{Photo credit :: Bella Gioielli}

We just wrapped up Project 6, benefiting the Orphan Foundation’s Red Scarf Program. What an incredible response with over 420 scarves collected! I was able to see a few of them on flickr and through my email, but will contact them to see if we can get some photos of the piles of scarves. Thank you all so very much for clicking those needles and making red scarves. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

You can see a few Craft Hope superstars rockin’ the red scarves above! Thank you ladies. You look fabulous!! To see their awesome photo shoot, go to our flickr group. Pretty funny.

{Photo credit :: Hollis Queen}

A red and aqua photo, I couldn’t resist. Look at all of those beautiful red scarves.

Our next project will be announced very soon.

And without further ado, GORGEOUS pictures from Carin at Margaret’s Hope Chest. Here are your quilts from Project 5!!!

Look at those sweet faces. Wrapped in LOVE.

Friends, thank you. Your willingness to give when called upon humbles me and brings me to tears. Every. Single. Time.

We just finished up Project 5, benefiting Margaret’s Hope Chest and the children in the Grand Rapids public school system. What an amazing turnout. The quilts are beautiful! Each stitch for a child in need.

We received 436 quilts. FOUR HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX QUILTS! Let that number soak in for a minute. And many of you were first time quilters. Amazing. Simply amazing.

The quilts came from 37 states, 4 Canadian provinces, and 6 foreign countries (England, Uruguay, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, and Scotland). Wow! They have 150 quilt tops to finish. Needless to say I think you are going to keep Margaret’s Hope Chest busy for some time. Thank you for that gift.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in this project. To those prayer warriors out there, quilters, craft groups and bloggers. Thank you. Sincerely, thank you.

As I’m typing up this blog post, emails roll in from charities. Charities that need Craft Hope’s assistance. These emails tug at my heart strings. Sometimes I feel helpless. I want to be able to help them all. I pray to be able to help them all. Please contact me if you are a charity in need. If I don’t reply, don’t despair. I do keep all charity inquiries in my nice email filing system and hope to work with each and every one of you. I just can’t reply to all emails with a baby in the house. I wish I could.

In other Craft Hope news, the Craft Hope book looks BEAUTIFUL. It’s chock full of incredible designs by some of your favorite designers. All neat and tidy in one book with charity information for each project. Put it on your Christmas list for next year. It’ll be out in the summer of 2010. It goes to print at the first of the year!! Exciting times my friends.

The next project will launch right after Christmas. And I promise to have pictures of the quilts being delivered very soon as well. Stay tuned!

The quilts have started coming in and they are incredible. If you need some direction as to which type of quilt to make, think boy. We are quite positive that we will receive many girly quilts so if you are so inclined, please make a quilt for a boy older than 10 years old. There are many older boys that need a special quilt.

If you have left a comment and not received a reply from me, as of today, please leave another comment here on this post. Most of the time I am replying and sending out emails one handed, having the other hand to hold my sweet-doesn’t-ever-want-to-be-put-down baby. I sincerely apologize if I haven’t replied to any of you.

Keep spreading those seeds of hope, one child at a time.

**Quilt pattern compliments of Malka Dubrawsky.

Today’s the big day! I am proud to announce that we are starting Project 5 today which will benefit homeless children. This time around we have partnered with Margaret’s Hope Chest to provide QUILTS to these children.

The deadline for this project is November 15th.

Margaret’s Hope Chest was born out of tragedy.  Margaret Herrema was a spunky 81-year-old wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and volunteer quilter who was murdered in the parking lot of a grocery store in April of 2005.  What prepared her family to walk the long and painful road of violent crime? Nothing.  What guided them through the days and months of grieving and confusion? HOPE.  Hope that there were people who cared.   Hope that good would triumph of evil.  Hope that her death was not an end but a beginning.

Margaret’s Hope Chest is a quilting non-profit organization that serves other people in seemingly hopeless situations. We strive to share with people around the world the HOPE that we have been given.

Over the past two years they have given over 100 quilts to children, adults, families, and organizations. Each quilt has joined a journey- a journey of sickness, death, abuse, fire, disease, disability, or new beginning.

This summer we stepped out in faith when we agreed to provide a quilt for each child in the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Public School system who is homeless during the Christmas season.  The exact number will not be clear until November but considering the economic climate in Michigan it will more than likely be high (200+).  Consider the journey of a homeless child.  No house to walk into at the end of a long day, no couch to cuddle on and read books with mom or dad. No kitchen to walk into and help themselves to a snack. No bedroom to sleep in- nothing to give that child the security that a home brings.

**Quilt pattern compliments of Kathy Mack.

What might a handmade quilt mean to a homeless child? It might bring warmth to a 5-year-old boy in a drafty room.   It might give hope to a 12-year-boy who never had a handmade gift before.  It might give comfort to an 8-year-old girl who wants something pretty to snuggle under.

This project is easy.  We are calling this quilt pattern HOPE SQUARED.  Make a quilt out of squares.  Any size, any number, any color.  Use up some scraps. Dig out your kid-themed fabrics and pair them with some bright solids. Please consider that all ages of children will be receiving these quilts-boys and girls.    Base the size of your quilt on the size of the child you have in your mind as you create it.   **If you are new to quilting and don’t know how to finish and bind a quilt or if you have limited time, you can construct the top of the quilt (the squares) and send that to them and they will gladly finish the rest for you.

The word excitement doesn’t even come close to describing how they feel about being this month’s project.  I am hopeful that many of you read this and feel led to join Margaret’s Hope Chest as we bring hope to children, one quilt at a time.

*****

There are now two quilt patterns in the sidebar that you can use for this project if you’d like. The Take Along Quilt was designed by Malka Dubrawsky and the Eye Spy Quilt was designed by Kathy Mack. Both of these wonderful women graciously donated the patterns for the Craft Hope book to donate to charity. Please feel free to use these patterns, but do not sell them. Also, we’d love your feedback on the patterns as we are in the process of writing the book.

We have two locations to mail the quilts, one in Canada and one in the United States. Please leave a comment on this post if you’d like to participate and I will send you the mailing address.