Send your Extra Bedding/Blankets right to the Refugees!
Many of us have discussed these past days the tragedy of what has happened in our countries panhandle... and how can we possibly help?
This was sent to me by a fellow knitter... and I also have seen it posted on CurlyPurl
If you have extra bedding etc -- you can send it directly to an agency in Houston, TX and they will give to refugees NOW -- no waiting for a government vote.
Best to you all -- and here's hoping all of your family and friends are well!

QUILTS FOR COMFORT -- A Cooperative Project To Comfort Victims of Hurricane Katrina
from: http://www.quilts.com/hurricane.htm
I've recently learned that the International Quilt Festival is taking donations of bedding -- sheets, blankets, quilts, for the refugees being brought to Houston. They are apparently in dire need of blankets as these people are sleeping on cement floors in heavily air-conditioned buildings.
This isn't limited to quilts, they need bedding of all sorts, sheets, blankets, etc.
Many thousands of the Katrina refugees are being sent to Houston RIGHT NOW, and no one knows how long they will have to be here.Most of them escaped the hurricane's fury with only the clothes on their backs--nothing more--and they may have absolutely nothing to go home to. They don't even know. The Astrodome is ready as temporary housing, but there is a serious shortage of bedding. QUILTERS COMFORT AMERICA is the collection of quilts/blankets of all kinds to be distributed to the refugees here in Houston so that they have something soft to sleep on instead of the hard concrete floors of the temporary shelters and something warm to cover up with against the chill of otherwise welcome air-conditioning (we've been in the 90s and 100s for weeks now).

Many of us have unfinished projects filling our closets and cupboards. Get out one of those projects--twin size preferred but no smaller than baby quilt size, please--and finish it up for this. Use lightweight batting--do whatever binding is the quickest, even a close zigzag stitch. You don't have to quilt it--tie it!

Knit it! Get a group of folks together and knit up a blanket!

If you have only small projects, add borders. Think about a mother lying on the floor cradling her baby--that's the size quilt we need to provide. These quilts are not meant to be heirlooms, although they will probably be treasured for many years as a symbol of the caring of strangers. Tie them, machine quilt them, knit them, crochet them... work in a group with your friends and finish several on an assembly line, do whatever it takes to get these finished quickly.

THEY NEED FOR THESE QUILTS IS RIGHT NOW!

If you already have some finished pieces that you don't have plans for, send them too, as long as they are no smaller than baby quilt size. If you are a professional, you may have sample quilts that have become shopworn or faded but are still clean and very usable in an emergency--send them!--we are IN an emergency! Be sure to put a label on the back of your quilt or sign it with a kind thought and your name and date. Every piece will go to a refugee family driven from their homes by the hurricane.

To participate in QUILTERS COMFORT AMERICA, send an email to exec5@quilts.com (subject line: COMFORT AMERICA) to let us know how many quilts you are sending. That will help us help the Red Cross in its planning. Please do not expect a confirmation that your quilt has been received or any kind of nice thank-you.
Sometimes we just have to do things because they are the RIGHT things to do--this is one of those times. People need help...the kind of help WE can give.

Use this address to send your quilt/s:
COMFORT AMERICA PROJECT
c/o International Festival
7660 Woodway, Suite 550
Houston, TX 77063

Please note: for security, do NOT use the word 'quilt' ANYWHERE in your address label!

Many of us have also amassed linen closets full of old but completely usable sheets--perhaps a size you no longer use, or juvenile prints that your college age kids don't like anymore.Clean sheets and blankets are also most welcome to QUILTERS COMFORT AMERICA. Naturally, everything should be clean and fresh.These folks have lived with enough mud and dirt to last them the rest of their lives--let's give them a clean bed to rest in.
Please note that we cannot use fabric, patterns, scraps, etc.

Quilt Festival will serve as the collection point for these quilts, and we will deliver them DAILY to the American Red Cross staffing the refugee centers in Houston, where they will be distributed by the Red Cross volunteers. Because we are right here in Houston where more than 10,000 of the refugees will be, we can make a difference RIGHT NOW...if you'll help.
Time is critical--the need is NOW! People are arriving by the hour, children are bedding down on the cold concrete, bedding is needed by people of all ages who have lost everything in this horrible storm. Please help if you can.

If you live in or around Houston, you are welcome to hand deliver your donations to us.
Our address is 7660 Woodway, Suite 550, Houston 77063.
You can find it on Mapquest. Please note that this is one block of Woodway that runs perpendicular to all the rest of Woodway.

Thanks to everyone
QUILTERS COMFORT AMERICA
Karey Patterson BresenhanDirector
International Quilt Festival--Houston and Chicago