Quilts for Tornado Victims

Last Sunday, March 4, 2019, a EF-4 tornado surprised thousands of people just east of Auburn, Alabama. The tornado was 1/2 mile wide and traveled for over 70 miles before it dissipated.  23 people were killed, including 4 children, and over a hundred others were injured. Hundreds of people lost their homes and everything they own. 

You can look it up, and have maybe seen pictures already, but here are just a few:

Audrey Smith, @audreypawdrey on Instagram, and I are both graduates of Auburn University, and Audrey still has family there. After I checked in on everyone I know who is near, or has dear ones there, Audrey and I decided that we wanted to help, as quilters do.

We are requesting finished quilts and/or quilt blocks to send to the victims. I know there are other quilt drives for victims of this tornado, but we wanted to reach out to our community of quilters and friends and ask you to participate with us. 

Together, we can share some love and comfort and quilts with those who have lost everything. :o(

If you are interested in sending finished quilts (I know I've got a few I can send!), we are partnering with the Cotton Boll Quilt Guild in Auburn, and they are willing to receive finished quilts and distribute them when the victims are ready to receive them. Email me or send me a DM on instagram for their address. (my email is weshallew @ gmail (dot) com)

If you are interested in sending Audrey and me blocks, which we'll put together and make into quilts for them, email me or send me a DM on instagram, as above.  *due end of April, please.

These are my EQ7 sketches of the quilts we could make. It doesn't include the various block sizes, but we can just use our imagination for that. ;)

We are asking for simple wonky cross blocks. There are several ways to do this, and many tutorials, so how you go about making them is up to you. Here are a couple that I found quickly: Sew Mama Sew/Elizabeth Hartman, and Lolly Quiltz (which makes 2 at a time, but doesn't use up your scraps!)  This tutorial by Hillary at EntropyAlwaysWins isn't for wonky crosses, but inset strips, which you can use to make a wonky cross - just start with your background either 7" or 13" square, and go from there to inset your cross strips.

Here's the first one I made. :o)

We ask that you use navy, orange, and white-based low-volume fabrics. We would like most of them to be low-volume background with either navy or orange crosses, but if you are using Carla's technique to make 2 at a time, that's fine, we'll make do. :o)

For size, we would like them to either be 6 1/2" square of 12 1/2" square, or even 6 1/2" x 12 1/2", as we want it to have some good variety and interest.

And we are asking to have blocks by the end of April so we can make the quilts and get them sent down early this summer.

And if you want to send a finished quilt (of any design), we are hoping to send some larger ones, like 72"x80", if that's not asking too much! But if you've got a finished quilt to send, we aren't picky about the size. Just send it! :o)

THANK YOU!!!

Thank you for still reading, thank you for your interest in helping out some people most of us have never met, thank you for your generosity!  We really appreciate you!  And if you can only make 1 block, that's great. If you can make 10, that's great! If you can make an entire quilt, that's great, too. We really want to be a blessing to those who are literally picking pieces of their lives out of the rubble.