Quilters Unite!!

We have need of your quilting abilities and quilts!

We broke down and decided to go ahead and ship fully finished quilts to Becky in Warsaw, Poland, for the refugees. We had said that there was no way that we could do this up until two days ago. However, it is often said that it is a female’s right to change her mind, and my mind has been changed by the huge need!

These quilts need to be every size and include any age group. They can be geared specifically for one type (babies, young children, teens or adults) or just generic quilts that work for anyone and everyone.

Here are the details.

We have been in contact with Scott Fortunoff, President of Jaftex Corporation, who has inroads with FedEx. (The Fortunoff family owns Freespirit, Blank, Henry Glass, Studioe, 3Wishes and AE Nation, plus a couple of other fabric companies.) He’s going to help us get the best possible rate to ship internationally via FedEx Air. I’m surely hoping that they’ll give us some kind of huge break. However, we need to be able to ship at least a small pallet’s worth of quitls at once to make it worth Mike and Becky’s time to go and pick them up from wherever they are sent to.

So, if you’re in Florida, see if you can collect some quilts.

Then, bring them to us or ship them to us here in Dade City. We CANNOT pick up your quilts.

Though the store is only open crazy hours, trust me, we are here almost ALL the time, so we can accept quilts at just about any time during the day, or even Sunday afternoons, between 3 and 6 p.m. (If my white mini van is there with the signs on it anywhere in the parking lot, I’m somewhere on the property.) Someone kindly just left some on the bench outside the door today! Whomever you are, we thank you!

As well, my brother has agreed to be a collection spot in Greenville, SC. He comes to Dade City two times a month, so he will be happy to bring your quilts to us so we can get them on the next shipment.

We are going to aim to make the FIRST of what will hopefully be MANY shipments in about a week. We received 10 quilts in our first day of appeals!

Who can participate? Anyone.

What do we want? Quilts of all sizes and pillowcases. ONLY quilts and pillowcases No clothes. No pillows, no shoes. When I was over there, the rest of Europe had that covered! Those British were exceedingly generous in sending goods into Poland. I’m sure the rest of Europe has the shoes and clothing thing covered into Poland and Ukraine.

When do we want them? As soon as possible. However, no need to tear down the street, get a speeding ticket or skip a meal to get these to us. It’ll be at least a week before we can start to figure out how to ship the first batch.

Why? We are doing this because the need is just too great to ignore any longer.Becky said that the nights are literally freezing there, not just cold, like here in Florida (it gets to like 60 at night now, sometimes.. creating a brisk morning air!)

Where? Ship or drop off to us here in Dade City:

Quilted Twins

13829 US Hwy 98 ByPass

Dade City, FL 33525

Or if you’re in Greenville, SC, my brother (David Tillman) has agreed to let you bring them to him, and he’ll be happy to help out with this. His Cell number is: ‪(813) 767-7393‬. He texts and/or calls.

Please respect the efforts that we’re making to get all of this done by not calling and saying, “Please tell me about the quilt drive.” There are not enough hours in the day to talk to each person about this. (Of course, if you’re in Greenville, SC, you’ll have to contact David to setup a time to meet, but he doesn’t know much about the quilt drive.)

That’s why I’m writing this blog post, so everyone can get all of the details at once. I trust you understand how hard it is to deal with all the things at the same time that people need us to do. We are using every avenue we know to get the word out quickly.

if you can help spread the word through social media or by contacting your friend or relative or guilds, we’d really appreciate it.

—Rachael

Wow…Rachael…thanks! That would be huge!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Here’s one of the beauties we have!