More Quilts for West

As you probably know, we received way more quilts than any of us imagined.  According to my count, we’ve received 107.  I know at least 5 more are on their way to Hilary.  That’s a total of 112 quilts.  You all are amazing, generous quilters and I consider myself very blessed because you’re in my life . . even if it’s simply as a blog reader/email pal.

Hilary wrote me yesterday that her guild had given 50 quilts to the folks in West and other guilds were also giving quilts, so with the quilts Hilary already had, she wondered if the ones I have could be sent to Oklahoma.  I contacted some of you who had sent quilts and put a note here on the blog and everyone who responded agreed that the quilts I have could go to Oklahoma if they were not needed in West.  I made several phone calls and found a group that is taking supplies to Moore, OK today and they are quite happy to take the quilts and distribute them.  My car is loaded and I will meet up with them first thing this morning so all the quilts I have here are going to the Moore, Oklahoma area.  I think I heard on the news today that 12,000 homes were damaged or destroyed so there are a lot of people who are hurting – emotionally, physically and financially.  I hope our quilts will bring them some bit of comfort.  Quilt shops in the area are collecting quilts so if you want to make a quilt and don’t have a contact, please let me know and I’ll get more info and do a blog post about where quilts can be sent (or if you read this and you know that info — shop name, address, etc.) please send it to me and I’ll do a blog post.

A huge thanks needs to be given to Hilary McDaniel and Jo Kramer.  Hilary lives near the West accident and Hilary is the kind of lady who can get anything done!  I’ve met Hilary and I trust her completely and knew she would and could do a way better job of getting these quilts into the right hands than I could ever do.  When I thought of collecting quilts, I knew I needed someone local who could do the distribution.  I did it myself in Joplin and it was a big job that took several trips to Joplin (and I had way less quilts for Joplin than we’ve collected for West).  When I contacted Hilary, she was very enthusiastic and was happy to help.  The plan was for me to collect the quilts and deliver them to Hilary the first week in June.  It didn’t take long for me to realize I was receiving more than I could carry in one trip and it’s a couple of hours each way from me to Hilary so I asked her if it was ok for folks to start sending the quilts direction to her and she agreed.  Then I told her that she would need to photograph the quilts and send the photos to me and she agreed to that too.

Jo Kramer is a busy blogger, Moda Bake Shop designer, farmer’s wife and of course, quilter.  She offered to quilt a few tops that folks would send her and I believe she ended up quilting 17 or 18 tops, binding them all and sending them to Hilary.  That was a huge undertaking and I’m very thankful for Jo’s effort.

One last thing . . I mentioned this last week I think.  Hilary has sent me pictures of all the quilts that she has received.  Some of them got sidetracked with my internet being down in the midst of all this.  The pictures eventually all got here but they didn’t all come in when they were supposed to and then when we got good internet back up and running, the ones that came into my inbox were filed way back on the date they should have come in and apparently I missed a few.  This has been a big undertaking to take the photos, edit the photos, upload them and do the blog posts.  I’m thrilled with the participation but if your quilt has not been shown, please simply write me and tell me that it’s missing and I’ll be glad to track it down but you need to write me pretty quickly because once these are delivered . . they’re gone from our hands.

Thanks for understanding!

Lastly, and certainly not least in importance  .. thanks to all of you for your generosity.  The quilts are amazing!  I never dreamed we would receive half as many quilts as we received.