Helping Out When Disaster Strikes

Many of you know I'm a consultant for My Lazy Daisy, a direct-sales company that sells complete quilt kits. Look at this article that Diane Card, co-owner of My Lazy Daisy, just sent me! I'm so excited!!! :o)

Click here to see the article!

The donations I'm receiving daily are ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! My thanks to each of YOU for "helping out when disaster strikes!" You guys are so AWESOME!!! :o)

Hugs!

Changes for Phoenix Quilts

What a whirlwind of events we've had around here lately! With speaking assignments, attending quilt-a-thons, delivering quilts, having a Phoenix Quilts booth at an event where there were approximately 1,200 women in attendance, PLUS keeping up with the day-to-day work Phoenix Quilts requires, it's been CRAZY busy!!! But oh, so AWESOME!!! :o)

Because of how much time I'm working with Phoenix Quilts I need to make some changes that will allow me to stay sane! :o)

• I would appreciate it if you would now send in completed quilts and/or monetary donations. It's taking a lot of time piecing tops with the blocks that are being sent in and then finding people to quilt and bind all the quilts. Everything I've received has been so beautiful - there are a lot of talented quilters out there! I have been totally amazed by the generosity of everyone sending in these donations, but for now I need to limit it to completed quilts. I also think I have enough fabric to make the backs for all of these quilt tops. The monetary donations will be used to help complete quilt tops and blocks that have already been sent in and to help with distributing the quilts. If you are currently working on something you were planning to donate, please still send it in! I really do appreciate everything all of you are doing! :o)
• I'd prefer that you send in lap-size quilts to be used for Phoenix Quilts purposes. That way we can give one quilt to each family and the entire family will be able to use it. I have received soooo many baby/child size quilts, it's unbelievable! They are all so darling! :o) I've got enough to cover our needs for now, though. If you would still like to donate smaller quilts (which would be awesome!) I'll be donating them to our local ambulance service (I'm a volunteer EMT when I'm not quilting!) and hospitals. If that's all right with you then keep sending them in! :o)
• I would love to have a picture on my blog of every quilt that is being sent in, but that also takes a lot of time (I'm not very fast with cameras and computers). If you would please post a picture of your quilt in the Phoenix Quilts group on Flickr (use the Donations tab on the Phoenix Quilts blog) then we'll all be able to see the quilty goodness being donated! :o)

I am deeply grateful for all the donations that have been sent in and hope that you will continue to help us help those who have lost their home to a wildfire. I hope that you can understand why I'm making these changes. I haven't ever done anything like this before and I'm having to learn what works best for everyone as I go along! :o)

If you have any questions or suggestions, please leave me a comment or send me an e-mail at julie@cut.net.

Hugs!

Help Wanted - Inquire Within

Well the time has come . . . I need some help!

Those of you who have been following Phoenix Quilts from the beginning know how quickly things have grown in the past month and a half. What started as wanting to give one quilt to some friends who lost their home to the Wood Hollow wildfire near our home, grew to a desire to give a quilt to the 52 families that lost a home in that fire. Because of your generosity, we decided to help every family in the Western United States who has lost a home to a wildfire this summer. Today we are at 897 homes that have been destroyed.

As you can imagine, this has turned into a very large, time-consuming project. It's a project that I LOVE, but now I need help with it. Here's what I'm thinking . . .

I would like to have one person per state monitor and research the fires in each state in the Western United States. That person would inform me through e-mails about the status of the fire(s) in their state. That will help me keep our lists up-to-date of the homes that have been lost to a wildfire.

The way I research a fire is I go to the Phoenix Quilts blog and click on the map of the United States on the right sidebar to see where new fires are. I then go to the two websites listed on the sidebar under the map and look at the information for the different fires in each state. Sometimes those sites don't tell me how many homes have been burned so, if needed, I then go to the local news or newspaper websites.

If you are interested in helping me with this, please send me an e-mail (julie@cut.net), not a comment on this post. If I happen to get more than one offer of help per state then I will use the first person that e-mails me and put the second person on a back-up list. You can click on the Volunteers tab on the Phoenix Quilts blog to see who the volunteer is for each state.

Thank you so much for your willingness to help! In my wildest dreams I never thought Phoenix Quilts would need to help so many families and that so many people would step up to help fulfill those needs! Thank you so, so much! =D

Hugs!

Charlotte Fire Quilts Delivered

This weekend was so AWESOME!!! We donated some quilts for the Charlotte Fire victims on Friday in Pocatello, Idaho! There is a quilt store in Pocatello, Sages Creek Quilt Co., that has been collecting quilts for those who lost their home to the Charlotte wildfire.

