You know we love to share adorable photos of children receiving and enjoying the quilts you sew for Quilts Beyond Borders, alongside beautiful pictures of the many quilts we take in and deliver to children around the world… Today we are happy to share both! Tim Morton of Pennsylavania’s Kamp for Kids, a new partnership for us we recently posted about, was kind enough to share these heartwarming photos and we also have photos of our next group of quilts going to these kids as part of this ongoing initiative.
As always, you can click on each quilt photo to see it larger and to see the maker name in the filename.
In April we received six beautiful quilts for the Fat Quarter Challenge. Thank you so much for sewing for Quilts Beyond Borders!
Quilt makers in April were Moira M. of Texas, Beth H. of Minnesota, Kathy D. of Minnesota, and Maureen L. of Minnesota. Pictures of the quilts follow:
The children who receive these quilts will be blessed by your generosity.
We recently announced April’s monthly winner of the $25 gift card to Fat Quarter Shop, you can win also! To find out how to participate in the Fat Quarter Challenge, please see here. After the lovely shower of quilts we received in April, we look forward to the blooms that are arriving in May! Thank you, generous quilters!
We are excited to let everyone know that 100 of your beautiful QBB quilts have arrived in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. Tim Morton, Director of “Kamp for Kids” sent me a great email, his enthusiasm for the 10 huge boxes of quilts he had just unpacked just oozing out! It is a long labor of love for all of us to create, distribute, pack and repack 100 quilts. I always breath a huge sign of relief when I know they “have arrived!”
Kamp for Kids is a new initiative for QBB. The camp is a non-profit dedicated to helping autistic and under-served kids and their families in the Philadelphia area (among others) enjoy free events, direct assistance, food and goods (like quilts!) Lives are empowered and changed with the assistance of the capable counselors.
Below is a list of the quilters and piecers whose quilts were included in this delivery. I chose the quilts from our inventory based on size and fabric theme; these of course were mostly kid sized and themed. Many thanks to all of you and also to our faithful kit maker (thank you, Angela Church!) and my all-around capable assistant who pieces, binds and sews on labels (bless you, Sue Sweeney!) Our good work is indeed a TEAM EFFORT!
From Connecticut: Paula Place, Barbra Buckley, Jean Dougherty, Susan Elliott, Mary Gridley, Sue Sweeney From New Hampshire: Sarah Lazor, Nancy Kane, Jossi Pickett From Massachusetts: Randee Majka, Pam Belanger, Jean Thibodeau Fran Fink, Sheila Hughes, Bonnie Salt, Barbara Mroz From Colorado: Sue Holden From Vermont, Judith Nuno, who also sent a generous monetary donation (which helps to cover shipping costs) From Pennsylvania: Jean Unger From Australia: Hong Chang From IQFestival in Houston: Carol Larson
So far Quilts Beyond Borders has received 42 beautiful quilts for our Fat Quarter Challenge this year. Each month we draw a winning name from those who have participated in the challenge. The winner is given a $25 gift certificate to the online shop, Fat Quarter Shop. We appreciate their on-going support of Quilts Beyond Borders!
Our March winner was Deb W. of Michigan. Our April winner was Beth H. of Minnesota. Both Deb and Beth have sent in multiple quilts for the Fat Quarter Challenge. We thank them for their generosity. We are sure that the children love the special comfort they receive from the beautiful quilts.
Below are pictures of quilts made by Deb and Beth. We are still accepting quilts for the Fat Quarter Challenge, through September 30, 2021. Use a FQ of your own, or we can send you one. The details on participating in the challenge are here. Perhaps if you participate you will win one of the monthly drawings. If not, know that a child is blessed by your gift of a quilt. The children are the real winners.
The Standing Rock Reservation Child Care Assistance Program provides child care for eligible families working, attending classes including eligible high school or college students or other approved training and receiving temporary assistance for needy families. Quilts Beyond Borders has provided 80 quilts for the children (primarily infants to 12 years old) who are cared for by this program. Here are pictures of some of the beautiful quilts we sent to the Child Care Assistance Program:
And here are just a few of the adorable children who received some of these quilts. if we receive more pictures, we will post them.
Great thanks to all of the talented volunteers who pieced and quilted these lovely quilts. You can see by the smiles on those faces that they’ve made some cute kids very happy!
Well, it’s a little late for this blog post, but if you were wondering how we did in 2020, here it is!
2020 was another record year for the number of quilts given out to needy people and children in places where the warmth and comfort of a quilt is needed. Frankly, this surprised me, because I figured that no one would be traveling and the demand for quilts would drop off. We did give far more quilts within the US this year than typical, to groups caring for foster children and abused children and homeless people and families. Which was to be somewhat expected because when people are under stress (and Covid caused financial and emotional stress for many), children can be the ones that suffer. Here is a list of the quilts we gave out last year:
Salaam Cultural Museum (quilts for Syria Refugees): 1017 Quilts
Comfort Cases (quilts for Foster Children in the US): 990
Forgotten People of Navajo Nation (Needy children and elders): 500
Maasay Yahdav (Needy children in Israel): 301
Baltimore Child Abuse Center (Abused children): 280
North Idaho Foster Care: 80
Oregon Dept of Human Services Child Welfare: 50
Royal Family Kids (Foster Children): 44
Ampersand Families (Older Adoptees): 35
Kids Kingdom Orphanage (Mexico): 30
Sleep in Heavenly Peace (Needy Families): 21
Heartland Alliance (Homeless): 20
Giles Early Education Project (Needy Children): 4
That’s a total of 3372 quilts given to needy people and children, a new record, beating 2019’s record of 3249! Most of those deliveries have been celebrated in blog posts in the past year, so if you want to know more about any of them, put a keyword in the “search” field on the right side of the blog page. Thank you, to all of our talented and generous volunteers, quilters and donors! Some of us have been around since our first delivery of 258 quilts to Ethiopian Orphans, and I have to say that’s a pretty impressive increase!
