November has brought cooler weather and sunny skies (thank you for the sunshine!). A few mornings have delivered frosty coatings to our plants and cars, sparkling in the first rays of daybreak as we munch our breakfast cereal.
In effort to organize and reduce the clutter, I've been trying to clean, purge, and sort our bins of stuff. In doing so, I came across my first quilt. Begun in the days when we had moved cross-country to live with my in-laws while Big Daddy started school, this pink creation had languished in storage, nearly forgotten through the course of many moons & many moves. It was near complete, with just half the binding to stitch. I pulled it out and got to sewing, finishing it in a matter of a few hours one evening.
Do you believe in serendipity? I do.
(And no, I don't mean that awful movie with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. Blech)
Serendipity, as defined by the ever-trusty Wikipedia, is "the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated".
The same day I finished stitching away, I came across a blog posting on The Jet Set. She was making quilts for a few charities across the country, and offhandedly mentioned a project to send quilts to Appalachia. An unknown force compelled me to click through and learn more. Rachel Cox is the driving force behind The Mountain Baby Blankets project, which has created a blanket drive for families in Appalachia. Reading her postings and gathering bits of information about the region and its people have struck a chord in me. These are people who are among the poorest in America, with epidemic levels of prescription drug abuse, alcoholism, toothlessness, and the shortest life span in the nation. While I tend to nurture the hard shell around my heart, Rachel's description - "Part of my childhood was seeing babies in the supermarket, wearing only diapers, with little, tiny, dirty feet." tugged at me. My vivid imagination conjured an image of a malnourished babe shivering in the cold morning air, no blanket to be found, no cozy fire to snuggle up to, no fleecy pj's to bundle in.
I'm going to donate that blanket to The Mountain Baby Blankets project, and will make at least 2 more in the next week to send. There's a lot going on around here, but I feel this is something I HAVE to do. Looking at my precious little ones all snuggly in their beds, comforted by their own warm quilts..... No baby should be cold. And what's a blanket to me? Just a few short hours on the sewing machine. If you'd like to donate - and you can make or buy your blankets - please send them to:
Kendra Duck
Christian Appalachian Project
2610 Palumbo Dr
Lexington, KY 40509
I have bins of baby clothes that I've saved from years past, and I think now is the perfect time to continue to sort & disperse. Because if those babies need blankets, I'm sure they can use some very gently worn garments, too.
To learn more about the Appalachian people, please visit Children of the Mountains via ABC News.
I know this post is a digression from my usual self-centered Friday ramblings. But what could be more FAB than a little service??
2 comments:
Oh that saddens my heart. I have bins of blankets barely or never used. What a worthy cause.
Eric and Iare planning on moving to Tennesse and I know what you are talking about. I watche the tv show Christy and I saw all of what you are talking about.
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