Quilts4Japan.org
“This is from me. I made it for you.”
We collected 520 quilts from across the country to comfort the survivors of the multiple disasters in Japan. We sent all the quilts to Patchwork Tsushin, a quilting magazine in Tokyo. Their volunteers then delivered the donations to people in the afflicted region.
Quilts4Japan.org has stopped accepting quilts and has wrapped up operations.
With every quilt, we enclosed a message of our own explaining what quilts represent in American tradition–a gift from the heart. The letter is in Japanese, but you can see both versions at this link.
People made wonderful donations to Quilts4Japan.org! See photos on our Flickr page. You can also check out articles that people wrote about our effort.
Quilts4Japan.org teamed up with the Albany (California) Lions Club Foundation, which accepted donations on our behalf. All money collected covered the expense of shipping quilts to Japan. Thank you to those who have donated! And thank you, Albany Lions!
People who distributed our quilts to survivors wrote heartwarming reports and supplied photos! You can see some reports in Japanese on Patchwork Tsushin’s Facebook page (the July 6 entry) or can read an English translation. More translations appear near the top of the Quilts4Japan Facebook page (the Jan. 6 entry).
We gave from the heart, so the character for “heart” represents our feelings perfectly.
Thank you,