I want to thank all of you for your advice about how to send a quilt. I followed it with great success. I labelled it inside too, water protected it, decorated the box outside with hearts and of course insured it. I sent it from my local UPS Store and my friend had to sign for it. I never did check the tracking because it got there when it was supposed to. The only thing that would've been better was to have brought it in a box instead of buying theirs.... but I didn't have one that worked.
I printed out all your suggestions for future needs. And I didn't give away my grown-up now kid's pool foam noodles since Klue said she rolls quilts on them.
You can see the wallhanging quilt I made and sent to my far-away friend on the Pictures section. It arrived a week before her daughter gave birth to twins... just in time to put up before things got crazy!
Thanks again!