Clearing the Logjam . . .
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| QOV bound and ready to be bound January 2021 |
For over a year, the Quilt of Valor queue for volunteer longarmers has been long. So long, that it was discouraging and downright frustrating to get quilts finished. In June, I sent seven unquilted QOV to a Idaho coordinator who said she had access to a local longarmer. Since then, I've been continuing to make QOV and holding my breath that the problem would be worked out.
In early January, I was finally contacted by a woman in UT that was helping with the logjam of tops to be quilted. The request I submitted in November was up for pairing. Those quilts (bound and folded on the table) were returned to me two weeks ago. The two QOV on the sofa were returned from another longarmer on Friday. I quickly trimmed them and added the label and binding.
Three additional QOV are now at a longarmer in WA. When they are returned, I will send these seven QOV to a coordinator so they can be presented to a veteran.
I sincerely hope the logjam has been permanently cleared.
Wow! I hadn't realized there was a logjam. That has got to be frustrating after you do all the work of pulling the quilts together. I'm glad you are beginning to have them returned to you.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! It is hard to have such a long wait for all of the quilts you make! Let's hope someone will volunteer nearby to you!!!
ReplyDeleteIn a way, it's a good problem. It means lots of people are making QOV.
ReplyDeleteYour story also reminded me of the vaccine backlog!
Great news that some of that logjam is moving along again. Our group gave up on the volunteers when we couldn't even get a response to a request. They could have at least acknowledged the requests and told us there would be a wait. We ended up using local donations to pay for quilting. One quilter gave us a 20% discount, and another had us pay for batting and thread only. But we had to put presentations on hold in April. Sigh . . .
ReplyDeleteGoodness. I had no idea what a complicated process it is. I guess the good news is that you now have a pile to bind. I love sewing binding to a good audible book. It's so relaxing.
ReplyDeleteThe long arm gals are busy! Hopefully it will go better now! My cousin has her long arm machine for sale...it looks complicated and such a large machine:)
ReplyDeleteToo bad I have no idea how to quilt with anything, let alone a long arm machine! I would love to be able to help out with this wonderful project. What a great problem to have though. Too many quilts to be quilted! Once again, I want to thank you for your dedication to this project and to the veterans who receive the quilts.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Betsy
That’s sad to hear but many long arm volunteers make their living from their machines. Unfortunately paying customers come first. I end up quilting quite a few charity quilts through two quilters guilds. But I haven’t volunteered to do QOV as I don’t want to be inundated. These quilts look beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI wish I was closer, I'd happily quilt your Quilts of Valor.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense to me. It takes most of a day to quilt something this size. If one did nothing else, a "full time job" would get 5 maybe 6 done per work week. I've also learned from a friend who does this, that volunteering for 2 a month turns into an expectation of more. One month she was given 7 and asked to please get the extra done as well. It burns LA quilters out and many may have quit. It takes the joy out of the art.
ReplyDeleteFood for thought.
Oh these are beautiful!!! I hope so too - I didn't realize the log jam was that bad! I am glad you are persistent!! ( and Patient!!!)
ReplyDelete