Covered in Love May/June

Tomorrow it will be May, and I can't believe the year is flying by so fast! Two block drives in and CiL has received so much support this year.  I have about 20 string quilts left to finish and around 11 Hunter's Star quilts, not to mention a dozen or so tops to be quilted.  In order to give me a chance to catch up the CiL block drive will be taking a break during May an June this year.  BUT don't go any where! I have a special pretty-please request for you!

Briawna is a friend of mine through my do. Good Stitches circle and she recently started her own charity, gathering cross-plus blocks to make into quilts to auction for various organizations.  Since I'm not asking for any CiL blocks this time I would really love it if you all could make some blocks for Briawna and really bless her socks off (to use a phrase from my Baptist upbringing).

I started CiL to meet a need I was seeing, in person, every day. If I hadn't been in a position (because of my job) to be confronted with the realities of end-of-life I might have never known or cared about these issues. But I did, and now it's my mission. When I talk about the struggles of chronic disease or the need for a cultural change in how we deal with death, those aren't abstract or hypothetical issues for me. Those are issues that have names and faces and families.  Medicare funding for advance care planning discussions isn't a political issue to me, he's a 68 year old man with heart failure struggling for air. 

My best, secret hope for Covered in Love isn't that it would grow bigger and bigger and everyone in the quilting world would contribute. My hope is that each one of you would find those issues in your own lives, that are right in front of you, that have names and faces, and decided you have to make a difference. I hope that CiL stays a modest size and instead hundreds more little charities pop up.

Briawna found that in these precious faces.  For most Caucasians race issues can seem a little distant, nebulous, nonspecific... someone else's problem.  It shouldn't, but it does.  For Briawna when she read statistics about African American children dropping out of school or struggling to achieve milestones it isn't theoretical. She sees her son or daughter or husband.  She wrote a beautiful post about why she started her charity here.

Briawna is asking for cross-plus blocks and each month she chooses a different organization benefiting minority teens/young adults/children to make and auction quilts in support of.  I'm sure the May charity will be up in the next few days, but previous charities have included the Mocha Autism Network and The Posse Foundation.

You can find the block piecing directions HERE.  Email me at CoveredinLoveTx@gmail.com or Briawna at simplypurplepoppy@gmail.com for the address to send blocks.  The raffle is the last week of each month if you'd like to purchase tickets and you can find detail on Briawna's blog.

When CiL was first starting I felt so isolated and every single package of blocks or top that came in was a huge boost, just to know that someone else cared about my passion project.  Let's cover Briawna with a little love in May and June, ok? 

CiL will be back with your regularly scheduled block drive in July, and in the mean time I'll be posting plenty of finishes!