Sunday, October 19, 2014

Size Matters, When Quilting for Charity

I am always so amazed and humbled at the generosity of quilters and the hard work they do on their quilts and turn around and donate them to those who are suffering from catastrophic illnesses or reeling from disasters.

Anonymous quilter donated for Carlton Complex Fire First Responders

Another Beautiful Anonymously Donated Quilt for eastern WA Fire Victims

   
One of 41 Quilts Picked Up for eastern WA







 The three quilts above are only a very small sampling of the 41 quilts I picked up yesterday to add to the stack of quilts we will be taking to eastern WA the first week in November to distribute to the first responders that fought the Carlton Complex Fire.  Many of these also lost their homes and farms while fighting to save friends and families homes and farms.

As with any quilt charity, we need quilts that range from the gamut of newborns, infants and children to grown men and women and that means quilts that are of a certain size.  I usually ask for twin sized or larger for adults and many of you anonymously donate quilts that will fit a queen and even king sized bed. 

I know from personally talked to or receiving thank you notes from those who have received these quilts what a blessing it is to have something brand new, lovingly donated for them.  When you are living in a borrowed room and sleeping on a borrowed bed, you can imagine what getting something like a quilt means to those who receive.

Every charity I have ever donated to such as Quilts of Valor, Project Linus and others have size requirements that fit their ministry and organization so I am not being greedy here or keeping any of the beautiful quilts I receive for my own self.

However, from time to time, I have received quilts that are torn, have blood on them, smell badly and those cannot be donated. Sadly, neither can the miniature quilts I receive anonymously be donated to families as they have no place to keep them while they are in transition.

Those quilts are very precious to this organization because I will be putting them in my Etsy shop or on Ebay and using the proceeds from these quilts towards the ongoing need to keep this organization moving forward.

There are costs involved with any organization and this one is no different as we have costs that range from postage for mailing quilts, to thank you notes, stamps, gas on delivery dates, fabric, thread, etc.. Almost 100% of our operating costs come out of my husbands and my pocket and we do it because we are dedicated to those unseen heroes who struggle in need.

This is a mission of love and I want to continue it for a very long time and with your continued support, I know we can do it! I don't ever want any of you to think I am not being honest and that is why I am saying if we receive quilts we cannot donate due to size, we will use them in other ways to raise funding.

I hope you all understand I do NOT nor will I EVER keep any quilt that is donated. Each one will find a home, one quilt at a time!

1 comment:

  1. I think selling the little quilts you receive to raise needed funds is a brilliant idea. I hope you get some good sales.

    ReplyDelete

From head to heart to hands, I quilt! I May Only Be One Person, But Together We Can Make A Difference. Bless you for stopping by!