This weekend (May 17-18) during PBS NewsHour Weekend, we take a look inside the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange and hear about Love Your Block, Austin!, a mini-grant program being offered by the Austin Mayor’s Office.
The Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange is drawing visitors from all over the world. It was founded by cousins Karey Bresenhan and Nancy O’Bryant Puentes, who have also written books about quilting and who founded the International Quilt Association and annual festival in Houston.
Museum Manager Julie Maffei said many people don’t realize how valuable an old quilt they own might be.
“We get a lot of, ‘Oh my God what did I do to my family’s quilt?’ And we’ve heard every kind of horror story there is, from dogs having puppies on them to wrapping water heaters with them in the winter, to using them to move furniture,” Maffei said.
The museum is also becoming well known for melding the art of quilting with the art of garden design. Tune in to KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener for an extended version of this story or find it on the CTG Blog.
Love Your Block, Austin! is offering $500 to $1,000 improvement grants to neighborhood groups in under-served areas of Austin. The application deadline is June 1 and so far the city has only received one completed application. 10-20 groups can get the funds.
“Love Your Block, Austin! is an amazing opportunity for anyone who wants to do an improvement that they can do on their own in the neighborhood,” Grant Coordinator Nevena Pilipovic-Wengler said. “It’s a really flexible application and it’s a flexible process, it can take place on private and public property. We at Mayor Leffingwell’s office just really believe in this program and believe that it can fund great improvement projects and really encourage people to apply by the deadline of June 1.”
Pilipovic-Wengler told us a few groups are interested in funding community gardens between schools and neighborhood associations. In our story we speak to Ortega Elementary School PTA President Hilda Villalobos Alvarez about her community garden application.
If you have a project you think would be a good fit you can apply on the city’s website: austintexas.gov/loveyourblock.
KLRU News Briefs air locally every Saturday and Sunday during PBS NewsHour Weekend at 6:30pm.