We Need Your Vote!

As you know, Quilts Beyond Borders which provides quilts to orphans and needy children around the world where the warmth of a quilt is needed at night, and many of you have participated by making beautiful quilts that you’ve contributed to that effort.

We’ve recently applied for a small business grant from Fed Ex which, if we are one of the winners, will give us somewhere between $1000 and $25,000. We will spend any prize money on supplies and shipping to get more quilts to more children. As you know, we have no paid staff, and rely on all volunteer work and donations.

Please go to this link and vote for us! You can vote every day. And please share this post with your friends. Your vote will help to keep a needy child from shivering in the cold at night! Thank you!

http://smallbusinessgrant.fedex.com/Gallery/Detail/87956986-e140-4f2e-888e-1ffd23c72b90

And, just to motivate you, here are some pictures of some of the children who’ve received quilts from us!

      

Thanks for your help!
Regards,
Carla

Next Stop Jordan for the Syrian Children

Recently Noreen Fling, QBB Regional Coordinator, and her husband, Rodger, delivered 87 quilts to Gleaning for the World warehouse in Virginia. Gleaning for the World (www.gftw.org) partners with IRD (International Relief & Development) and facilitates the delivery of the quilts. Their mission focuses on domestic relief and international humanitarian aid. Internationally, they work with other non-profits to meet the need for critical, life-saving supplies.

        
Noreen and Rodger were very impressed with the warehouse and the employees there. GFTW has already received over 200 quilts from QBB already. At this point, we believe all the quilts that we shipped or delivered to them are on their way to Jordan to the Syrian refugee children. The last photo is Noreen  and Mark O’Brien (warehouse manager).   Also note all the other items that the warehouse is delivering to various places.

QBB would like to thank all of you that helped us with this mission, to Noreen and Rodger for delivery, and thanks to Gleaning for the World and IRD for facilitating the delivery.  We know the children will love and appreciate these quilts.

Tina

More Fat Quarter Challenge Quilts

Today we’re featuring two quilts I’ve received from Texas quilters! Ann F and Glenda H both sent me their Fat Quarter Challenge quilts and aren’t they great? I received Ann’s last month and Glenda’s this month. What a great way to end and start the year!

It’s always fun to open the box and see the creativity each quilter brings to the sewing machines. To think that each one of these quilts was started with just one fat quarter and look how unique they are! I know the children will absolutely hug these tight and have many happy thoughts as they look at their quilts and snuggle under them at night. Thank you so much, Ann and Glenda! Your time and talents are greatly appreciated by all of us at Quilts Beyond Borders and children all over the world! Without the generosity of quilters like you, we could not do what we do!

Smiles,

Sandi

Beautiful Quilts, Donated at IQF in Houston

As promised in December, I wanted to show you some of the beautiful quilts that were donated to us at the International Quilt Festival in Houston when we were there. What better way to start the year than showing you this lovely display of eye-candy! Donors include:
• Maimie Abrego
• Susan Ayres
• Margienell Bailey
• Peggy Bussear
• Maude Garrison
• Kathleen Green
• Annabelle Kimball
• Judy Kirk
• Merci Lane
• Melba Mathis
• Kathy Romain
• Susan Seward
• Lynn Smith
• Carolyn Sower
• Kelli Thompson
• Val Venable
• Marisa Villanueva-Charriez
• Gayle Wallace
• Pauline Wilson

To see the names of the creators of these beautiful quilts, hover your cursor over the thumbnails and the names will appear as the file name. And, since the thumbnails don’t do them justice, click on them to see a larger view.

Ladies, thank you all!  Most of these quilts are already on their way to Jordan to a refugee camp where they will be given to Syrian children who have been displaced by the war in Syria.  Many of these children fled from their homes with only the clothes on their backs, and many of them have lost their parents in the war, so these quilts will be treasured in what has become a very cold winter this year.

Quilts Beyond Borders wishes you all a wonderful New Year!

