Hearts for Christchurch

 On March 15, 2019 during Friday prayer at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, a terrorist killed 50 people and injured 50 others. This horrific attack created huge shockwaves of grief around the world and Angels in Gumboots started #heartsforchristchurch in the quilting community to gather green heart blocks to make small quilts for survivors, family members of victims, and first responders. 

Check out #heartsforchristchurch on Instagram to see more.

I made a stack of blocks but put the call out to my guild members that I would assemble a quilt top if I got enough blocks.

 And boy did my quilt guild members respond quickly! The timelines were short because the mailing time to New Zealand from Canada is NOT short (or cheap- hence a quilt top but not a finished quilt which would be prohibitively expensive to ship) but I ended up with more than enough blocks!

First I made a layout with almost all of the blocks:

But the lime greens were standing out too much for my liking plus this was NOT the size they requested (6x7). So I pulled out the lime blocks, made the quilt the size they requested and checked for balance:

 Before sewing it all together and taking a quick photo. Then it got shipped to New Zealand. (Thanks to Susan for the extra financial support for the cost of shipping!) All of this happened in about a week which is pretty amazing.

 I also made a roll of binding from some Bonnie and Camille green fabric I had in my stash because I imagine it will be MUCH needed as they assemble these quilts.

I wish our community never had incidents like this that requires us to come together, and I wish we didn't have to say EVERYONE should be safe, EVERYONE should be able to worship without worry, and EVERYONE is important. But it does make me happy when I can see our guild, 20 hours by plane away, pulling together some hearts made with love to give a bit of comfort to some people who need a reminder of the love they shouldn't ever doubt is there.