It seemed totally appropriate to deliver a load of donated quilts, quilt tops, and blocks for the Humboldt Broncos in a hockey bag. Confession: no great symbolism though, it's the bag I had that they all fit in. And don't worry, it has never been used for hockey gear!
I was flying out to Saskatoon over the weekend so offered to take Calgary area donations with me, so people didn't have to ship them on their own. Save the expense, after all. The wonderful folks at My Sewing Room volunteered to hold them for me too. Between those donations and the ones quilters dropped off at my house I delivered 20 finished quilts, 3 quilt tops, and a enough blocks for another quilt top to Periwinkle Quilting and Beyond in Saskatoon!
My own top was finished in time too. With great thanks to Lee Dueck at Quilting by Lee for volunteering to quilt this on her long arm. Can you see the hockey sticks she added?
The block design was picked by Haus of Stitches, the local store in Humboldt. It was a great block to choose because it went together so quickly. So instead of people making one block, they made many. Instead of making just a quilt top, people finished their quilts. I've never seen so many finished quilts donated to a drive like this! And I've heard of many people learning to quilt because they wanted to make one of these quilts.
Me, being me, had to play around with the suggested layout though. I did not do conventional borders too. I might have skipped borders all together, but I didn't have enough good greens in the stash to simply make more blocks. The hashtag effect was unintentional though. Totally appropriate, however, considering the spread of the news and support via social media.
The original goal was 200 quilts. Last count is about 700 and the deadline is still a few days away.
Quilters are amazing people. The global response to this horrific tragedy is beautiful and almost overwhelming. This, simply, is what quilters do. We take our desire to create beautiful things and spread love and comfort through the quilts. It often feels like the least we can do when we aren't able to bring meals, provide shoulders to cry on, make people laugh, and look people in the eye with love. It often doesn't feel like enough, but it does help.
In Saskatoon my friend, another synchro mom, drove me to the store. Her cousin's son was on the bus and the entire family is in awe and so appreciative of the support everyone is getting. Recovery for everyone is going to be a long, long road. These quilts will be one small thing in that journey
