I received a request from Jan in VA to field questions any of you might have about the quilts for soldiers in Jan's SIL's barracks in Afghanistan. A cell tower that covers her area is down and she is having some trouble with communication!

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Jan In VA has asked us to help bring some color to the soldiers' world where her SIL is to help boost morale. She needs 128 small quilts so each soldier can have one for his cot. They need to be about 45-48" by 64-68". If you can only provide a top or two, she has donations of batting and has organized some local help in finishing them. I think her goal is to send a batch in October, and again in November or December. The patterns can be very simple and should be suitable for men (there are no women in this particular group). If you do a search, she posted several pattern ideas about a month ago.

Anyway, I'll be on the board each evening for a couple of hours to see if anyone has questions. Feel free to pm me. And Jan will try to get somewhere to log on when she can. There is no way to know right now how long the cell tower will be down. As I said to her - we have become slaves to technology!!!

This is so kind of you Linda b. I'll be watching your entries, too, incase something I need to know. I'm working on the project, too. Hope to get a few things mailed to her within this next week. Thanks for you help. Blessings, Ruth

Wow, I just saw this post. I will be watching for more info and see what I can do. thanks for helping out and alerting board members! :D

I can't make any promises about quilts for your soldiers, but I belong to a quilt guild and a number of its members enjoy making quilts for good causes. I'll be glad to pass the word along, but I'm not sure how to contact you if I'm successful. Is there an email or other address I can jot down so I can contact you sometime in the future?

How great it is for you to be doing this!

This sounds like Quilts Of Valour - United States. I do this for Canada soilders. :)

Aully,

Actually, though I do belong to a group called Patriot Quilters, (NOT associated with QOV), and we do make quilts for returning wounded service personnel mostly in Virginia, the project you are reading about here is a grass roots effort spearheaded by one mom. With enormous help from this board's caring quilters and many local guild members as well, we are outreaching ONE group of 128 men at ONE desolate Forward Operating Base in western Afghanistan, while they are still IN Afghanistan.

The projected finish date of this Military Barracks Quilt Project is hopefully mid-December, not a continuous effort, IF we give all 128 men a hug from home.

I clarify the difference because Quilts of Valor and other groups like American Hero Quilts are huge national organizations with lots of corporate sponsorship and financial assistance and long-arm quilters all over the country helping with their projects, and they've been doing this for years.

We on the other hand, are a tiny group of one pair of legs on the ground in Virginia, receiving the handiwork of quilters from this board, documenting everything, gathering backings/battings, raising finances, and shipping the quilts one multi-quilt box at a time through the US Post Office, from my home.

While I admire what QOV, etc. does, I also want the special quilters here, who have given so freely of their time, resources and prayers for my SIL battery in Farah, to receive all the worthy acknowledgement they so deserve. My hat is off to them down to the very last one! They are remarkable!

Best of success and blessing with your QOV project on Canada as well. :)

Jan in VA