I was approached after Katrina hit our shores by a woman who had read my blog, and knew I am a quilter. She had developed the idea of pulling together things for quilters who had lost everything in the hurricane, including the material to make a quilt.
I got started on the project, and then asked my Friday Night Quilt Bee if they wanted to participate. We've pulled together a variety of items the average quilter has in her quilt room: pins, needles, a magnetic pin holder, fabric and paper scissors, thread, needle threaders, marking pens, colored pencils, a Pigma pen for signing quilts, a pin cushion, safety pins, a bag of embellishments (buttons, beads, Yo-Yos, floss), two quilting books, a quilting hoop, template material, an Olfa rotary cutter, a mat and a ruler. We also added a package of comfort items like tissues, hand cream, Advil, playing cards, stationary and stamps.
Elegante Mother and I searched our stashes of fabric to find the material for a red, white and blue quilt top that is 68 inches wide and 88 inches long. I cut the blocks, sashing and setting blocks. We supplied fabric for the outer border, and yesterday I bought a wonderful fabric in shades of blue to white in a hydrangea pattern for the quilt backing. (I wish I had purchased a bit o that for my stash!)
We added our favorite batt to the collection, and I gathered scraps for the hearts that are to be appliquéd on the blocks. The only thing missing was a sewing machine.
Everything but the scraps have been packaged up in a wonderful canvas bag, and tomorrow I'll take the canvas bag, and the bag of scraps off to be boxed and mailed. I found a recipient among the people who had been evacuated to the Chicago area, and I'm still looking for one more woman who needs assistance. We want to target women who already quilt, who lost everything.
It would have been even better if we had been able to accomplish this right after the evacuation process had begun, but this way it will seem like an unexpected Christmas gift.
If you have any suggestions as to how I might make contact with a quilter who needs a hand replacing her quilt room, I'd be happy to hear them.
Comments (2)
You are doing a wonderful thing! Actually, this timing is probably perfect--when people have had a small opportunity to assimilate the shock of having lost everything. Somehow, I don't think I could have even considered quilting during the first two or three months had I been an evacuee. But, then, I'm not the dyed-in-the-wool quilter that some people are. Good luck in locating another lucky recipient.
Posted by Cop Car | December 3, 2005 11:32 AM
Posted on December 3, 2005 11:32
Thank you, Cop Car.
Kathleen thought that putting this equipment, AND the pieces to a quilt, into a quilter's hands would give her a way to work through her woes. She devised a pattern she called a "Mending Heart," that was a pieced, appliquéd block, rather than a heart from a single fabric.
Since I don't care to appliqué, the pattern would have been lost on me, but I thought the idea was good. Unfortunately, we couldn't send a sewing machine, too, so the entire quilt would have to be done by hand. I'm sure some of the evacuees had enough time on their hands to do it, and they could have invited family members to join them. So...in all, I thing it's a great idea.
I still need to find one more recipient.
Posted by buffy | December 3, 2005 4:48 PM
Posted on December 3, 2005 16:48