Regards,

Carla

What the Heck Happened at the IQF, Anyway???

Hi! This is Carla, and I’ve been a bit busy lately, and have really appreciated that Tina, Sandi and Karen have been blogging while I’ve been out of the loop. The last time I was blogging I said, “Houston, Here We Come!”, and then I never said another word about what happened once we got there!

Well, let me tell you, we had a wonderful time at the show! I was joined in the booth there by some of our truly wonderful volunteers, Brenda Barnett, Donna Sciandra, Loretta Kelldorf, Mercedes Hardy, Felicia Ramirez, Karisa Harriman, Tim Batsche, and two of our terrific Regional Coordinators, Ann Drake and Cheryl Batsche. They were all wonderful to work with, and a really fun group as well! To each of them, I say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!”

We also had a wonderful response from the crowds that came through the show. Our products and fundraising quilts sold very well, which will keep us going with enough money to pay for postage to get tops to longarmers, quilts to those who are traveling to foreign lands, and pay for the baggage fees to get quilts flown over, and pay for supplies to finish quilts. Every penny we take in goes to getting quilts finished and transported so we can get more quilts to more children.   IQF is our only fundraiser each year, so it’s very gratifying to have had another good year. 

This year we had 272 people check out kits to make tops and quilts for us. Several of those tops have come back to us already, mostly sent through the mail to the closest regional coordinator living near the piecers, but the  very first of the tops were returned to us the same week by two young quilters, shown below!  We were pretty impressed!  Additionally, 96 of the 100 Fat Quarter Kits available in our Fat Quarter Challenge were signed out at the show — about double last year’s show participation!

We also had over 200 tops returned to us from last year, which are currently split up among our Regional Coordinators.  Below are a couple more pictures of piecers who brought us some of these lovely tops!   We’re kitting them up with binding and backings and will be recruiting for longarmers to help us finish them within the next couple of months.

 

More than 50 beautiful quilts were also  brought to us.   Below are some pictures of some of the wonderful ladies that brought us quilts:      
    I

In case you’re curious, the two very pretty ladies sitting in our booth are Mercedes and Loretta.  If you hover your cursor over the pictures at the bottom of the talented ladies who brought us the quilts, you’ll see the names of the quilters.  Unfortunately I don’t have the names of the 4 ladies in the middle who are showing us their beautiful tops, but if you know who they are, let me know and I’ll be happy to give credit where credit is due.

Over the next week or so I will feature most of the 5o+ quilts that we received at the show so that you can see more of these wonderful quilts.  I know the children who receive these quilts will be very very happy to receive them!

Great thanks to everyone who helped make the 2013 International Quilt Festival such a success for us!

Regards,

Carla

Our first FQC Quilt of 2013!

Oh the weather outside is frightful (perfect sewing weather tho!), but my sewing room wall is delightful with this little beauty hanging up ready for its picture to be taken!

I have received our first Fat Quarter Challenge Quilt for 2013 and the speedy quilter is none other than Donna Sciandra!! Her FQ was the green centers of the blocks  in this very fun and colorful log cabin quilt.  She even wrote the words, “ peace, hope, laughter and courage” in her quilting. Did I find them all, Donna? Thank you so much!

We’re doing our challenge a little differently this year. We’re making it possible for you to earn more chances for your name to go into the $100 prize drawing by assigning a bonus number of chances depending on which month I receive your finished quilt.

Here are the monthly assignments:

Quilts received by December 31, 2013 will give you an additional 10, yes, TEN chances for a total of 11 chances!

January, 9 extra chances

February, 8 chances

March, 7 chances

April, 6 chances

May, 5 chances

June, 4 chances

July, 3 chances

August, 2 chances

September, you’ll still receive one extra chance to win but as you can see, the sooner you send me your completed quilt, the more chances you have in the prize drawing.