When we drove up I thought it was going to be a tiny store. Boy was I wrong!!! :o)

This sign was on the door we went in. It's asking for 66 quilts for the fire victims! I was so glad I was there for just that reason! :o)

The store was amazing! So much fabric and so many beautiful quilts around the store! I LOVED IT!!! The people there were so friendly and extremely grateful for your donations! :o)

The local quilters in Pocatello have been so busy! They had already donated 46 quilts so all that was needed was 20 more from Phoenix Quilts! I was so happy to help them reach their goal of 66 quilts to help all of these families who have lost their homes! I'm so grateful to each one of you that have been so generous with your donations! This trip made me realize that I am just representing Phoenix Quilts, but you guys are Phoenix Quilts! THANK YOU!!! :o)

Hugs!

Kyle Received His Mission Call

Last night our son, Kyle, opened his mission call! He actually got the letter in the mail last Wednesday, but he wanted to wait to open it until our other son, Brian, was home from Ohio so he could be there for this exciting time! (They are the very BEST friends!!!) It about KILLED me waiting, but I thought it was cool that he wanted everyone with him for this big day! The only ones that weren't able to be home was our daughter, Jess and her family, so we called them and put them on the speaker phone so they could hear him as he read the letter out loud!

He will be serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Colombia, Cali Mission!  He leaves December 19, 2012, for two years!  We are soooooo excited and proud of him!!!

Now to get everything ready for him to go . . .

Hugs!

Pocatello, Idaho - Charlotte Fire

Today Todd and I are headed to Pocatello, Idaho, to take quilts to those who lost their home to the Charlotte fire! I'm so excited! It's weird . . . these quilts kinda feel like my "babies" . . . I've tried to take such good care of them . . . it's almost sad to see them go! I'm so happy that they'll finally be where they belong, though! :o)

There are a couple of gals in Pocatello who have also been collecting quilts from local quilters so I'll be adding 20 quilts from Phoenix Quilts to the 46 they already have! In a couple of weeks they are going to have a "tea party" for everyone who lost their home and will be distributing the quilts then. I'll ask them to be sure and send me some pictures so I can post them on my blog!

Thank you so much for all you're doing to help!!! :o)

Hugs!

It's a Small (Quilting) World After All!

Today I got a quilt top in the mail for Phoenix Quilts clear from Australia!  And yesterday I got a quilt and a fat quarter bundle all the way from South Korea!  The world is full of such great people!  THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!  :o)

Hugs!

Interview on ksl.com

It's here! Click HERE to see the story about Phoenix Quilts on www.ksl.com! I'm so happy!!! :o)

Hugs!!!

My Days

Sometimes "life" gets in the way when you've got other plans . . .

Wednesday - Went to Provo and Orem to pick up quilts and fabric for Phoenix Quilts from three different people!  So generous!!!  Entered things into Phoenix Quilts database for a while . . .

Thursday - Spent the day at the hospital with my daughter who has a terribly painful kidney infection.  So, so sad.  :(  Drove to Nephi to pick up 30 quilts being donated to Phoenix Quilts by My Lazy Daisy!  Stayed up until 2:30 a.m. trying to get caught up on Phoenix Quilts stuff.  Went to bed before I finished . . . :/

Friday - Got paged out for an ambulance run at 6:00 a.m. (I'm a volunteer EMT).  Tried to get caught up on taking pictures of quilts received for Phoenix Quilts (got about 1/2 way done before I got too hot and tired - what a wimp).  Made final plans for delivering quilts in Pocatello, Idaho, next Friday (August 10)!  Three grandkids came to visit for the weekend (ages 3, 2, and 5 months) while their parents go to Colorado for a little get-away trip!  Took some pictures for KSL to add to the story they're writing about Phoenix Quilts (it will be on www.ksl.com on Sunday afternoon).  Tried to stay on top of the pain and nausea my daughter is experiencing.  She's still so sick . . . :(

Saturday - Go to the 1/2 marathon, 10K, and 5K races (as an EMT, not runner!) up Fairview Canyon.  Played/changed diapers/chased/had a picnic/changed more diapers/laughed with grandkids until their bedtime!  Answered a few e-mails about Phoenix Quilts.  Daughter's kidney pain is spreading to her tummy now.  The doctor called tonight to check on her - we'll see how she is tomorrow to decide what direction we should go with this infection.  Wrote a post to update blog!  Too tired to upload quilt pictures.  :/  Started a load of dishes and clothes.  Too tired to do any more cleaning even though house is a mess.  Maybe another day . . . ??? :/

Feeling a little blah right now . . . Sorry about this lame post . . . I just needed someone to talk to . . .  :/