Sewing With Nancy

Last season, you possibly saw the "Quilt to Give" segment taped at the Quilt Expo in Madison, Wisconsin. Many attendees took time to sit and sew creating full sized bed quilts for families in need. But that's just half the story. The project is entitled "Quilt to Give." Now it's time to learn about the giving of the quilts. Baby Lock, the sponsor of the "Quilt to Give" project chose a dealer in Springfield, Missouri, near Joplin to give away 25 full size quilts. Joining me via Skype from a temporary site of St. John's Hospital in Joplin, Missouri is Karen, Stephanie and Teri. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy &nbsp.

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Thank you. It's a treat to have you here. It's really exciting for me to see these quilts that we made going to homes. Those of you from the Baby Lock store in Springfield, Missouri tell us why you chose St. John's Hospital for the project, where to give the quilts. We chose St. John's because it is basically in our back door. Being in the Springfield, Missouri area Joplin is only about 60 miles or so. We knew the level of the devastation in this area so that's basically neighbors helping neighbors. What a great idea. We appreciate this. Teri, you're part of St. John's Hospital. Tell us how these quilts are going to be used. You know, Nancy quilts are so often heirlooms in families and they represent family memories and family relationships. We have, even in our own workforce 185 families who lost almost everything they had their homes, their apartments. They've lost their representation and memories. So these quilts are a great treasure to families like that. We will make certain that every single one of these beautiful pieces of art, in my mind go to a family who will really treasure and appreciate them for years to come. Well, thank you. I see the quilt that you have there. It's kind of our signature quilt that we used to promote the "Quilt to Give" program. I'm glad to see it going to a good home. We might want to explain to our viewers that this is being taped right now at about the six-month anniversary of the tornado in Joplin, correct? That is correct. How is the reconstruction progressing? Well, it's coming along quite well. Most of the debris has been removed from our community. There are parts of Joplin that look like flatland but we are moving as fast as any community can to design and rebuild our neighborhoods. That's like quilting. You design, and you sew, and you build. It's a nice connection. I'm really glad to see this. You will be giving some of these quilts Teri and Karen, I understand to staff as well as to community members. We'll be doing just that. The number of people that lost their homes during that time is significant. How many? It was, we were talking earlier and I believe the number is up to about 8,000. We lost businesses and homes to the devastating storm here in this area 1,500 family homes. I think it's 1,500 family homes but you're right, 8,000 structures. We lost 23 churches. We lost day cares and churches. High schools, elementary schools. Some were lost completely. Well, these 25 quilts are just going to be the tip of the proverbial iceberg of giving some encouragement and sharing of love to people. I know that all the individuals that worked on them will be glad to see them going to great places. Thank you for distributing them and being part. Karen, I didn't get to hear from you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you! That's okay! Thank you again for sponsoring this. For our viewers, you can also learn

how to make more of these quilts if you go to

NancyZieman.com On the top of the blog area at NancyZieman.com/blog "Quilt to Give" will give the tens steps and instructions to make these quilts. Again, many thanks to our friends in Joplin Stephanie, Karen and Teri for making this full circle. We made the quilts, and now it's time to give them away. We'll look forward to seeing photos. I'll post those at NancyZieman.com so everyone can see where they're going. Thanks for joining us.

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Thank you. The gift will be treasured. Thank you, you're welcome. For you, our viewers, thanks for joining me during this program on "Sew Techie Covers." This is the first program of our two-part series as we've mentioned.

You can go to

NancyZieman.com and watch 52 of the most current Sewing with Nancy programs that are available read our blog, connect to us socially. But most of all, thank you for joining us. Bye for now.