We recently sent our 1000th quilt to a person emigrating to the United States. The quilt was made by our Sacramento Crew. Think about it. 1000 quilts! Thank you for the energy, compassion and love that have produced each one of these quilts. No matter what your role — you are making a difference in the lives of our newest neighbors.
We are so grateful for the quilts donated to the Bienvenidos Quilts project. Over our short lifetime, just three and a half years, we have made and received over 900 quilts! We recently received an urgent plea from Nogales. Casa de la Misericordia had just welcomed 28 babies under three years of age. We were so happy that we could provide the quilts they needed. That batch of over 60 quilts provided resources as well for other smaller shelters.
We are now working on quilts for our Christmas dispatch. If you would like to contribute a single quilt (or a bagful) to this project, we ask that you send them to us before Thanksgiving. During the first week of December First Crew in Portland will joyfully document, label, briefly display, bless, wash, pack and send your treasures to the border.
The Thanksgiving deadline makes it possible for your treasures to be placed in the hands of chilly migrant children and families in time for Christmas.
Please email Susan (susan.adcock48@gmail.com) before sending quilts to:
Susan Adcock
2420 NW Marshall St., Apt 204
Portland, OR 97210-2975
This is what a shipment of quilts looks like when they are about to be washed, folded, boxed and sent. This batch of 73 quilts was sent last September to Casa Alitas, a shelter in Tucson committed to helping asylum-seekers.
First Crew members get very excited when we receive quilts from people and states that are new to us. Last fall we were able to add two new states: Maryland and New Hampshire. We now have received quilts from Oregon, California, Arizona, Washington, Iowa and Minnesota. One member of First Crew, who is a big fan of Kaffe Fassett fabrics, was extra enthralled when she saw the quilts from New Hampshire. Three quilts were made entirely from half-square triangles, one half Kaffe with the other half white. We estimate that the quilter made well over a thousand triangles for these quilts. In another quilt, she used Kaffe Fassett shot cottons to build rows of colorful African huts. All are flannel backed. Aren’t they wonderful? ~ Rachel Stevens, First Crew, Portland, Oregon
Join quilt activists from around the country at a free virtual program. Quilting for Social Justice: The Cutting Edge and Soft Power of Creative Activism will feature a panel of people who have made an impact in current social justice projects through quilting, including Gale Hall of Welcome Quilts, Gretchen Ginnerty of The Love Quilt Project, and India Aubry and Maggie Urgo of Voices from the Border. The session will be moderated by journalist Melissa del Bosque. The program will also tour the Arizona History Museum’s temporary exhibit Welcome Quilts: Migration, Art and Hope.
All friends of Bienvenidos Quilts are welcome! Secure your spot today!
Quilting for Social Justice: The Cutting Edge and Soft Power of Creative Activism
Live on Zoom
Thursday, March 7, 2024
1:30pm MST; 12:30 pm PST; 3:30pm EST
For details and a free ticket, follow this link.
In early October I spent time with eight women from our Sacramento Crew. I joined their quarterly luncheon, where they visit, eat, show the tops they’ve made for Bienvenidos Quilts, and exchange fabrics with one another.
What lovely women they are! They had 32 tops for me to be backed and labeled by First Crew in Portland. The Sacramento Crew doesn’t sew as a group, so each of them must be self-motivated to complete her own projects. Some have been sewing for a long time and some have just recently taken up quilting because they wanted to be part of the Bienvenidos Quilts outreach. A few of them swim together weekly, many of them volunteer with other organizations and two of them live across the street from each other and were the initial folks to connect with Bienvenidos Quilts. All of them shared stories about their interest in sewing, quilting and immigrant support. I was inspired.
I delivered 30 pounds of fabric from the First Crew stash. It was received with enthusiasm. The women appreciated the larger fabric pieces and saw great possibility for being creative. It will be interesting to see their results in their next shipment!
While each of us knows that we a part of the larger whole that is Bienvenidos Quilts, it was a real gift to meet and share with women I had never met and to experience the bond that connects us all. Thank you, Sacramento crew – especially Ellen, who hosted our luncheon, and Pam, who is their crew contact person and organizer – for including me and my sisters in your gathering. If any of you make travel plans that include Portland, please be in touch. ~ Karen Hurst, First Crew, Portland, Oregon
You’ll probably never meet the person wrapped in the quilt you made. She’ll never know the reason you took the time to choose the fabric, to cut the pieces or to stitch the seams.
But there is a tangible clue to the caring that went into your quilt. Each quilt in the hands of a new emigrant bears a label with eight simple words: Made for You with Love by Bienvenidos Quilts. These labels are attached by members of First Crew at First Congregational Church in Portland before the quilts are sent or delivered to shelters at the border.
With or without the labels, each of us who has made a quilt or worked on this project understands the care that goes into each quilt. Thank you all for the part you’ve played.
Just over two years ago, in March 2021, photographs of children and teens in detention centers on our southern border, huddled in aluminum warming blankets, appeared in the media. Those photos inspired us to begin making quilts to envelop those children – and their families – in welcome.
Some of us began sewing right away. On May 3, 2021, socially distanced and outside on a porch, we gathered for tea and got organized. We mark that as our “official” anniversary. A few months later we found our name.
So much has happened in those two years.
Most important of all: we have created and experienced great measures of love.
No matter how you’ve touched this organization, thank you. The need continues, as does our gratitude.
In honor of our second anniversary, Pat Fitzgerald, friend of Bienvenidos Quilts, photographed our quilts hanging in the historic First Congregational UCC sanctuary in Portland. The quilts will be on display in the sanctuary while they await distribution to organizations at the border – usually in groups of 40 or 50. ~ Rachel Stevens, First Crew, Portland, Oregon
Have you seen any UFOs recently? By this I mean, do you have any unfinished objects around? We can transform them into quilts for the border. In 2021, when a group in Sun City sent us 51 quilt tops, we finished them with a flannel backing. That’s when we knew we were onto something good with UFOs.
In Sacramento, a crew of brand-new quilters and their teachers make unbacked quilt tops. It’s less expensive to send them to First Crew in Portland for finishing.
Recently, as I was organizing my sewing room, I found a set of blocks left over from a blue and purple batik quilt I made for my niece’s wedding a few years back. I’d made enough blocks for a king, but they preferred a queen-size quilt. That left just enough blocks for a good 40” x 40” quilt. Presto!
UFOs create fun challenges for us. We received a wonderful collection from a local quilter – three bags full of UFOs, including two very large and one small log cabin blocks. We put these together by adding a middle section with the small log cabin on-point, surrounded by solid blue. The whole was too narrow on its own, so we surrounded it with a series of borders that echoed the log cabin. It’s a little longer than our recommended size, but it will be perfect for a family.
Our most recent donation is a full-size quilt top that was given to us by our friend Monica Wheeler, who is downsizing. She gave us carte blanche in terms of repurposing it. Karen quickly offered to take on this project and transformed this UFO into two smaller quilts for children at the border. (see below)
Take a look at your UFOs. They could say “bienvenidos” to a person arriving in the US. ~ Rachel Stevens, First Crew, Portland, Oregon.
Bienvenidos Quilts 