After last week’s events here in Boston, Sandy Hasenauer of Quilting For The Rest Of Us and I were both compelled to want to use our love of quilting as an outlet for our emotions. It was a horrific week of terror, angst and violence. It hurt to watch it on tv. It hurt more to know that many of my loved ones including my mom and other family members who reside in Watertown were smack dab in the middle of that chaos. It was school vacation week here and very hard to explain to my children what all of this meant for not only last week but for the future. The truth is, we have no idea what will happen today, tomorrow or the next day. We live in a world where we don’t know what will happen next but we also live in a world where love and hope are very much alive. This was evident in the actions of everyone who ran towards the explosions, the doctors who worked tirelessly on victims, the police officers who worked round the clock to do what they could to keep us safe, the people who called and checked on loved ones throughout the week, yes, that includes all of you who contacted me numerous ways regarding my mother’s safety and my state of mind.

There is where hope lives. It lives in our hearts. It lives in our actions. It lives in our prayers. It lives in the eyes of our children and grandchildren.

SO what does this all mean? It means that Sandy and I want to celebrate hope! We want to extend an invitation to you to celebrate hope with us. Join us for the Project Hope Online Quilt Show. Here is how…

In keeping with theme of hope, love and peace, create a 12″ x 12″ art quilt that conveys your thoughts and emotions.

The design rules are simple…there are none. Use whatever creative means on this piece of art that you want to…stamps, paint, couching, transfers, crayons, thread, beads, simple piecing, applique, you name it, you can do it!

We ask that you include an artist statement in your Flickr description about your piece and how you felt while you were creating it.

Upload through June 30th, 2013 to the group on Flickr titled Project Hope Online Quilt Show

If you are feeling moved to take more action while creating this art quilt, we ask that you make a donation of time or money to an organization of your choice that exemplifies the theme of hope, love and peace. One such organization could be The One Fund. This fund is currently collecting money to go to the many victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. Use the link to find out how to donate and for more information.

Sandy and I will both speaking more about this in our podcasts this week. Sandy will also have a blog post regarding this later today. Share the posts, encourage people to participate. Once the quilts are all posted it will be such a beautiful online quilt show to share with each other. Hope is not lost, it will be alive and well right here.

Sandi