Hi! My name is Joe, I have a wife and three kids and I work all day in a button factory...wait, no...that's not right. Hi, I'm Melissa and I'm a crafty mother shut your mouth. I've been quilting for about a year and crafting for about as long as I can remember.
About two years ago a friend of mine made me a small lap quilt (pictured above). I've slept with this quilt just about every night since I received it. We're like Linus and his blanket. It gives me comfort and it helps keep me warm. If I've had a not so great day I can ball up underneath and the world disappears. It's the one constant in all the changes that take place every day.
I want to share this comfort with kids in need. Foster kids who pass from house to house, sick kids in the hospital who long for the comfort of home, kids who have little or nothing because that's just the hand they've been dealt. I want to give them something that is just for them, that will bring them comfort and warmth.
Why a handmade quilt and not just any old blanket from the store you ask? A lot of time and care goes into making a blanket. Each blanket like each kid is unique. A handmade blanket is their own and no other kid will have one just like it. A handmade blanket shows a kid that someone cared enough to do something just for them.
Here's where you come in:
Each quilt costs about $45 in fabric, batting and thread. My goal is to raise $5500 in order to cover the cost of the supplies to make each quilt as well as other costs associated with making each quilt like needles, rotary blades, labels, sewing machine maintenance, shipping etc. I also want to be able to cover the cost of the fees included in running this campaign (almost $500 when my goal is reached).
All the extra money raised will go towards materials so I can continue to make more quilts until the funds run out..
If I don't reach my goal I will do my best with what I do raise and continue to search for funding to make 100 quilts.
Most of the quilts will be given to children locally, but I would love to send quilts out to cities/states that my donaters live in. And I'll be documenting this mission with updates here as well as on my blog, instagram and facebook fan page so that you all can follow along and see the good that your donations are doing.
My hope is to make even a small difference in a kid's life.
How You Can Help
You can donate several different ways - by using your credit card directly, by using your debit/credit card or an echeck through PayPal, donating fabric or spreading the word.
1) Funds donated directly with your credit card are not released to me until short period after the campaign ends, sometime in August.
2) Funds donated via PayPal will automatically deposited into my PayPal account. (The sooner the donation is received the sooner a child gets a quilt.) You do not need a PayPal account to use this service. When you are directed to the PayPal page, just uncheck the blue-checked box that says "Save this information with a PayPal account" and you will be redirected as a non-PayPal account member.
3) If you have extra QUILTING fabric that you have no plans for and would like to donate that, feel free to contact me via social media or click on my name below and send me a message and we can work out the details on how to get that fabric to me.
4) I understand that not everyone can give monetarily and that's okay, but you can still help. Shout it out while standing on the roof of your car, share it on your facebook/twitter/instagram/tumblr page, blog about it, tattoo it on your forehead whatever. Just help spread the word. Every little bit is appreciated.
*photo and quilt courtesy Gale of stamps-n-stiches.com
