Blown Away

Erika and I (Tamara) can not begin to tell you how amazed we were with the turn out of your BIGGEST Block Party yet. We had 35 people come and make a difference in their community. Even with the minor hiccups (sewing machines breaking and not quite having enough from time to time) the Block Party was a success! We can not thank our volunteers enough that helped us before the event and during it to pull this off.

There were many times through out the day that I was brought to tears by your generosity and creativity! So thank you for stepping out of your comfort zones and looking beyond yourselves to help make a difference in lives of the children we are wanting to help.

So lets give you some numbers....

35 volunteers - total number of people volunteering on Saturday
(This does not include the 12 or more people that helped us before the event to get ready!)
5 quilts - completed (one was made on TEXAS!!! and shipped to us!)
3 knitted baby blankets
3 fronts of quilts finished

PLUS at least a dozen people took their quilts home to finish!!!!

So to say the least we are Blown Away at how you all listened to the promptings God gave you stepped out and joined us to make a difference. Thank you so much!

If you didn't make to this block party we are hosting our next one November 13 from 11-4 in Skokie. If you would like more information about how to get involved please contact us either by leaving us a message here or by emailing us at safeblankets@gmail.com

Our BIGGEST block party yet!

We are hosting our BIGGEST Block Party of the year on October 23!

We are partnering with Willow Creek North Shore's Campus for their Just Serve event and hosting our biggest block party ever at their campus. You don't have to go to their church to be apart of this event. But you do need to RSVP so we can have enough supplies and volunteers to make this event successful!

Safe Blankets is a group that supports children that have been temporarily displaced from their families for one reason or another with the gift of a quilt. This quilt represents the community that is coming together to help the child and their family get back on their feet and back in their own home safely.

We will be creating quilts during this block party for these children and you do not need to know how to sew! We will teach you everything you need to know. We are in the process of creating quilt kits for those who are just starting out, but we will also have loose fabric for those who are more experienced.

Please sign up here

Make sure that you Sign Up for the 4th option: Safe Families-Blankets

and RSVP here or on facebook so others can see how big this event is going to be!

If you can't join us that day we hope that you will commit to praying for this event or serve with us in one of these other ways!

Donations
(in any amount)
We have a lot of expenses to host a group this large and we don't have money to cover them all.

Serving - on OCTOBER 23
We are looking for at least 20 volunteers to help us during the Block Party. There are many roles and most do not require sewing ability!

Serving - before the event
There is a lot of preparation that we need help with. We are making quilt kits for beginners, sending emails, posting signs and various other tasks.

Website
We would love to have a website for volunteers to be able to check out, but we need a web designer to help us get it up and running.

Prayer
We would like to set up a prayer team that will be praying for this event and for the children that will benefit from it.

Our Volunteers

Things have been super crazy this summer, it's hard to remember everything that has happened because everything seems to be moving at lightning speed these days. We just had another block party a few weeks ago with many new volunteers that showed up to help. One even completed a quilt in about 3 hours! The whole time she kept saying "I don't know what I am doing." but we walked her though it. Another sat and stared at the material the whole time, finally picked out what she wanted to use and decided on a pattern, only to see it was time to leave...BUT she came back this past Thursday and not only started but ALSO finished her quilt in an afternoon. So AMAZING!


We are so grateful to all our volunteers, thank you! Without you we would not be able to pull is off. We do have some big news in the works right now so stayed tuned and mark your calendars for September 25, our next block party. If you need more info on where it will be held and how to help please email us!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST...we are in need of more batting for the quilts. We use low loft batting in all our quilts and have a very short supply (enough to make 2 more). If you are able to purchase some or make a donation so we can, great, if not please help us get the word out so we can help more children!

Thanks again guys!

A Challenge is Placed

Erika and I (Tamara) had the pleasure of meeting Jalayla today, who is staying with the Harig Safe Family for a few days. She is such a sweet little one. She reminded me of what we are really striving for here with Safe Blankets, safety and community. We want these children that are being displaced no matter what the period of time to know that there are people out there that will be there to love them through God's grace. We need to remind them that they are never alone and will always have God near. And that their community is suppose to be there to support their family in times of need, without judgement.

Today while playing with Jalaya, I also realized that we are not just reaching out to these children but also their families and the people in their community. We hopefully are changing the way they look at the world and at God.

I think my goal is for people in general is to hear "love thy neighbor" and not just think of the ones they know but also figure out a way to reach out to those they don't. It doesn't need to be quilts for children or food for the homeless, find a way you connect, walk in their shoes, see what they see and what stands out most to you...start there and see where God takes you.



I take that back, that is not my goal, but my challenge to you...let us know how you decide to "love thy neighbor". Post here or on our facebook!

Today was a busy day for Safe Blankets. This morning Tamara and I (Erika) met with a Case Coach from Safe Families to get a better feel for the kids who will be receiving our blankets. It was wonderful how well received we were and how excited they were about the blankets.

We also discussed better ways to get the kids and blankets matched up quicker. We all decided that having some on hand there would be helpful. We were able to give them 15 blankets today!!!! These were for them to store so that they can just grab one quick when they need to place a child.
We were also blessed to be able to get two of our donated sewing machines up and running thanks to Jim at Vogue Fabrics. So that means we will have two more machines available for you all to use at the block parties!!!

Things are Rolling Along

We have been super busy this past week. But we wanted to give you a heads up on some things we have coming up.

First, our next Block Party will be June 26! 11-4 again. If you are interested in joining us please RSVP at safeblankets@gmail.com or post to our facebook page or even here on the blog. If you have a sewing machine please bring it with you. Also make sure that you bring a dish to share.

Next, tomorrow Erika and I (Tamara) will be meeting with Lindsay from Safe Families to talk about how to find a better way to get our quilts to the children in their program and just give them more information about what we are doing and how we would like to help these kids through the giving of these quilts. We are very excited about this and can't wait to see what comes of this meeting!

Lastly, I will be meeting with the web designer in 2 weeks, where hopefully we will get started on designing and learning how to set up a website. I know I am personally excited about this, because I have had the programs to do this for over 2 years now and I have never learned how to use them, so now's my chance.

Hope you are having a wonderful week enjoy!

Can't Sew, No Problem

Tamara here, hoping you all have been having a wonderful week so far. We have been super busy with new plans and ways to get you involved. So I thought I would update you on something we have planned, a sneak peek of sorts. Yay! Who doesn't love the sound of that.

In the upcoming weeks we will be working with a web designer (super cool) that will be helping us set up site that not only will link you to our blog, facebook, and twitter pages, but it will also be featuring a page where you can sponsor a blanket!

What this will mean for all you non-quilters who want to get involved, is that you will have a way to be tied to a blanket even if you couldn't sew it yourself! How exciting is that!!! For a small donation you can choose a blanket to sponsor and when we give it to a child we will send you a picture of the child with their blanket (if possible) and if you wish to take it a step further you can pray over that child as well! If you can't tell I am super excited about this idea! The best part about this idea is that it was given to us by one of you! Yes, one of our volunteers gave us this idea and we just love it!

If you are interested in sponsoring a blanket before we get the website up let us know, we will be loading pictures up to the facebook page that you can look through and as they are sponsored we will be adding names (if you don't mind us sharing) to the descriptions of who sponsored them at least until we get the website up.

Until then be on the look out for more information.