Quilts of Compassion

Today, February 1, 2014, is Quilts of Valor National Sew Day,  sponsored by  The Quilts of Valor Foundation.  The mission of  The Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover all combat service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.  All members of this foundation are volunteers who donate their time and talents to the misison of making and donating quilts to honor servicemen and veterans of war.   You can see photos of many of their beautiful finished quilts and those who have created and/or received them here at their  website and here at their facebook page.   I happened upon some of their fabulous patriotic themed quilts a week or so ago while browsing my facebook newsfeed on a cold January night, and  I was touched by their generous efforts.  If you love making quilts, and want a worthwhile cause to donate to, this might just be the place for you. 

I also recently came across the Sunshine 4 ALL Lukemia Quilt Project in my purusal of beautiful quilts posted on facebook. The Sunshine 4 ALL Quilt project is run by Simon Haskins from Australia who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia in June of 2013. This is a very rare blood cancer that has a very long and difficult road to recovery. As part of his journey he is trying to do something to raise awareness about blood cancers and also to raise money for The Leukaemia Foundation to support those with this horrible disease.  Hopefully we will one day have a cure. 

The idea is for quilting and machine embroidery communities to help with this project by making an 8″ x 8″ quilt block that will be used to make quilts which will then be auctioned to raise money or given to a child who has ALL. The response so far has been overwhelming with many people making a quilt blocks; most people have made more than one block with some people making 20 blocks or more! The awareness colour for Leukaemia is orange. So it is requested that the quilt blocks be made in orange, with a splash of pink and yellow for good measure.  Anyone can be involved with Sunshine 4 ALL. Just make sure you read the guidelines page to get all the logistical information you need to make a block or two and participate in this amazing cause, including contact information and where to send the completed blocks. You can also see many of the completed blocks on the Sunshine 4 all facebook page.


Now, If I could only drag myself away from the books and the blogs and to the sewing machine, I might be able to create a little something myself!