“What happens when people open their hearts?
They get better.”
― Haruki Murakami

It’s taken some time to process and internalize the event that occurred in Orlando a few short weeks ago.  I know that for some of you, it’s a no brainer to get in there and offer help while others are slower to react and aren’t sure how to respond.  In this post, I’d like to take a humanitarian approach and recognize that there is real hurt not only for those immediately and intimately affected but for all of us as humans.  Never in my life can I imagine creating that type of pain and destruction.  It’s baffling.  And I most certainly feel compelled to act, no matter what form that might take.

Our community of sewers is so incredibly generous with their time, their talents, in their words and actions, I’m incredibly honored to be in this with y’all.

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is collecting quilts and blocks for the victims of the tragedy at Pulse nightclub on June 12, and MQG members around the world are invited to participate. The goal is to gather enough quilts to help not only the victims who survived, but the families of victims who perished, as well as first responders, nurses, police officers, etc.

The Orlando MQG is asking for a minimum of 102 quilts — one for each survivor, and one for the families of each victim who perished. Any quilts that surpass that number will be given to first responders, and then distributed to the LGBT community in Orlando via organizations like The Center and Zebra Coalition. (Source MQG blog https://themodernquiltguild.wordpress.com)

Crimson Tate is offering our space as a drop off for your individual blocks.  We want to put all of those beautiful blocks together and quilt them.  Will you join us?  Have you made a few blocks but feeling like you’re not going to get to the finish with an entire quilt?  Not a member of a MQG but feel compelled to help? Do you feel as if there’s power in putting your blocks with the blocks of your community?  We’d love to help put those squares together and create big old quilts of love.  Here’s how it’s going to work:

Blocks should be sent / dropped off to Crimson Tate by July 22, 2016.  Finished quilts need to be sent to Orlando by September 15, 2016. To allow us time to piece, quilt and bind the quilts, all blocks need to be returned to Crimson Tate by our target date July 22, 2016.

We’re looking specifically at a few tutorials, but really, we’re interested in making a few quilts that aren’t just rainbow.  We’d like to make quilts based on color – so for example – super scrappy blue quilt, or super scrappy orange quilt.  But the truth is, we’re open to your creativity and expression.  If you don’t want to make hearts, we’re ok with it.  We’re asking for 10″ squares, if at all possible but don’t let exactness slow you down or prohibit you from creating.

Here are a few tutorials and examples we love:

http://cluckclucksew.com/2015/01/making-heart-blocks-in-multiple-sizes.html

http://www.dontcallmebetsy.com/2016/06/quiltsforpulse.html?m=1

https://www.pinterest.com/themqg/orlando-mqg-charity-project/

Of course, we super love our tutorial, too, but the blocks don’t finish at 10″ – and that’s ok.  We’d love as many scrappy versions of this block, too:

https://blog.crimsontate.com/2014/02/10/scrappy-heart-block-tutorial-inlove/

When dropping off your blocks, we’d also invite you to include a note of well wishes and love to be sent with the quilt.

If you’d like to volunteer with us to piece blocks together, quilt quilts, or sew binding – we’ll need some volunteers, too.  More details on what will be needed in the coming days.  We’ll have a call for help based on the number of blocks we receive.

Sending so much love to you and a big thank you to Jenny, Crimson Tate snack mentor and employee, who asked to be the lead on this project.  Thank you, Jenny.  If you have questions, suggestions, or needs you’ll find her here: jenny@crimsontate.com