Press Release Summary = Quilters from around the country dropped everything for a few hours and whipped up some tiny quilts to be shipped to soldiers in Iraq.
Beginning on Memorial Day, quilters picked up their scissors and fabric scraps to join Penny\'s Postcard Posse in making small, postcard-sized quilts with greetings from home. Just three weeks into the project, 116 of the tiny messages of love were shipped off to Camp Pendleton for transport to Iraq. And more are arriving at How-to-Quilt every day.
Press Release Body = FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 6/19/2006 La Mesa, California
Tiny Quilts Deployed to Iraq
Quilters from around the country dropped everything for a few hours and whipped up some tiny quilts to be shipped to soldiers in Iraq.
Beginning on Memorial Day, quilters picked up their scissors and fabric scraps to join Penny\'s Postcard Posse in making small, postcard-sized quilts with greetings from home. Just three weeks into the project, 116 of the tiny messages of love were shipped off to Camp Pendleton for transport to Iraq. And more are arriving at How-to-Quilt every day.
\"This project has inspired quilters and non-quilters alike,\" observed Penny Halgren, initiator of Penny\'s Postcard Posse. Along with the fabric postcards, we received notes like \"Here\'s a fun postcard quilt - not perfect by a long shot, but first one ever made and sent with many prayers for our servicemen\'s safety,\" quipped a first-time quilter from Florida.
Another quilter shared \"I just want to thank you for what you are doing with the Postcard Posse. Both my husband and I have served tours overseas in both Korea and Iraq. I can tell you firsthand how much packages like these mean to the troops overseas. They are great morale boosters.\"
Patterns for two different fabric postcards were provided online at www.How-to-Quilt.com. Families gathered around to make the fabric postcards and write messages on the back. One group of quilters in Arizona got together and made enough fabric postcards to stuff a box with the tiny quilts with individualized messages.
\"This project was so popular that it will continue,\" assured Halgren. \"The cards will keep coming in, and I will forward them to Camp Pendleton. Expect a new design idea within the next few weeks for delivery to Iraq in late August. Then Thanksgiving. As long as our troops are in Iraq and there are quilters making fabric postcards, we\'ll be here to deliver them to our soldiers.\"
A Rotary International connection proved valuable for the success of the project. Halgren, current President of the La Mesa Rotary Club, contacted Steve Wolfe, President of the brand-new Camp Pendleton Rotary Club, for help in shipping the fabric postcards to Iraq.
Wolfe was pleased to help, and assured Halgren that the postcards would be delivered to some of the more remote parts of Iraq where soldiers rarely receive communications from home. Delivery will be accomplished by Rotarian Marines stationed in Iraq.
In addition to pictures of the fabric postcards on the web, a blog is ready for soldiers and quilters to talk. Expect some big action on the blog sometime after the 4th of July, when the postcards are delivered to the soldiers. Links for the pictures and blog can be found at the bottom of the home page at www.How-to-Quilt.com. Look for the links for \"Posse Postcards\" and \"Postcard Blog.\"
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