Talk about exciting.

Every day I’m getting new contacts for people who are willing and WANTING to send us quilts so that we can send them overseas.

Many people are grateful that we’re doing this. However, I cannot over state that this drive would NOT be successful without YOU all reading and responding!

When we started this, we were unable to put a finger on whether this would be a hit or a miss. Well, it’s been a huge, huge hit!

This was from Saturday, when we couldn’t get to our orange shelves!

On Saturday, part of the entire store was blocked with donated quilts, because we had everyone bringing them inside, so yesterday we decided to put them in boxes outside the front door. Then, we shuttled them down to the Sewin’ shop. Here’s some of the ladies putting quilts in the boxes outside the building. I missed a bunch of the donors, because inside the store was quite busy.

Down at the Sewin’ Shop, three ladies and one man bagged and “sucked the air out” of 110 vacuum sealed bags of quilts. Each bag contains between 6 and 9 quilts, blankets, afghans and/or fleece blankets.. So, this batch of quilts is approximately 750. We did NOT count them. That was a miss on our part, but we were well into the project when we thought about doing it.

So, it’s a great guesstimate.

Today we’ll be packaging up more quilts, and we’ll know how many bags we’ve done at that point.

To date, we have collected “only” about 200 pillow cases, max. So, we’re quite a ways behind in pillowcases.

Becky would like, if possible, to package one pillowcase (a fun one) in with each quilt. Of course, if it’s not possible, it’s just not possible! So, come on, you pillowcase makers, please step up to the plate!

We still don’t have a viable means of shipping these over there. We’re still working on that angle. Please pray that we’d be able to work out the details soon on that, so we could figure out what and how to package these up. They are beginning to take over the entire sewin shop!

Thankfully, we haven’t had many people sign up for classes lately, so most have been canceled. So, it’s working out well to use the room for this project!

In a nutshell, for those of you who are just joining in on the Ukraine Quilt Drive, please join us in collecting finished quilts for the Ukrainians over in Poland as well as in Ukraine. Mike (Becky’s husband) knows one person who is running a refugee camp, and another man nearby has a camp of 1000 beds. All of these beds and refugees are missing bedding. When they leave their home for being bombed, they escape with their lives, and not much else.

We’ll be collecting all the way through the end of April, for this project. People are wanting to donate clothes, and to that we give a vehement, “NO. Not through us.” To quote Becky, “No one is running around naked over here, but plenty are cold.” Lots and lots of clothes can come in from the UK, Germany and other such nearby countries. But, no one seems to make quilts quite like the Americans! At least not as prolifically! So, that’s why we’re doing this! Around here, if someone goes off to college, they get a quilt. If they get married, they get a quilt. Often they’re given a quilt when someone dies in memory of their loved ones.

We love our quilts and quilts speak volumes in the form of love sent by the one making it as well.

Scott Fortunoff, president of Jaftex, has even sent down a boxload of beautiful quilts from the headquarters of some of the major fabric players in the industry! Take a look at these beautiful quilts that sent from Jaftex.

We do plan to continue this drive through the end of April. So, get your guilds and friends stitchin. Get them tovus down here in Dade City, FL.

Also, we have two brothers in Greenville, SC. One comes down every month. He can bring anything given to him in that down or surrounding areas. Jon will also help with the pickups. Contact Jon Tillman (our maiden name) at: ‪(717) 497-7865 • mobile or David Tillman at ‪(813) 767-7393 • mobile, if you are in the Greenville, SC, area. They’ll coordinate together and get them down here to us.

For ALL the details of the quilt drive, read THIS blog post!

We’ll keep you posted here as to how it’s going. We are one week in, and have at least 1000 quilts and 200 pillowcases!