Please join me in welcoming guest blogger, Teresa, as she shares her Nifty Fifty quilting group and charity. An awesome group that has accomplished so much.

I created the Nifty Fifty state quilt block swaps which also make charity quilts for Breast Cancer Awareness. I live in Virginia and I have been quilting for almost 20 years. I love to hand piece and hand quilt. I do all my appliqué by hand including the 50 state quilt blocks that I have made in the past.

In 1995 my quilting pen pal and I started a centralized 50 state quilt block swap. I represented the state of Virginia and while making my 50 Virginia state quilt blocks (all hand pieced) I thought how easy it would be to make a couple more quilt blocks for charity. So I requested our quilters to make two extra quilt blocks. We decided to use one quilt block for a charity quilt and one for a museum quilt. As a group of women we voted to make our charity quilt for Breast Cancer Research since this disease touches so many women’s lives. The museum quilt would be used to collect signatures of breast cancer survivors and victims.

Our Original Nifty Fifty Quilters meeting in 1998 to sew the Breast Cancer Charity Quilts together

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The Global Quilt Project will benefit a sanitation and clean water well project in the Central African Republic (CAR), a remote landlocked country in Central Africa, which is ranked one of the poorest regions in the world.

The latrines built from this project will be located in a school and will allow maturing girls an opportunity to stay in school providing them the privacy they need. The daily chore of collecting water for the family use is typically given to girls and the community clean water well built from this project will be located nearby the school allowing time for these girls to both attend school and fulfill their daily chore of collecting water for their families.

Our Global Quit Project began when we saw a photo of the ladies in Berberati, CAR learning how to quilt. My inquire on this photo prompted Lisa Namsen to send our organization 2 quilting blocks she had hand sewn while attending the quilting class in Berberati. These blocks will be featured in the center of our Global Quilt. The quilt will reflect the message that when our efforts stand alone they may seem insignificant but as we join together we can make a difference in the lives of our neighbors around the world.

We are asking quilters from around the world to donate 12 x 12 inch block(s) or 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inch block(s). These blocks will be joined together and our Global Quilt will be auctioned off in conjunction with World Toilet Day on November 19th 2010. All dontated blocks received by September 15th, 2010 will be included in our Global Quilt Project for 2010. Any blocks received after September 15th 2010 will be used in our Global Quilt Project for 2011. Please follow our website for updates on the Global Quilt Project and the sanitation and clean water well project built in CAR.

The World Health Organization estimates that 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation, including 1.2 billion people who have no facilities at all and 884 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water.

Global Change, Inc. is a US based non profit 501(c)3 organization whose mission is to provide safe clean water and basic sanitation to people living in extreme poverty. Our approach to the water crisis includes 3 aspects; access to clean water, access to basic sanitation and hygiene education. We consider these 3 aspects essential in the alleviation of disease in developing communities while providing a realistic opportunity to end the cycle of poverty within the communities we serve.

GlobalChange.Me would like to send our deepest gratitude to the quilters throughout the world. The common bond that builds relationships between quilters has also touched the lives of so many around the world. Thank you for allowing us to become part of the quilting community and to share with you our passion to bring clean water and basic sanitation to our global neighbors.

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook or read our blog.

Amy Allen
CEO
Global Change, Inc
Web: www.globalchange.me
Email: amy@globalchange.me
Phone: 407-951-2826

Thank you for this opportunity to post about our Charity Quilt site "Sharing Quilts". Giving a quilt to someone "just because" or in a time-of-need is so amazing. So, we feel this "Sharing Quilts" is perfect for the quilting community to come together and do just that! Share a quilt! We also know you share from your heart! Sharing a quilt means you have giving your time, talents, and money to create something for someone that will last for years. This act is very selfless and appreciated for years! Thank you, in advance, for Sharing Quilts with others; family, friends, or people you may not know. ~ Jackie Davis

Describe your organization or group.

"Sharing Quilts" will be running campaigns for charity quilts when they are needed as well as post other quilter’s campaigns to get the word out to collect charity quilts. Sharing Quilts with anyone, anywhere for any reason. Join us!

Did any one person or event inspire the creation of the charity quilt group/organization?

This has been on my heart since I started quilting with a group of women in 2006 for baby dedication quilts for a church plant in Guatemala. The locals who receive them are so appreciative for this ‘new’ item that was also made with love. Then, Tropical Storm Agatha hit Guatemala May 29, 2010, and I had more reasons to finally do this, and not wait.

Geographic location of your organization or group.

For our personally hosted campaigns, quilts will be collected from world-wide to my home base in Florida, USA. I am currently a missionary in Guatemala. Quilts will be delivered personally, preferably, unless otherwise noted.

If applicable, how many charity quilts have been donated?

