Quilts of Valor Fundraiser

I'm spending the day getting ready for our Southern Tier Quilts of Valor fundraiser. We'll be showing Stitched at the Palace Theatre in Corning, NY. To get a ticket, attendees must donate a 12" quilt block. We've worked with the local quilt shops and are putting the finishing touches on our raffle baskets.

Here are the donated blocks! We have about 120 and will have several more turned in at the screening. At the end of the table are the raffle baskets. Although our primary goal was to bring about awareness of the organization, we also wanted to get blocks to make quilts and to sell raffle tickets to make money to buy more fabric. I think we've succeeded.

This wonderful basket was donated by a little shop called Needles; it's located in Wellsboro, PA. It's about 45 miles south of Corning! How's that for wonderful support? They hope to start a QoV there in the next year.

Here's another collection of goodies. We had nine shops donate items to be raffled off. I'll be running to the Salvation Army tomorrow to get baskets to put these items in.

I'm eyeing the Deploy That Fabric book! Underneath is some fabric, including some pieces of my niece's ACU! She's on her second tour of duty (this time in Afghanistan). The book has some really cute bags that can be made from old uniforms. BTW, she's a quilter! YAY!

My donated items are in the back - the black, white, and red zippered pouches and the purse. I also scored an autographed copy of Paula Broadwell's book, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. Paula is big supporter of the troops (and a West Point grad).

It's really exciting to see this fundraiser come together with the support of a wonderful sewing and quilting community! I really encourage you to take a chance and try something like this. It only took three of and a little bit of legwork. The quilt shops just ran with it! Awesome!