Good Causes

It's been awfully quiet around here.  I've been very busy.  On Saturday I went to a quilt sponsored community service day.  We finished several quilts that day along with pulling together many kits for future quilts.  I took two kits home and should hopefully have some pictures to share here soon.  I didn't take any pictures from the day so nothing to share there.

On a slightly different note, on Friday I donated over 13" of hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, an organization that makes wig for women battling cancer.  Here is my "before" picture:

Donating my hair is something I have always wanted to do but I've always given up growing it before it's long enough or not been able to donate because my hair was damaged or colored.  But this time I was determined.  I'd been growing my hair out since college and the time felt right for a change.  Here is my "after" picture:

Stay with me, we'll get to quilts in a minute.  In early 2011 a family member of my husband was diagnosed with brain cancer and given only a short time to live.  He had two very young children and a wife and was uninsured.  Because he was uninsured his family decided to hold a fund raiser to help him with his medical bills.

Close up of block

I was only recently home from college and had just really started quilting.  At the time I was working on a behemoth of a quilt that I intended to use for my brand new queen-size bed (it was so nice upgrading from a twin bed and I had to have a quilt for it!).  So I spent ages picking out fabrics and sewing blocks, it was a log cabin pattern. and finally had a finished top pieced and ready to go off to the long arm quilter.  And I loved it!  Then we found out about this family member.  And I knew that I wanted to do something.

Quilt hanging at the Long Armer post quilting.

I was broke, paying for student loans and there's no way I could have given them money so I thought on it and decided to give them the quilt I had been working on.  And they decided to raffle the quilt.

Quilt displayed on Queen Size Bed

And they did.  And I'm happy to say that they raised a significant amount of money for him and his family and that this quilt went to live with a lovely little old lady from Maine who absolutely adored it.  And I'm even happier to say that he's still here with his family and he's doing well and we all couldn't be happier about it.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there was special meaning for me when I donated my hair.  And I'm so glad that I did.

Happy Quilting!