Today was the first time I saw my mother in person, in six months. She has declined into a wheelchair since I saw her last, but there is still that spark of love and decency that she has had all her life. It was a very bittersweet visit. We sat at opposite ends of an 8 foot table, and so I could not hold her hand or give her a hug when we said goodbye. But we got to look each other in the eye and speak face to face…not over the phone and not over Zoom…so I will take what I can get. When I got back to my car I burst into tears. I know most of you are facing similar challenges, or worse.
Our warehouse is filled with the jeweltones of the Kaffe Collective, so I thought I would share these with you, because they make me happy. The lovely fuzzy bee in the center was photographed at Hidcote Gardens in the Cotswolds, the site of the photo shoot for Kaffe’s book “Quilts in the Cotswolds”. (I visited there while in the UK for the Birmingham UK quilt festival.)
I have had several inquiries as to whether we will organize a comfort quilt project, or other relief project, but the requests are for several different disasters in different states or countries and some of these disasters are still in the early stages where we need to just focus on donating money for the basic needs of survival. I am very aware of what is happening on the West Coast because I have many friends and family affected by the fires. Even the little town where my mom grew up (Molalla, Oregon) was evacuated.
We are of course continuing to donate to relief organizations like Mission of Love, Doctors Without Borders, and Engineers Without Borders. There are environmental and endangered species disasters as well, so we continue to give to the Wild Foundation and the Ocean Conservancy. I have been in touch with my friends from DWB and EWB and also have information about 2 organizations on the ground on the island of Lesbos in Greece where one of the most miserable refugee camps in the world just burned down.
So feel free to write to me and I will let you know in our e-newsletters what we can do together to help those in need. I also suggest that you keep in touch with local quilt guilds in the regions affected by fires, hurricanes and floods, because so many of these guilds are attempting to organize to make quilts for those in need. There is just so much going on now, we are going to focus on sending money while the need is so raw and urgent in terms of basic survival.
With your support, we just surpassed a total of $1.7 million given to a variety of charities.
Together, we will continue to reach out to those in desperate need, and those who do not have a voice.
with hope for the future…
Luana and Paul
