Wednesday 17 December 2008

Quilts for Nepal



I just wanted to share a story with you. I was teaching at the local quilt shop a while ago and one of my students, Claire Wenham, had just returned from a trip to Nepal. Whilst there she saw a school for deaf children which was poorly resourced. She wanted to do something to help the children and after discussing a few ideas decided to make a quilt to auction to raise money to send to the school. I offered to design a quilt in Electric Quilt. It had to be simple as we were going to ask people of various skills to donate blocks. I designed a quilt using half square triangles in blue and white fabric.

The ladies from the classes at the LQS, ladies from my other classes at the Community High School and others all donated enough blocks to make two double bed sized quilts. In class we arranged the blocks and set about stitching them together. A friend, Diane from Lochearnhead, kindly quilted them on her longarm machine for a nominal fee (one was quilted for free). Claire bound them and the quilts were raffled. £2,700 was raised for the Nepal children's school so they now have decent sleeping accommodation, a bathroom and better cooking facilities - all funded by two quilts designed using Electric Quilt with blocks donated by very generous quilters.

12 comments:

Sandy said...

That is such a nice thing to do.

Françoise said...

That's wonderful!
(Btw, your new sewing machine looks terrific.)

Linda B. said...

Great quilts, even greter quilters!

Teodo said...

A brilliant idea while the world is seeing a lot of 'unpleasant' happenings everywhere.
ciao ciao

McIrish Annie said...

how wonderful that a little bit of time and fabric from a group of ladies helped so many children.

Doreen G said...

What a wonderful thing to do Carol and both quilts are beautiful.
Congratulations to all concerned.

Elma in Lochwinnoch said...

Congrats! the quilts are lovely---lucky owners and for such a great cause!
Lovely machine too!!
Have fun!

Vicki W said...

What a great story!

Uniquely Yours Creations said...

What people say is true "Quilters are loving and generous people"! Sharing the fruits of our sewing
skills to give some measure of comfort.

Thank you Carol for sharing your story, especially this Christmas season.
It warms my heart.

Lin

Shirley Goodwin said...

Well done! This is what I love about the quilting community. Have a great Christmas and i hope 2009 will be a good year for you.

Frederique said...

This is a wonderful story, and a very generous thing. The 2 quilts are beautiful, and I'm sure the kids love them.
Merry Christmas, and plenty of joy and happyness for this end of year!
Hi from Tahiti

Leah said...

oh these are absolutely gorgeous! the blue looks so nice against the white. thanks for the inspiration.