Hugs from Helen

Quiltaid 2011 – the countdown

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

QuiltaidUSA

As I travel up the highway today to catch the big boat to the mainland for Quilt market I thought I had better fill you in on a big project I have been working on for half of the year. You may have seen other blog posts about this – yes I am the last to tell you.

 

Over the past two years I along with Sue and Lynette began the Quiltaid project here in Australia – many lovely and  generous women took part to make a difference to the Women of Ethiopia, just by doing what they love – stitching and quilting.

This year we decided to expand to run a US based Quiltaid  and I invited 6 of our lovely Aussie Designers along with 6 of our favourite US designers to each make a block. We then had to find 6 of your favourite US shops to support the  cause and sell our blocks. Believe me, everyone involved have been wonderful and generous and excited about this project with us.

so, on the 1st of November Quiltaidusa launched officially.

My block

(which you saw a peek of last week) is being sold by

Shabby Fabrics along with Anne Suttons block.

Jennifer of Shabby Fabrics designed the most beautiful finishing quilt to go with her blocks

The other five shops have also designed wonderful and different layouts for their finishing kits – you will have a hard time choosing!

The other designers involved were Lynette Anderson, Sue Daley, Natalie Lymer, Bronwyn Hayes and Anni Downs from Australia and Anne Sutton, Robyn Pandolph, Terri Degenkolb, Kathy Schmitz, Brenda Riddle and Barri-Sue Gaudet of the USA. – see all your favourites…

And you can see all of the stores and their quilts here

Moda Fabrics and Presencia have also supported this project with fabric and threads.

how it works is: you go to the main website and click on each block photo to order your kits from the 6 stores. You then choose one finishing kit and order that by clicking on the photo.

From every kit sold a portion of the price is donated by the designer, the store and the fabric company to our charity which is the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia. You can  read more about it and the work they do here.

Quiltaid Australia is still running here in its second year so you do have a choice – check those blocks out here – two totally different looks – how wonderful is choice!

If you love to stitch, please take a look and consider making a difference to women less fortunate than ourselves…

Quiltaid, helping the world, one quilt at a time

hugs for today

Helen

QuiltAid show n tell

At the close our our inaugural QuiltAid project last year some of the participating stores donated their quilts to various groups to raise even more funds. Two quilts were given to World Vision groups to raffle.

Today I received wonderful news from World Vision letting me know the result of the raffle of the finished quilt from Quilters Bazaar in Victoria which Lorraine and Jim generously donated.

 

From The Phillip Island World Vision group:

We drew the lucky ticket for the quilt yesterday and the winner was Carmel Lawry.   Carmel is a nurse and is currently working with the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in South Africa, caring for Aids orphans.

She spent 3 months working there earlier in the year and has now returned for another 3 months.   Will be back in Australia in December.

She does know of her win but we are unable to take a photo.  Robyn took photos of members with the quilt yesterday and will send you a copy.

Sorry not the winner, but the next best thing!

We raised $1450 for the quilt and Robyn will be in touch with you re sending this onto Fistula.

It was certainly a very worthwhile exercise and thankyou so much for making the quilt available to our Club.     Regards Thelma.

What a wonderful result, Carmel sounds so worthy of this prize – she is already making a difference so it will be so fitting for her to be wrapped in this quilt which was made with caring hands.

Thankyou Jim and Lorraine, Phillip Island World Vision girls and everyone who purchased tickets to make a difference. If we add this to our funds raised Quiltaid09 contributed almost $8,000 directly to the Fistula Hospital project. I am sure that will make some difference to the  Ethiopian women suffering what we can only ever imagine.

Don't forget you can still join in our Quiltaid 2010 programme which is running now.

hugs for today

Helen

Quiltaid 2010

Dear blog friends,

Our 2010 Quiltaid program is ready to go.

Again we have 12 blocks designed by your favourite Australian designers being sold through 12 wonderful Australian stores. We have used the Robyn Pandolph Beachhouse fabrics which are lovely dreamy pastels - not so easy to photograph, but you will find a wide collection of beautifully finished quilts to choose from.

Our funds will again be supporting the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital through the Hamlin Fistula foundation. Read about the wonderful work of Catherine Hamlin and her team to see how your involvement can make a big difference on the 'about our charity' page.

So visit www.quiltaid.com.au to start ordering your blocks now. Choose your finishing kit from the 'gallery' and put your name down so as not to miss out.

This year you can submit your Block of the Month contract securely online (or print out and fax in). You can read the BOM contract rules here.

We hope you can once again join us to make a difference to others less fortunate than us simply by doing what you love - stitching and quilting.

If you are going to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Darling Harbour, Sydney, you will be able to see 3 of our finished quilts. If going to the Craft and Quilt Fair in Melbourne in July please visit 10 of our quilts in the Victorian Quilters Exhibition at Jeffs Shed.