"Sharing Quilts with Agatha Victims in Guatemala" is our first hosted and advertised campaign. We would appreciate as many quilts as possible. We do not have numbers right now.

Are there any special yearly events, such as a quilt-a-thon?

We might host annual events in the future, but for now there will be campaigns based on need.

How can one volunteer, donate, or get involved?

Send an email to sharingquilts@yahoo.com – Get the information in a reply – Make the quilt or quilt top – Send the quilt or quilt top – Smile and know that someone is very blessed with you sharing your love through a quilt.

More Specifically, our first campaign details are on this page/post, hurry deadline July 1, 2010:

Web site address?

http://sharingquilts.blogspot.com/

Other contact information

sharingquilts@yahoo.com
904-685-1635 phone

Bless you all in advance for helping.

As founder of “A Way to Women’s Wellness, Inc.”, I began the non-profit foundation in 2003, when I began to invite friends to create embellished bras. The term ArtBra was born and we continue to create ArtBras for our annual WTWW ArtBra calendar and exhibitions. 100% of the net proceeds from the sale of the ArtBra calendars are donated to different breast cancer centers.

Our group also designs a crazy quilt every year, which we donate to a breast cancer center.

This year the WTWW ArtBra Exhibit will appear at the Houston Quilt Festival and at national conferences of the American Sewing Guild and Embroidery Guild of America.

This year’s deadline for ArtBra entries is June 5th. Bras should arrive at the RibbonSmyth Studio no later than June 5th to be considered for inclusion in the 2011 ArtBra Calendar. Area photographers and quilt book editors will select the 2011 Calendar ArtBras. All bras submitted will appear at this year’s exhibitions.

Complete submission guidelines may be downloaded at www.artbra.org. There is also a gallery featuring the latest ArtBra arrivals.

For additional information please contact Victoria Brown at info@artbra.org.

Books have been written, songs have sung, stories have been told about the city of New Orleans.

How to describe one of the oldest American cities: Do you start by telling of its rich cultural heritage? Founded by the French, given in treaty to Spain, sold to the United States, plantations worked by people of color? Or do you speak of its music: sultry blues, magical jazz, upbeat zydeco, strains of Caribbean rhythms mixing in? Perhaps you speak of its magnificent architecture. Maybe you speak about the exquisite cuisine peculiar to that city. The cuisine that makes my mouth water just mentioning it, and makes my taste buds dream of delights to come, resides in that city.

All of those things are New Orleans, plus much more. The people of New Orleans laugh easily, work hard, and dream the same dreams of all Americans. The dreams came crashing down when Hurricane Katrina unleashed her fury upon the city. We have all seen the pictures of the devastation left in her wake. It was heart wrenching to see what the failures of the Army Corps of Engineers and Mother Nature had wrought. Homes and businesses, schools and hospitals, all destroyed or damaged badly. Far away in Missouri, I cried as I saw what had happened to the city of beauty I had known growing up in southern Louisiana.

The people of the city are determined to rebuild and reclaim their lives. They are tough and resilient. They are bravely trying to clean up the mess. In the days immediately following the storm there was help, there still is help, but not enough. There are some famous and well-known people who are helping but they can’t do it by themselves. Presidents visit the city and promise aid but when they go back to Washington no one comes after them to follow through.

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The Parkinson’s Quilt Project is the first global quilt project to focus the world’s attention on the nearly one million people in the US and more than 4.1 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The project aims to raise awareness of the impact that the disease has on people living with Parkinson’s along with their families, caregivers and friends and on our continued urgency to find a cure.

The Quilt gives people all over the world the chance to express their support of people living with PD and highlight their connection to the disease by adding their own personalized panel. You do not need to be a sewing expert to create a panel for the quilt. You can use paint, needlework, iron-on transfers, fabric markers or even spray paint. If you are a poet, you can write a poem on the panel or even write it on a piece of firm paper and sew that paper to the panel.

The Quilt will consist of panels made by individuals and groups affected by Parkinson’s, in honor of the cause, of their group or in honor of their loved ones affected by PD. Each panel will be two feet tall and two feet wide, and will be sewn together in eight foot sections. There will be the opportunity for groups to create both panels and sections.

The Parkinson’s Quilt will be displayed for the first time at the 2nd World Parkinson Congress in Glasgow, Scotland from September 28th through October 1st, 2010. After this initial showing, blocks of the Quilt will be available through 2011 for rent to display at PD events. Details of this opportunity will be available in 2010.

The sky is the limit with this project and it is open to anyone touched by Parkinson’s or wants to honor those with Parkinson’s. The more creative the piece the more exciting it will make the final Quilt!

Registration to make a panel opened December 1, 2009 and will end June 1, 2010.

• How to get involved
• Help raise awareness