justflyingin

I give them away. Last week I gave away three to a lady who needed some. She has three children and her hubby left her. Others just are working poor. Often the woman is left with children to raise alone on a very small amount of gov't help each month.

If someone asks me for a quilt (because they have heard that we have them to give away), I often give them one or more--one for each person in the family if I think it is needed. Apparently word gets around.

At Christmas time, we give away a lot because of a special outreach we do and some of the ladies "win" a quilt in a lottery/drawing (a free lottery one--all they have to do is put their name and address in a box and we draw it--there is no money involved).

It started because I think all ladies need something pretty in their lives. Too many times the things people had here were rather stark (as things have become much more available here, this situation has gotten much, much better). Then, I knew that many ladies in the US have unfinished and half finished projects sitting around, gathering guilt. I asked my supporting churches' ladies' groups if they had anything I could either pass along to ladies in Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania or here in Poland (as in supplies). I got a lot of misc. stuff and in with that was some rather ugly fabric. I couldn't decide what to do with it, so I read that if you cut up even ugly fabric small enough, it can be beautiful in the end--that started it as I really hadn't planned on making quilts, per se, but in passing along craft supplies.

In the meantime, we had started an official charitable organization here.

So, it is through this organization that I do this--but this organization is "us".

I don't make people bring any documents to show how much they make each month, etc. One other reason I originally started was to help those whose houses burned down as annually it seems several people lose their homes and often it is the poorer people and the houses are public housing. The houses were left abandoned after WW2 because they were previously Jewish summer homes and for obvious reasons, after the war, no one returned to claim them or the land. They have become public housing as the gov't can't really sell the land. They are often not insulated well and are rather cold in the winter (one reason they burn down so often is that they are overloaded with extension cords because people are trying to keep warm).

I try to make them pretty. Sometimes people give me tops to finish. I don't always like them, but I finish them. Then, I offer the quilts to the ladies to choose from and they choose one they like. Often their choices aren't my choices, but that's why I like to have a variety to choose from. If a mom comes with a child, they often give the child the chance to choose their favorite. I try to give away or make only things that I would like--which is a problem as I tend to do too many flowers!!!!

Here are a few pictures. Some are from Christmas time, some are just misc. people I've heard about. I've been given quilts before by several different church groups, so I know how much I love them. I ask people to let me get pictures so I can document to people that I really do give quilts away!