#quiltsforpeace Update
“When the Pulse nightclub shootings happened, the Orlando MQG helped our hearts to heal by asking us to make hearts in rainbow colors for them, DMQG answered that call by committing to 5 complete quilts, and I am proud to say we are looking at a minimum of 9 completed by our guild (we have an amazing group).
Then when tragedy struck in our own back yard on July 7th, it seemed the natural thing to make quilts for our city to help us heal. Ann (President of FWMQG) called me that morning and asked if Ft. Worth MQG could help Dallas by assisting in a block/quilt drive. Because we were all familiar with thehttp://cluckclucksew.com/2015/01/making-heart-blocks-in-multiple-sizes.html (thank you Allison for allowing us to use your pattern) it seemed an easy enough process to whip out blue with white background hearts. I went to work making our first two blocks and spreading the word to our guilds through Instagram. McKinney MQG then joined us and three guilds have been working together to rally our members to help us complete 20 quilts. These quilts are to go to the following: 5 quilts to each of the Fallen’s Head of Household, 7 to the injured officers, 2 to the injured civilians, then 1 each to Chief Brown, Dart Chief Spiller, Mayor Rawlings, City Manager Gonzalez, Mark McCullers (SMU officer that drowned that same week), and Matt Pearce (Ft. Worth Police Officer shot 7 times last March).
Well…. that’s how it started, and then there was Baton Rouge. Really?!?! Another ambush so fast? Our hearts started breaking again, and we decided to add 6 more quilts to our count. Baton Rouge MQG was relieved to hear #quiltsforpeace would be sending them blue heart quilts for their fallen and injured officers. They were already working on a plan to make quilts for Alton Sterling’s family. I told them we would also like to send a quilt to Alton’s family.
“When your heart hurts, you make a heart,” is the message that Ann passed along to me from one of Fort Worth’s board members, Jenn Haxton. #Quiltsforpeace is sincerely that, quilters that are coming together at a time when our hearts hurt. Our message is one of Peace, Love, and Healing. It has been amazing all the hearts, quilt tops, quilts, supplies, and donations that quilters from all over the world have sent to us to help us complete out mission we certainly could not have made it all happen with out the Instagram community.
If you are keeping track, we basically needed 27 quilts minimum. I am happy to say we have over 40. Today, we decided we would also give another quilt to every fallen officer’s parent. We want to wrap them all in everyone’s love to help their healing process. We are also looking into sending 2 quilts to the San Diego MQG for their fallen and injured officers. Our total just jumped to 34 quilts minimum.”
Thank you Lee for the update!
