Share the Warmth Campaign

My thanks to Quiltzyx for telling me about the Share the Warmth campaign.  Martingale & Company, home of That Patchwork Place, is holding a charitable campaign this year, and requesting quilt donations.  They are hoping for 3,500 quilts to the charity of your choice by December 1, 2011, or until they reach their goal of 3,500 quilts.  Last check, they'd recorded around 1,000 donations.

My Secret Garden quilt is back from the quilter now.  It just needs binding.

If you'll recall, this quilt began as a challenge quilt for a guild I was attending a while back. The challenge was to do a technique that was new to us, and to tie the theme with a children's book. I  decided that my new technique would be to make the mystery quilt that was running in American Quilter magazine at the time. I'd never done a mystery quilt before. Since my focus blocks were floral, I decided to pair it up with:

That's how my quilt got its name. So . . . that was supposed to have happened two months ago, but since I stopped going to the guild, I didn't participate in the challenge.  The quilts and books were supposed to be donated to a Northwest charity, but that didn't happen either.  That doesn't mean I can't still donate the book and the quilt. 

Now that the quilt is back, I did some investigation into what charities I might donate it to.  I could only find one that was looking for both quilts and books.  The only problem was that they didn't want quilts larger than crib size, and mine is about twin size.  Then, I happened upon this post from Judy Laquidara's blog.  Judy is soliciting donations of quilts or cash for residents of Joplin, Missouri, who were harmed by the devastating tornado.  I had a brief correspondence with Judy and she will accept my quilt and book and make sure that the two stay together and go to a teen or pre-teen girl.  I've also checked with the Share the Warmth campaign, and they tell me I can use Judy's solicitation for their charity as well.  I feel as if I'm killing two birds with one stone!

I encourage you to check out the links I've provided for both campaigns and to do what you're able to.  It's good karma!