Quiltaid 2011 – the countdown

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Where have I been, what have I been doing?? For the past four months this project has been keeping me busy, awake late at night and at times very stressed!

But all going well on the 1st of November we launch our third year of Quiltaid(TM) - but this time worldwide – yes, we’ve gone global…yes this has caused many issues, and taught me to be flexible and always ready for another answer to a problem…how did I possibly think a one woman band and little old stitching mum sitting at home at the bottom of the world could pull this off? – well, we’ll wait and see, we are not there yet!

The first part was easy, Lissa of Moda was very keen to be involved and supportive once again and was excited to also go global with the program. The fabric choice was also easy, who could go past ‘Ruby’ by Bonnie and Camille for Moda?

Finding our 12 Aussie designers was also a pleasure with some new faces and names to the program very enthusiastic to be involved and help make a difference. Finding six stores in each region was not so easy with the Northern Hemisphere going on their summer holidays, language barriers and time differences, but we got there with 18 well respected stores and fabulous owners wanting to get involved.

The second part was the fun bit– designing my block for the program..

With the theme being chosen as Whimsy and Wonder it was a joy to include some familiar features such as the little caterpillar, dragonflies and my cute little bee you may remember from the Life is Beautiful quilt.

Now we come to crunch time – the blocks are all designed and stitched, the sample quilts all made, the patterns printed and the fabric kits ordered and prepared – now we just need you all to fall in love with them and buy them!

because when you do – you not only get the enjoyment of stitching our designs (and I think this years are the best ever), keeping a beautiful quilt at the end – but also you are helping the women of Ethiopia and around the world who suffer such things we can only imagine. Yes every designer and every store involved have donated a portion of their pattern sale to the Addis Ababa Fistula hospital in Ethiopia, started and still run by an amazing Australian woman – Katherine Hamlin.

Please if you have a few minutes to spare go and read about this woman and the work she does. Even better, borrow the book ‘Hospital by the River’ from your local library.

We would love you to also spread the word about Quiltaid – we want to really make this work so we can really make a difference to women less fortunate than us. No woman, no matter her race, her position in society, her culture or her colour should have to suffer this pain and humiliation.

It has been a pleasure to organise this years program and my job will be complete when all of our kits have been sold and the donation presented…

So, what to do now? 

1. go to the website for your region

www.quiltaid.com.au – for Australia

www.quiltaidusa.com – for USA and Canada

www.quiltaideurope.com – For Europe and the UK

2. Click on each block photo to order your block kits (we officially launch on 1st Nov but many stores are taking preorders now)

3. Go to the finishing kit page and choose which finished quilt you like the best, click on the large photo to order it. (note that the Europe program will be showing their finished quilts by the 1st of December –due to one of those issues I had to come up with a solution to!) But you can order the block kits now.

4. Go to the FAQ page on each website, get the badge code and put the badge on your blog – tell the world, your stitching group, your guild, your local newspaper – tell anyone who might care…

5. make your quilt with great satisfaction, show it with pride knowing that you have made a difference!

6. Take a minute to appreciate how lucky you are to have been able to afford this project, had the skills and materials to make it, electricity and light to be able to physically make it, and the caring nature that you wanted to do it in the first place.

I want to publicly thank the 11 other designers, the 18 stores, Fabric distributors, thread distributors, magazines and other sponsors for trusting me and having faith that I can pull this off

hugs to you all and wish me luck as we launch next week!

Helen

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