Many Hands and Many Hearts

A few posts back, I said I had some exciting news to share.  Well, I am finally ready to reveal it.

When I started making these compassion quilts, I never dreamed it would grow as quickly as it has.  I was expecting to make about a half dozen quilts every few months. But we are now averaging about 40 quilts a month!

So I have decided to go ahead and become official and turn this into a not-for profit organization.  It is going to take some time and will be so much work. But I am ready with the help of others to do this.  

The hardest first step was coming up with a name.

I am going with.....Many Hands and Many Hearts. 

(I already bought the domain, but it is not published yet.)

I didn't want a post with no photos, so I thought sharing this quilt with you was perfect. I raided a friend's scraps and found a whole bunch of batik squares already cut to 6".  

Very quickly, a quilt top was made.

So back to Many Hands and Many Hearts.  I finally realized that we had reached a point where it really made sense to become official.  Even though you have been so generous with your block making and fabric donations, there still are a lot of costs associated with making this many quilts a month.  So having a team (board) to help me fundraise is becoming really necessary.  Financially, I cannot sustain this all by myself much longer.  Plus, I fully expect things to continue to grow. 

Soon I hope to have the website up and some labels printed with the logo for the quilts.  I just need to find someone to help me with all that.  I know it is all fairly simple but my days are pretty busy doing lots of other stuff!

I wanted to share this quilt today because Laura quilted in these pretty hearts.

This quilt measures 48" x 63".

Achieving all this will probably take about 6 to 9 months.  So I am really hoping to have everything done by the end of the year.  But once we have 501(c)(3) status, I will be able to do things like apply for the Give Back Box (which will save many of you a lot of money in freight). I can also use that status to get discounts on supplies and other items.

I did start up a GoFundMe to start fundraising for the attorney and governmental fees for accomplishing all of this.  I expect there will also be fees for organizing the website and such.

I will continue to keep all of you up to date on the progress.  All of you really built this by donating your hands and your hearts to make it what is today.  I really do appreciate all of you!

If you want to read more about this, you can check out the Many Hands and Many Hearts page.  There you will find links to all of the past block drives along with the current one.  There are also other ways you can help out.

Oh, and I did set up a new Instagram account where I will be sharing more information and quilt photos.

You will find it at https://www.instagram.com/manyhandsandmanyhearts/.

Hope you are having a fantastic week!

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