eQuilter Blog

Texas flooded, Western Fires, and now Irma approaching. We all know someone who is or will be affected. As quilters our first instinct is to help. Now is the time for us all to give to grassroots organizations that are on the ground giving disaster relief immediately to those most in need. We can try to imagine, but we really have no idea what it is like to face losing everything in a disaster…unless we’ve been through it ourselves.

Most of you know that we’ve supported the work of Mission of Love though many disasters over the years. Maybe you are one of the many people who have donated over 12,000 comfort quilts for those who have lost everything. We thank you for your generosity.

We are not going to put out the call for quilts YET, because the need for immediate disaster relief is so urgent. Do you remember when we supported MOL’s Katrina relief efforts? They found a small community on the coast of Louisiana that had received NO relief supplies from FEMA, Red Cross or any other organization. MOL went in with a truck full of urgently needed food, water and supplies, to help those who were most desperate.

Now the mayor of that little Louisiana town is teaming up with MOL to make the first relief truckload to one of those small coastal communities in Texas that was obliterated. I am wiring the money tomorrow morning to help fill up the truck with the things most urgently needed, and you can help too, by going to the Mission of Love webpage (missionoflove.org) and donating by PayPal.

Kathy Price is already loading up another truck from her warehouse in Ohio, which will make another trip in the near future. Together we will reach out to a community that has not received aid, and then we will go back to help with longterm recovery.

If you are new to eQuilter, you might like to know that 2% of all sales go to our list of charities, plus other relief projects such as this, with an emphasis on children and the environment. We have raised over $1.4 million over the years, and in fact we’ll reach $1.5 m next year….and we thank all of you who have supported our efforts to help those in need.

Previous relief projects and comfort quilt distributions include Guatemala, Moore OK, Hurricane Sandy, and quilts for earthquake, tsunami, also flood and fire victims.

For those of you who are concerned about what is happening to our Mother Earth, consider participating in our Love Your Mother quilt challenge for 2018. BERNINA is contributing a beautiful machine for the first prize of this challenge/contest, and we are negotiating venues for an exhibit.

For those of you facing Western fires, or the approach of Irma, we wish you peace and safety, and we know there is an army of quilters gearing up to make comfort quilts for those who experience disaster and loss.

Many thanks to those of you who support our business and our mission to share with those in need, and special thanks to those of you who have donated additional amounts to these very special organizations who squeeze so much out of every donated dollar.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

Travel Calendar:
Sept 12-13 – Carter Center – Atlanta GA
Sept 14 – Quilting Arts TV – Ohio
Sept 16 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 1-11 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at New Zealand Quilt Symposium – Christchurch
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Africa Wildlife Migration Tour
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Nov 14-20, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Join me in Churchill!

I have tried several times to start writing this week’s letter, trying to find the words after such a devastating hurricane and flood hit Houston and the gulf coast. Most of you know what is going on – now there is a massive search and rescue going on as some of the flood waters recede.

In the Midweek Creative newsletter, I included a link to a list of organizations who we trust to take donated funds and put them to work immediately for those most in need. You can find that list here.

Quilts Inc has posted a letter saying that the show will go on – that Quilt Market and the Quilt Festival are going to happen. This week 10,000 flood evacuees were camping in the George Brown Convention Center, so there is a lot of work to be done before the show is set up late October. We know that all the quilts were evacuated to a safe dry place, and that the Quilts Inc staff is safe.

We are working on setting up one or two weekends where we will provide fabrics and our classroom, and a BERNINA dealer will provide machines, to come make quilt tops for a future quilt drive for flood victims. As I have said before, this is going to be a long recovery, so for now we are supporting organizations helping with the initial urgent needs of flood victims.

If your guild or quilt group in our area would like to book our 2000 sq ft space to come make flood quilts, let us know and we will provide the fabric. The dates would have to be set up around my travel. (see below) Sept 9, 20, 21, 27, 28 & 30 are possibilities.

This afternoon I spoke to Kathy Price at Mission of Love (MOL), and we are also planning a disaster relief project after the waters recede and long-term needs become more clear. You may recall after Katrina, MOL identified a small community on the Louisiana coast that had received ZERO aid from FEMA, Red Cross, or any other relief organization. We will pursue a similar project with a focus on helping children and families. I will keep you posted.

