Community Quilt SOS Update

I thought I would give you all an update on my SOS regarding Community quilts.  You might remember about two weeks ago I wrote and told you all that was overloaded with quilt tops.  I needed some help to find some new finishers.  You can read that HERE if you missed it.  I ended up completely overloaded with people offering to finish quilt tops.  I have never had such a big response.

I sent tops out to 22 people with them getting anywhere from 3-10 tops.  I had intended to try to keep a count of how many I had but I quickly lost count.

I got more requests for quilt tops….there were 36 other requests in my email.  There were 26 more responses in the comment section on the blog.  WOW.  What an overwhelming response.  I love it.

On Thursday last week, I decided it was time as I had a bunch of people emailing me again about why I hadn’t gotten to their email.  I finally had a day with no kids and space to spread things out and try to organize things a bit.  Here is what it looked like.

I had stacks of quilt tops everywhere throughout the kitchen and dining room.  It wasn’t an easy task.  Some people what quilts for hospice…some for kids…some for homeless…many people had a request.  That involved a lot of sorting.  Some people only wanted three.  If they didn’t specify how many they wanted… I often sent out six.

I had trouble trying to figure out who to send them to as there were so many volunteers.  I decided that I needed to make it as easy on myself as possible.

When I wrote the original post, I asked people to send me an email if they were interested in helping.  So I ignored the blog comments.  I went to my email first.

Once there, I started reading emails.  If the people sent their addresses with their email requests, I sent them quilt tops.  I needed to get these out and didn’t have time to write several back-and-forth emails to try to get their information.  I had people leave a phone number and ask that I call them.  I had people ask that I call their church.  I just didn’t have time for that.  I needed these out as soon as I could get them out.

So if you didn’t get any quilt tops, it’s simply because you didn’t leave an address for me to send them too.  I don’t want to discourage anyone from volunteering to finish tops because I really do need more finishers…If you would like quilt tops when the next batch comes in, please resend an email to joscountryjunction@gmail.com.  Don’t leave a comment on this post…send it to that email so I have a way to sort through the email and can get tops to you.

Friday I went to the post office.  Check out the pictures with all of the packages.

Besides these, three boxes of finished tops are going to a few local groups.  I’ll deliver them on a day when it isn’t snowing.

A lot of emails had questions in them.  I am putting the note I sent with the packages here…

“Thank you for offering to finish these quilt tops.
You are free to add or subtract from these tops.
When they are finished please:
-take a couple of pictures of each quilt
-Write two or more sentences about the quilt telling how you finished it…show the backing of the quilt…tell the color of thread you used etc.  If you would like an example of how to do that, here is an example of something quilt finisher Ray wrote https://www.joscountryjunction.com/community-quilts-from-ray-83/
-Decide the charity you will be giving the quilt to
-put the pictures words and charity of choice into an email and send it to me at joscountryjunction@gmail.com. 

It is awesome if you can tell me in the email if you want more quilt tops.  I always have some here.
It works best if you send 3-4 quilts to me at a time.  I will take your comments and pictures and put them into a blog post so the people who donated the tops can see your finish.”

I am going to work really hard on letting the quilt tops add up.  This time I let it go too long.  To help with that, I am asking again for people who want to finish tops to resend a request to my email joscountryjunction@gmail.com.  Please leave your name.  Tell who the quilts will be donated to.  Tell me the type and the size of quilt tops you are looking for.  Leave your address.  I need things to be as simple as possible without a lot of emails going back and forth…and please don’t leave a phone number to call…I don’t have time to call people.

Finishers who only finish a few tops need to supply their own backing, batting, and binding.  The postage fund does kick in and provide batting for those who are regular finishers like Ray, Karin, and Jazz.   The fund will also help those who want to help but financially can’t.  If that’s you, just send me an email and I’ll make sure you can make or finish quilts for charity.  I don’t want money to be a hardship for anyone who wants to help.

It’s also super helpful if you are a finisher and send pictures of your finished tops with a write-up, where you also include a sentence about if you want/need more tops or if there is anything else you might need.  You all have no idea of the volume of emails I get in each day.  Anything that can be done to help me streamline would be great.

In this post alone I had 84 people/groups that had left a comment or sent an email.  It takes a long time to sort through all of that.

Speaking of quilt tops.  I have a blog reader Patty who is a prolific quilter.  She loves making tops and would love to directly link up with a group who would appreciate her quilt tops.  In the past she has sent them to Ray and Karin but both of them are full with tops right now.  Patty is hoping that someone would email her and she could send the tops to you.  Patty loves making baby to lap-sized quilts.  She loves to make kid-friendly quilts.  I think a Quilts for Kids organization would love working with Patty.  If that’s you please email Patty.  Here is her email.   patriciakkatz067@gmail.com Patty is also in need of fabric…she loves anything kid friendly.

I also have Cathy who is looking for backing fabric and batting.  This is her contact info. morrillcathy@yahoo.com

I had a blog reader ask me why I had tops to send out.  She was under the impression that everyone was supposed to send their own tops out.  The tops you see in the pictures were primarily made by the Cresco Ladies.  They live just north of me and bring the tops to my house.  In a way, am part of their team and my job is to distribute tops.  I love that they do this…often

I hope those of you who didn’t get tops this time around understand the method to my madness in getting these out.  I want to SUPER encourage you to send another email and include the information I asked for.  There will be more tops and you will get some.  I appreciate that you reached out.

That’s what I know about community quilts at this point.  If anyone has questions, please leave a comment in the comment section.  THANKS!!