eQuilter Blog

I am writing to you tonight from Switzerland, on World Water Day. Tonight was the opening reception for the quilt exhibit “Water is Life”, to bring awareness to the importance of Clean Water around the world, and its impact on the lives of women and girls. The opening was at the United Nations in Geneva, timed to coincide with World Water Day 2016.

As I write this the NASA chapter of Engineers Without Borders is wrapping up a week in Kenya, building a home and school for street children in Maua, and installing clean water systems for its future residents. eQuilter is a partner with our NASA friends, in helping to fund this project. This is part of our ongoing charity program, which is now approaching $1.4 million raised for our list of charities.

eQuilter was a corporate sponsor for the event tonight, along with Aurifil Threads. I also participated as an artist! I was even interviewed by a Russian journalist who was in Geneva to cover the Syrian Peace Talks. My quilt is about the poisoning of the Animas River in Durango Colorado, and all the communities downstream that have been affected by the breach at the Gold King Mine last August.

Many thanks to Susan Fiorentino of the US Embassy in Rome, who has coordinated this event and who worked tirelessly to install the show. The exhibit will travel to the US as part of the Quilts for Change project, and I will give you more information about those dates in the near future. 40 artists participated in this event, and 6 of them made it to the event tonight. We were all so honored to be in attendance at the UN, and to meet the VIP guests and UN staff.

Thank you also to Patricia and Cessy Patchwork for hosting me in France for an evening!

This quilt was made on my BERNINA 790 machine, with our exclusive eQuilter sets of Aurifil threads, and fabrics from the eQuilter Scrap Pile! You can see that I’ve set it in a collage of Mountain, Wildlife and River fabrics from eQuilter. I had an absolute blast making this quilt, and I am excited to send it off on its World tour which will include some other UN venues!

Tomorrow morning I will be on a direct flight from Geneva to Wash DC, and then Denver. I am truly saddened by the events in Brussels, and of course it was a big topic of discussion here today. I met a woman at the event, who is involved in knitting sweaters for babies in Afghanistan, and we expressed frustration for what is happening to the children of Syria now, both in their country, and those whose families are refugees.

The most important thing is to never stop caring, because these children around the world affected by war, famine and drought, are part of the future. Tonight I am praying for peace – everywhere that children dream of a better life. Thanks for supporting our charity program, and thanks for caring.

Tonight I am writing to you from Geneva Switzerland, where I am participating in a quilt exhibit called “Water Is Life”, sponsored by the US Mission to the United Nations here. I volunteered to help install the exhibit, so I have had quite a lesson on how to hang a show while following all the rules and security protocols of working in the UN!

If you have never had the experience of installing a show, I highly recommend trying it at least once! It really makes you think about your work in a different way, and it especially makes you appreciate the tireless volunteers who work so hard to make our quilts look great!

The exhibit is about the importance of Clean Water in the lives of children and women around the world, and I congratulate the other artists whose work was accepted to hang in this prestigious venue. The quilts will travel to the US later this year, so I will let you know when it comes to tour in other cities.

The private opening reception is Tuesday, and it is hanging in a historic (huge!) hall where visiting dignitaries pass back and forth all day long. It was gratifying to see so many journalists come to a sudden stop, to look at the exhibit. It was very special to speak to those who stopped in front of my piece, and discuss the topic of the art work.

Every quilt I make has to have a purpose beyond just hanging in a show and looking pretty. My quilt tells the story of the poisoning of the Animas River in Colorado from the Gold King Mine, and how it flows to so many communities downstream. Since I made the quilt, stories about water problems have come to the forefront, so I hope my quilt and the others in this exhibit, will continue the dialog about precious clean water, wherever they travel.

Many thanks to those of you who have contributed to Sophie’s fundraising efforts in the last week, and I am sending a special hug to those of you who donated in memory of someone lost to cancer.

Sophie has now raised over $2600 and is still fundraising, in honor of her 6 year old cousin who has had a relapse of cancer. Sophie was incredibly brave and had all her hair shaved off on Wednesday, at a St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser event. The money raised goes toward research to find a cure for children’s cancer.