May all your lights be green (or were) on this St. Patrick's Day 2024!
Quilters here in the USA and abroad are also celebrating our craft of quilting this weekend—a twofer if you will. I celebrated by entering and loading a quilt on my Long Arm to quilt a huge T-shirt quilt for a special repeat customer.
But my feel-good story about how quilts impact others is from my friend and fellow quilter, Joan Kuczka.
Back in November, I blogged about Maui Strong, which included sending 24 quilts to the Maui Quilt Shop for the survivors of the Lahaina fires from my quilt guild, the mighty Southern Comforters of Bowie/Crofton, Maryland. Three very large boxes of quilts made by many guild members finally made the long journey and final destination to the Maui Quilt Shop to be distributed by the employees to the families that devastatingly lost everything they owned.
After our guild meeting this past week, Joan approached me with a big smile and told me she had something special to share. Her quilt pictured below was given to a family that found her through Facebook and recently wrote her this lovely message: Wanted to say Hi and Aloha! I lost my home in the Lahaina fire on Maui. I was fortunate to pick out your quilt (UFO Challenge), and I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you!
The recipient apparently was adamant about finding Joan and thanking her, but that is not why Joan or any other quilter I know does it for a potential thank you. We do it because we love to give and spread the love of humanity (and manufacture sunshine for others) through beautifully created quilts and other fiber arts. But I'm thrilled Joan shared this story because you can tell by the simple message to Joan that this family was impacted in a positive way and grateful to start their lives anew with an amazing quilt—all the way from Joan's hands and heart in Maryland.
It's the little things...
bSoleille!
Terri