QuiltAid - helping the world, one quilt at a time

 

 

 

hugs for today

Helen

QuiltAid 2010 guess the blocks competition

In just four short weeks our 2010 QuiltAid program will launch. All the blocks are done and the quilts are madly being finished. I thought it would be fun to have a little competition to jump start the program for this year after such a great success and the wonderful donations given last year. If you are unfamiliar with QuiltAid, our purpose and our goal please have a read of last years here. We hope you can join us again or for the first time as the fabrics are to die for and the quilts so far look magnificent- and by joining in you are helping others less fortunate than you – just by doing what you love and are lucky enough to be able to do – quilt!

So, here are the competition details: leave a comment and name the designer of each of the 12 blocks below. You could hunt around their blogs for peeks or just guess from the style. We will draw a winner from the comments on the last day of May and they will win a complete set of block patterns and one finishing kit pattern of their choice (no fabrics included, patterns only)

Please tell your friends and spread the word – we’ll have a new blog badge very soon, so get that one up in place of last years..

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Block 4

Block 5

Block 6

Block 7

Block 8

Block 9

Block 10

Block 11

          Block 12

happy guessing and good luck! Remember the first correct entry drawn on the last day of May is the winner!

hugs, Helen

Fabric looooove

oooh its so nice to get yummy fabrics sent to you to play with.

you may just see sneaks of these on several designer blogs in the near future as we all work on another new charity project beginning in June. they are just so my colours – soft and dreamy – they are from the Beachhouse Range by Robyn Pandolph. I think you will find this in the stores already if you just cannot wait.

hugs

Helen

Vote for QuiltAid

Many of you know of QuiltAid, a program started in June of this year whereby women are helping women just through making quilts! Now you can do something else to help just by a click.

Just by voting you could help win the $2000 for the Addis Ababa Fistula Foundation which would pay for 3 corrective surgeries and change the lives of 3 Ethiopian girls or women, forever.

You just need to go to this Facebook page (I am not sure but I think you may have to have a facebook account), find this photo and vote for it. Of course you may want to choose one of the other very worthy charities on there instead. A vote will help some charity somewhere in the world.

One click and make a difference…

hugs,

Helen

QuiltAid thanks the world

Wow girls, over 32,000 hits to our website…. way to go. I am overwhelmed at the response to our QuiltAid launch, hence  not much time here sharing with you all. And the nice part is that you are doing it because you care. I have had so many emails about personal stories, those who have worked or visited the Fistula Hospital and just those of support. I never doubted the generosity of quilters and stitchers but they have touched me and as I read the book ‘Hospital by the river’ to inspire me to work harder at this, I can’t imagine ever being able to make the difference Catherine Hamlin has made.

anyway, thankyou thankyou, and if you haven't joined in yet and want to, don’t leave it too long as the fabric will run out!

in the meantime I have had head down ** up working on getting this ready for you….

and as its now only 184 days til Christmas I hope to have the full pic to you later today…..and yes, that means a giveaway….

hugs to you all,

Helen

More quiltaid photos

As promised here are some more QuiltAid photos for you, mmmm how will you choose?

of course you can see them all plus all the individual blocks and visit the designers on the Quilt Aid website.

hugs

Helen

The countdown to QuiltAid 09

things are getting very exciting now as the countdown begins. Tomorrow June 10th QuiltAid 09 will officially launch at Darling Harbour Quilt and craft show. There will be about five of the finished quilts there for you to see if you are visiting, they all look so good.

The website will be up and running and you can start the process of joining in. If you have already registered we will email you to let you know we have begun.

If you haven't registered and dont want to miss out you may wish to download a BOM form to join in or just start shopping from the site tomorrow.

This has been many months in the making, starting with the idea last October to use our skills and talents to make a difference to women less fortunate than us. Women who should not have to suffer how they do when we can enjoy the freedoms and luxuries of life in our countries. And so it was born…. QuiltAid, making a difference, one quilt at a time.

So how does it work?  well we had 12 of your favourite designers design a block. Then 12 of your favourite Aussie quilt stores made them up into a finished quilt they designed. You need to visit each of the 12 stores to buy your block kits and then choose one finishing kit to purchase. How will you choose? I am sure it will be a difficult choice – of course you could make two or more.

Now, a portion from the sale of every pattern will go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital. This was featured on an ABC  documentary last year in Australia and had me in tears. You can read more about it and the wonderful things they are doing here and here and a documentary here.

some of the finished quilts -

I’ll show you some more tomorrow! I really enjoyed designing my block for you, I hope you also like it – sorry about the intricate needleturn (of course you could fuse instead) but I was very happy with my finished result and the Sachet Pot Pourri range of fabrics from XLN and Marcus Bros was so nice to work with.

 

so from my holiday in South Australia, watch this space tomorrow as QuiltAid makes a difference

hugs to you all

helen