Quilt Delivery to Syrian Children

Last fall we sent out a request for finished quilts for Syrian Refugee Children who have found refuge in Jordan.  We worked with International Relief & Development for this effort.  IRD in turn uses other partners to help in the distribution of goods.  The partner they used for the quilt delivery was Gleaning for the World (https://gftw.org/).  They were able to send us a few pictures from one of the deliveries in Jordan.   They plan to deliver more quilts in the next month and will try to send more pictures then.  We were able to provide over 300 quilts for this effort.  Many thanks to all of you who helped.

Tina

Quilt Delivery to Haiti

As Carla mentioned in a recent blog post about quilts delivered to Romania, we are not always able to get pictures of the children receiving the quilts. Well we have received a few photos from recent deliveries to Syrian refugee children in Jordan and orphans in Haiti. Today we have pictures from the Haiti delivery.
Quilts Beyond Borders has supplied Haiti with over 500 quilts since the earthquake of 2010. We have been fortunate to have missionary partners Russ and Sherry Cole. Sherry, particularly, works with orphanages and has handled the distribution. This group of 100 quilts went to Haiti late last summer. We hope these quilts will brighten these young children’s lives. Thanks to all the volunteers that helped make these quilts.

Karen

A Fun Picture Show

We have received some very fun quilts in the mail lately. I’m going to let you just enjoy the show. You should be able to click on each picture for the name of the piecer as well as the quilter if there are two names. Enjoy!

Here are two Fat Quarter Challenge Quilts from Chuck G and Karisa H.

  

 

The Quilting For Christ Ministry has been busy as well. They sent the following tops and Sue B did a wonderful quilting job:

          

Three members of the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild contributed to these next quilts.  Thank you, Joann, Pat and Ann!

       

 

The following quilts are sent to us from Linda C, Della B and Peggy H:

    

 

Thank you all so very much! These will bring a lot of sunshine and joy to children around the world!

Smiles,

Sandi

 

 

Quilt Delivery in Romania

Delivering quilts to needy children can make you feel just like Santa Clause, any time of the year! And I assure you, once you do it you will know that it is definitely more blessed to give than it is to receive!

We cannot always get photographs of our quilt deliveries. Sometimes photos are precluded by the privacy policies of the orphanages or community centers where we deliver, and other times the volunteers delivering the quilts simply become so busy and absorbed in giving the quilts to the very excited and happy children that no one remembers to pick up the camera to record the event. Nevertheless, when we do receive pictures we like to share them on our blog so that the wonderful quilters can see how much the children appreciate receiving the beautiful quilts they have donated.

Recently we received some photos from Karen Bucur, Director of International Programs for Pathway to Joy Ministries. Karen asked us to pass along her thanks to our donors for the vital part they play in helping to bring joy, healing and comfort to the orphaned and needy children of Oradea, Romania. 

Below are the pictures that Karen sent of the delivery to the orphanage in Oradea:

 

Great thanks to all the generous and talented quilters who made the lovely quilts!  You can see how delighted the children are to have received them!

Regards,

Carla

 

It’s been raining QUILTS!

I know most of the country has been getting deluged with snow and ice, but here in Utah, it’s been raining quilts! With an upcoming trip to Ethiopia soon, we are eagerly gathering quilts and these quilts are greatly appreciated. This storm started all the way in South America! The first quilt featured was made by Rejane M , who lives in Brasil. She visited our booth at International Quilt Festival in Houston and picked up a fat quarter. She returned home and made the quilt and while visiting family in New York, she mailed me the quilt, so this quilt already has many miles on it and it’s hasn’t even found it’s owner yet! 

 

Our next storm started in North Carolina and picked up steam, and another quilt, in Illinois. These two quilts are also Fat Quarter Challenge quilts, the first from Ann B and the second from Sandra O. 

   

Just a reminder to those of you who took home fat quarters from Houston, you do get extra chances to win that $100 prize by turning in your quilt to me as early as you can. This month is an extra 7 chances, so keep the quilt showers coming! 

These next quilts blew in from all across the country. We greatly appreciate the joint efforts of these piecers and quilters. Without you, we couldn’t do what we do. Thanks goes out to:

Della Burwell

Sharleen Rainville

Sue Bickham

Quilting For Christ Ministry in Texas (they will be featured numerous times in the future I’m sure as they donated many, many tops to us in Houston)

Linda Cadzow (who also sent us 7 tops. We LOVE it when quilters go through their stash and send us unfinished projects!!)

Sandi Watters

   

  

I think the children are going to have a very hard time deciding which quilt to claim as they are all so beautiful and unique. Thank you all so very much!

Smiles,

Sandi

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