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:
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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
Quilts Beyond Borders 