Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Christmas greetings

Before everyone gets too busy or starts going away, I'd like to wish all my blog readers and their families a safe and happy Christmas, and best wishes for the coming year.

I am still busy with the miners' quilts. In under 4 weeks, I have received almost 6000 heart blocks, as well as many donated quilts (over 50 now). I also have in my living room around 30 quilt tops which need to be made into quilts. I've sent bags of heart blocks and also some quilt tops to various parts of New Zealand to be made up.

Today, I had blocks from England, the Netherlands, Scotland, Australia, Riyadh and Canada as well as NZ. Who knew there was an international quilt group in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia)? They sent me one of their guild badges which features a camel - a bit different from NZ badges!
The variety of hearts on the blocks is amazing. The number of hearts ranges from 1 to 14. The hearts are appliqued, paper pieced, strip pieced, embroidered, beaded, inverted, diagonal, outlined, cascading and rotating. They come in every colour imaginable. The block makers vary in age from 8 to 88.

So many people have been touched by the disaster, and have wanted to help in some way. A local long-arm quilter contacted me and offered to quilt some tops despite being incapacitated following a hip operation (she has an enormous Nolting machine that you have to walk beside). Some quilters have sandwiched and quilted as many as`3 tops, and many are donating their own batting and backing to the appeal. Some quilt groups have got together and made great numbers of blocks, including some Australian groups. Other groups have made quilt tops or completed quilts. Some individuals have also given several already made quilts, representing hours of work and many dollars in materials. Their generosity is humbling.

To everyone who has contributed in some way to make this appeal so successful - thank you so much. I leave you with a photo of a slightly festive poodle - I'm not doing Christmas decorations this year.

7 comments:

Marcie said...

What a wonderful achievement! Once again the quilting community has risen to a challenge. I look forward to reading about the handover of quilts to the miners' families.
(And you, my dear, should get a medal for your efforts!)

Janet said...

OH, she looks so adorable :-)

Bee Magic Chronicles for Kids said...

What great work you've done with the heart quilts.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas. I hope 2011 will be a great year for you - full of peace and prosperity.

LOVE STITCHING RED said...

Good luck with all the quilts

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and a very happy New Year

Best wishes
Carolyn

Julie said...

I hope that the bounty of your amazing effort for the miner's families comes back to you ten-fold in the new year. Have a Happy Christmas with your son and your sweet dogs.

Donald said...

Wow Shirley, great effort. Hope you can keep the ball rolling, as the goodies arrive.

Cheers

Donald

Tiffany Tasting Food said...

Loved readingg this thanks