2021 is already off to a great start. Our Ampersand Families initiative is continuing into 2021, with an additional 18 quilts delivered there in January. We also are working on an initiative for quilts for the Childcare Assistance Center at the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. And we’ve started another year of an on-going initiative for Comfort Cases. First quarters of every year tend to start off slowly, but I’m impressed that this one is already getting started!
Carla Triemer, QBB President
We were one of many groups who “met” via Zoom and had some fun at the same time. Meet some of your Quilts Beyons Borders volunteers!
The month of March came in like a lion, sending us eleven beautiful quilts for the Fat Quarter Challenge. Quilts were donated by Christina B. of Washington, Kathleen R. of North Carolina, Emily L. of California, Beth H. of Minnesota and Deb W. of Michigan.
Quilts are pictured below, including one quilt back so cute that we just had to share:
These quilts will soon march along to children who need the cuddles and comfort. We thank you all so much for sewing for Quilts Beyond Borders.
Watch your e-mail each month to see if you are the lucky winner of the Fat Quarter Challenge prize drawing. You might win a prize, but the real winners are the children who receive your beautiful quilts.
For these stoic boxes of quilts waiting for months in my hallway to be delivered to Comfort Cases, patience was indeed a virtue! Our plan was to deliver QBB quilts monthly during 2020 to be included in the backpacks filled with comfort and personal care items for youth entering the foster care system. Unfortunately the pandemic shut things down for months. Finally in October of 2020 we were able to resume shipments and will continue this important partnership throughout 2021. Please enjoy the photos below from this delivery, and you can click on each photo to see it larger and to see the maker’s names in the filename.
We received one lovely quilt in February for the Fat Quarter Challenge. This quilt was made by Angela P. of New York. She sent the quilt to Regional Coordinator, Linda S. That is one way to submit a quilt, if it’s easier for you. Send it to your friendly Regional Coordinator along with a note stating your quilt is for the Fat Quarter Challenge, she then sends me the information to get your quilt registered in our system. Or you can send the quilt directly to me – read more information here about joining the Fat Quarter Challenge. Either way you submit a quilt, you will become eligible for a prize drawing which happens once a month. Good luck! Angela’s quilt:
Our February winner of the prize drawing is Cathy L. of Iowa! Cathy loves to make scrappy quilts and is always generous with FQC quilts. This is one of the beauties she has submitted this year:
The monthly winner receives a $25 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. They have generously supported QBB for several years. Whether or not you win, I hope you visit the Fat Quarter Shop. It is a lovely online quilt shop.
Our blog has been busy showing you pictures of quilts that have been donated through QBB, along with a few precious pictures of the recipients with their quilts. I hope you feel inspired to join the fun of creating a loving quilt for someone who needs a hug. The quilts are true gifts to the people who receive them.
Yup that’s right, ONE HUNDRED QUILTS, on their way to Comfort Cases in Baltimore!! Think about the countless hours and amount of love and talent it has taken to create all of these, and all “from scratch” as our grandmothers used to say. Even more impressive, is the fact that these many quilts are just one installment of hundreds more quilts made by QBB volunteers and delivered on an ongoing basis that we enjoy sharing with you. As I was photographing the quilts hanging on the deck railing, (while I was freezing, by the way…) I felt kind of emotional saying good-bye to them. I am privileged to work with the quilts you send to me long enough to get quite attached to them. Logging them coming in, logging them going out, sometimes labeling and sometimes finishing or binding them, then photographing them and seeing them one last time while I tuck them snuggly in their box for delivery gets to me! Kind of nutty, I know. I’d keep every one if I didn’t know they were going to kids who really, really need our warm little ambassadors of love…..
As we told you about recently, Comfort Cases’ mission is to inspire communities to bring dignity and hope to youth in foster care. In an effort to eliminate the indignity of carrying ones belongings in a trash bag, Comfort Cases provides youth entering foster care with a Comfort Case – a backpack or small duffel bag filled with comfort and essential items for the child’s first few nights in a new environment. A quilt from you, along with new pajamas, a stuffed animal, a journal and pens or coloring book and crayons, books, toiletry kits, and a dental kit are all included in the duffle or backpack. Since 2014 Comfort Cases has impacted the lives of over 35,000 youth in foster care in 39 states, DC and Puerto Rico. It warms my heart to think we can provide a significant piece of the love these kids will find in their very own traveling bag.
Many thanks to all the piecers, quilters, binders, kit makers who worked so hard to make the stunning quilts: Most of you sent many, many quilts! Wow! You can click on the pictures below to see them full size. Alice Aldrich White, OK; Sue Sweeney, Susan Elliott, Deb Jacoby, Donna Motyl, Barbra Buckley, Peggy Thomsen, Kim Bennett, Martha Benoit, Marguerite Boslaugh, Sandy Lipscomb, Paula Place, Mary Gridley,Angela Church, CT; Deb Cox, quilt from IQF in Houston; Sue Hurley, Barbara Kwityn, Barbara Fegley, Vivian Glenn, NJ; Pam Belanger, Randee Majka, Sheila Hughes,Donna Hopkins, Jean Thibodeau,Terri Desmond, Fran Fink, Bonnie Salt,Barbara Mroz, MA; Judith Nuno, VT; Dianne Combs, IN; Jean Unger, PA; Hong Chang, Australia; Linda Dranchak, ME; Nancy Kane, NH; Linda Ferraro, RI. With heartfelt thanks, Karen
