 7 p.m.
Marla Fullerton, a Denton resident who is from Pennsylvania, will speak on "Pennsylvania From the Beginning" during the first half-hour of the meeting.
Argyle resident Dorothy Boulware will then offer "Tips on Ohio Research."
The public is invited to attend the free meeting.
Basketball exhibition to benefit Our Daily Bread
The Harlem Ambassadors basketball team will visit Denton on Friday for a game with the Hungry Dunkers, a team of local celebrities, to benefit the Our Daily Bread community soup kitchen.
The game will start at 7 p.m. at Denton High School, 1007 Fulton St., according to a press release.
Tickets are $10, and sponsorships are available.
For information, call 940-368-4568; or stop by Our Daily Bread between 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. weekdays, or St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. For more information on Our Daily Bread, visit www.ourdailybreaddenton.org .
Preschool to have annual cookie fiesta on Saturday
Denton Christian Preschool will have its annual cookie fiesta on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. - or until all cookies are sold.
Denton Christian Preschool, a United Way agency, serves at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds. The preschool is located at 114 W. University Drive. For more information, call 940-383-3332 or visit www.dentoncps.org .
Animal shelter offering half-price cat adoptions
The Denton Animal Shelter Foundation Inc. is sponsoring "Have a Heart for Cats" during the month of February by offering half-price cat adoptions.
To find out more, stop by the shelter at 300 Woodrow Lane between 1 and 5 p.m. Monday or 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
LES COCKRELL is interested in your input for Out & About. Help share information about Denton County events and people by calling him at 940-566-6887. His e-mail address is lcockrell@dentonrc.com . Out & About also can be found on Facebook.
 