Please email me with any questions you may have.  I must receive your completed quilt by the last day of the month in order to receive that month’s number of extra chances, so mail early!! And now with all these extra chances available to you, I better go hunt up a bigger bowl!

Smiles,

Sandi

More Syrian Quilts

Today’s quilt show is sponsored by Vicki Waitz and Kay McKinnon, both from Gold Canyon, AZ.

Vicki is an excellent longarmer but only quilts for herself and charity.

   

Kay has been producing abundant quilt tops for us for several years. They are always colorful but this year she added a new twist–doing her own machine quilting, nice and tight, the way we love it.

Thanks Kay and Vicki. The quilts are beautiful and will be a real treat for the Syrian children who receive them.
Regards, Karen

Where has the time gone?

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and the holidays are soon upon us.  And I am sure that all of us have been very busy so please excuse our absence from posting lately.  Today I’d like to share with you quilts that were made or quilted by the following individuals:  Marilyn Barba, Linda Lafleur, Lois McIntosh, Della Burwell, Diana (sorry I don’t have your last name), Sandra Evans, Carol Egan and Donna Sciandra.  All of these quilts were sent to International Relief & Development for the Syrian refugee children.  As always, if you hover over the picture you can see who did the quilt.  When there are two names it is a piecer and a quilter.

      

     

     

      

      

     

Thanks so much to all of you.  These quilts will definitely be cherished by the children.

Regards, Tina

Houston, Here We Come Again!!!

Hello, Fellow Quilters!

We are pleased to tell you that Quilts Beyond Borders will again have a booth at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, starting the evening of October 30th (Preview Night for IQA members and class attendees) and each day through the close of the Festival on Sunday, November 3rd. Once again we’ll be giving out kits to make quilt tops, encouraging participation in the Fat Quarter Challenge, and we’ll be selling some fundraising quilts and products from Ethiopia. We look forward to seeing you!

 

If you’re going to the show, this would be an excellent time to turn in any quilt tops or finished quilts made from the kits we’ve distributed in prior years, if you haven’t already returned them to us. If the kit or top has been misplaced, substitutes or monetary donations are gladly accepted.

If you won’t be attending the Festival and you’d like to send us finished tops or quilts, please send us an email at quiltsbeyondborders@gmail.com and we’ll give you an address of a Regional Coordinator who will be happy to receive your finished tops and quilts! Thanks!

Regards,

Carla

And the Quilts Keep Coming

October 23, 2013
And the Quilts Keep Coming

The first four quilts we’re featuring on our blog today will be sent to Jordan to be given to Syrian children living in a refugee camp.  They were quilted by Barbara Stack.  Unfortunately some of the labels went missing.  We believe that one of the quilts was pieced by Hands 2 Help but we are not sure about the other three.  If you recognize them, please let us know so that we can give credit where credit is due.  Great thanks to Barbara and the piecers for making these beautiful quilts for the children.

            

 

We are now approaching the time of year when we have our annual fundraiser.  Quilts Beyond Borders is a 501c3 tax exempt non-profit charity, with no paid staff, and we operate on a pretty lean budget.   As you might imagine, one of the largest expenses Quilts Beyond Borders faces is postage, as we send hundreds of quilt tops each year to longarmers in all parts of the US and we send finished quilts to people who will be transporting them from various locations in the US to orphanages and other destinations throughout the world to be given to needy children. Our other large expense is fabric for backing and binding for the many tops we receive.   This year, as we have for the last few years, we will be having a booth at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, where we will be selling some of the jewelry and products we picked up on trips to Ethiopia and, with the permission of their creators, we will be selling some quilts.

Below are some of the quilts that we will be selling at Houston.  The first 3 quilts were made by Loretta Kelldorf, and the last two were sent to us by Jenny Schechinger.

    

   

 

Thank you both, Loretta and Jenny!  The money we receive from selling these quilts will help us to pay for postage and luggage fees to transport quilts, and for fabric to finish many more quilts for many more children!

Cheers, Tina