In case you missed last week’s newsletter, BERNINA has generously donated a new model machine as first prize for the ‘Love Your Mother’ Quilt Challenge.

To participate in this challenge you must use 1 of the 3 versions of the challenge panel:
North/South Americas
Australia/New Zealand
Arriving in September – AFRICA!

Thank you for supporting our charity program, which has raised over $1.4 million for those in need.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana and Paul

Dear Houston,
Our hearts are breaking for you, and our prayers are being sent to comfort you, keep you safe, and bring you through this incomprehensible flood.

We will do all that we can to help you, and I know I speak for all our quilter friends who are following the news hour by hour. I have received so many emails and messages asking ‘How can I help?’ and ‘Will the quilt festival still go on?’

While the search and rescue phase is still happening, the best thing we can all do is to donate money to trustworthy organizations who are on the ground…or should I say in the water…pulling people out of the flood.

The recovery will be long, for those people who are displaced, who will need help for a long time. We will work with Mission of Love to put together disaster relief, and later….a distribution of comfort quilts.

For now please look at this list I have drawn up, of worthy organizations who will use your donations for those most in need.

Will the Houston Quilt Festival go on? According to the folks at Quilts Inc…yes! We will just have to see how the situation unfolds. I am still planning to be there.

For those of you who could use something beautiful and peaceful to look at, I’d like to show you Vendulka Battais’ lovely “Sparkling Mandala” quilt from the Birmingham Festival of Quilts. This incredible machine-embroidered mandala is set in a collage frame of peacock and paisley fabrics, above. You can see a detail shot of this lovely quilt on my photo page.

For those of you who are concerned about what is happening to our Mother Earth, consider participating in our Love Your Mother quilt challenge for 2018. As we announced last Saturday, BERNINA is contributing a beautiful machine for the first prize of this challenge/contest, and we are negotiating venues for an exhibit.

Houston, hang on, we will all help you get through this.

sharing your Passion for Fabric…
Luana

********

Travel Calendar:
Sept 12-13 – Carter Center – Atlanta GA
Sept 14 – Quilting Arts TV – Ohio
Sept 16 – Quilters Take Manhattan
Oct 1-11 – Intl Quilt Trends lecture at New Zealand Quilt Symposium – Christchurch
Dec 29 2017 – Jan 5 2018 – Tanzania Africa Wildlife Migration Tour
Feb 22-25, 2018 – QuiltCon – Pasadena, California
Nov 14-20, 2018 – POLAR BEAR Tour – Join me in Churchill!

We have had many requests for suggestions of Houston and/or disaster relief organizations who would make the best use of monetary donations.

There will be a quilt drive, but for now we need to help by donating money for disaster relief.

I have compiled a list of charity/relief organizations based on referrals from our contacts in Houston, and highly rated organizations that are on the ground now. Please feel free to share this link.

Mission of Love  http://www.missionoflove.org/

This is one of our 7 eQuilter charities and we have worked closely on many disaster relief projects over the years. We are coordinating a relief project now.

Referred by our NASA Engineers Without Borders /Sodzo contacts in Houston:

Interfaith Caring Ministries  – www.icmtx.org

League City, Texas   281-332-3881

I. Lewis Social Service Center, –  www.milewisctr.org

Dickinson, TX   (281) 534-2043

All Hands – https://www.hands.org/

Highly Rated Organizations on the ground now:

Samaritan’s Purse  **** https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Heart to Heart International **** http://www.hearttoheart.org/

Texas Diaper Bank  http://www.texasdiaperbank.org/

United Methodist Committee on Relief   ****  http://www.umcor.org/

Catholic Relief Services  ****   https://www.crs.org/

Houston Food Bank ****  http://www.houstonfoodbank.org/

Houston SPCA ****  http://www.houstonspca.org/

SPCA of Texas  ****  https://www.spca.org/

Food Bank of Corpus Christi  ***  http://www.foodbankcc.com/

Americares  **** http://www.americares.org/

Thank you for sharing our dedication to giving to those in need. Watch our newsletters for further developments in response to the hurricane/flood crisis.

Luana