100 Quilts for Kids + Siblings Together Linky + Giveaway

100 Quilts for Kids Bloghop, text fabric bundle giveaway and Siblings Together linky party

When Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt asked me to be part of this year's 100 quilts for kids blog hop, I leapt at the chance once again to tell the story of Siblings Together and to celebrate that story with a giveaway of an outrageously fabulous text print bundle sponsored by Becca from Sew Me A Song.  Here's the bundle Becca is giving away.  It is her "Lynne's Text Me A Song" print bundle - 16 FQs of texty loveliness.  Go to the end of the post for a chance to win.  


And would all of you who have had any involvement at all in giving to Siblings Together, please take a moment to write a blogpost about why you became involved in this initiative, what it meant to you, what you made, donated, helped with.  And pictures of course would be lovely so that we can see all the wonderful quilts that have gone to Siblings Together or will do at some point in the future.  And link up at the bottom of this post. 

So the idea of 100 Quilts for Kids is simple: Make a quilt or 2. Donate it to a child in need, locally if you can.  Enjoy a blog hop that runs from July 2-September 25, 2012, complete with inspiration and mini prizes.  Join in on a 100 Quilts for Kids Quilt Along (Kick-off post on July 15 at Swim, Bike, Quilt).  Have a chance to win great prizes from sponsors, including Moda, Fat Quarter Shop, Westwood Acres, Rowan , Free Spirit, and Ty Pennington Impressions, among others that will shortly be announced.  Spread the word to family and friends!  Smile, knowing you used your skills for good.  Find out where the blog hop will be over the summer in this post here.  Find the Flickr group here: 100 Quilts for Kids Flickr Group and find out more information here: More information on 100 Quilts for Kids.

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We would love your help getting the word out. Just copy and paste the code above and paste it into your sidebar, or blog post.  Tweet. Instagram. Facebook.  And scattered throughout this post are pictures of quilts which have been donated to Siblings Together - read on to find out more.  And to see more of the wonderful quilts donated to Siblings Together, go and visit the Flickr group here.

And now sit down, make a cup of tea, put your feet up and find out a bit more about Siblings Together.

It all started for me earlier this year when I took the kids down to stay at my sister's house in London and a friend of hers was there having a cup of tea.  My sister told Sian I made quilts and Sian started to tell me about a charity called Siblings Together which worked to bring together siblings separated by the care system.  She told me that they run summer camps where these children can just be together and have fun together as siblings and that Delma, who set up the charity, was trying to find out whether it would be possible to get people to make each one of these children on the summer camps a quilt to keep, their very own home-made quilt.  Which got me to thinking.  Maybe if I rallied around a few quilters, between us we might be able to make a few quilts.  And so I posted this post, started this Flickr group, and thought "here goes nothing".

Within only a few hours, it became clear that, not only might we manage a handful of quilts, we would probably send more than was needed for that first summer camp.  People started groups to make quilts together, people pledged quilts, people made one, two, three, four, five quilts.  Offers of help came in not just from the UK but from around the whole world.  Shops donated fabrics and quilts, quilters offered quilting services, individuals gave away whole chunks of their stash.  The response completely overwhelmed Delma and me.  We have smashed the fifty quilts for this summer target and have sent enough quilts for a possible October camp.  And I'm hoping we keep kick starting this initiative so that next year's camp kids will have their own quilts too.  And the year's after that.  And the year's after that.

  

But I thought it would be more interesting for you to hear from Delma more about Siblings Together, how it came into being and why she set it up and continues to work so hard to make it work, to make it better and to do more for these children separated from their siblings by the care system.  Oh and a little warning, tissues will be required.  

Delma, founder of Siblings Together:

I've worked as an Art Therapist with children in care for 20yrs often hearing children say the same things time and again, what they wouldn't give to share some time with their brothers and sisters; their lives would be so different.

I had spent almost 16 years as a child in care myself after being abandoned as a baby, living apart from 6 other siblings, never seeing one another, it took almost 10 yes to find them, sadly we were so distant it was hard to reconnect, we had little shared history or positive experiences other than the misery of growing up in the care, then thrown onto the streets at 16 when told to leave.

I decided to do something to change all this, and established Siblings Together, to create a positive place/experience, a camp, a charity reuniting brothers and sisters who are in the care system and those adopted who want contact, also in Kinship Care ie cared for by a family relative if parents have died or have issues which mean they are unable to parent their children.

Children are the victims of these often extremely damaging families.  Whether they have been abused neglected or abandoned, they deserve the right to experience a sense of family and belonging. Like anyone else, they want and need to have connections. When children enter the care system they are invariably separated.  84% face isolation and loss, they lose the closest people to them; their siblings, the longest relationship they are likely to have in their lifetime.

We work to adress this by firstly setting up camps which I began almost 6 years ago, with 20 children all coming together with their brothers and sisters.  Since this time I have founded a charity with incredible trustees who are very supportive and pro active.  Our camps have grown and developed to be known across the UK, we would love to run more but haven't the resources financially.

We also now run a "MAD's" (Monthly Activity Day for siblings) based in Camden Town, London.  We take over a small centre and have fun for the day.  Each and every month, siblings from across London and far afield travel for this one special day which they all love.  We are always seeking funding to keep it running, and want to establish another day as we are filled to capacity.

One of the things we often noticed at camp was those cold evenings, in the tent.  So I set about writing to charities and found a knitting charity where people were prepared to make blankets for our children. I spoke with our trustees (Sian is one such person) about this and how amazing it would be for each child to have a blanket of their own to keep.  To have a very special object to treasure and keep from their adventures.

This started in a small village in Pembrokeshire, Wales where they were all knitting squares together for our kids.  I had considered quilts as very special indeed and had tried to find a connection to any quilters without success.  And then one day Sian contacted me to say she had met with a quilter who understood the whole notion of children wanting something special just for them and so began the Quilts for Siblings Together initiative which so many of you have so generously and kindly helped with.

Our camps are incredible; they are often the first time in years many have shared more than an hour's contact together.   It is often quite emotional for them, they know what they have lost and our camps make sure they can enjoy a wonderful shared experience together without social workers, residential staff or foster carers' intrusions.  They can be a 'family' even for a short time.  This can often be life changing for them.

Children in care often move from place to place and find themselves hundred of miles apart from their siblings.  They mostly have different social workers who even lose sight of the fact they have siblings as they change so frequently.  We had 3 brothers who attended two of our camps, twins and a younger brother, who had been moved to over 50 foster homes in just 4 years.  Coming to camps was a very special experience for them all, and strengthened their relationship bond massively.

We have groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 siblings each month, all supported by volunteers who commit their time each and every month to be their mentors.   We are working towards setting up a pilot siblings befriending programme in September, a massive feat, a pilot never before set up in the UK so another adventure ahead.

And thank you - the amazing quilters from around the world who responded to our charity, we have a collection of approx sixty quilts so far.   Forty-five of these will be given to the children coming to camps this summer.   We are also hoping to run a camp during October half term if we raise enough funds, where the other quilts will go.  We will always have more children to help and we will always need more quilts to keep them warm.

The whole concept of having something that belongs to you, made for by others just for you is just unheard of for most children in care, they enter care with nothing and leave with nothing mostly.  The quilts you have made will change that for so many, they will have something extra extra special.  Not only to keep but perhaps to pass on to their own children.  Just the thought of this makes me so happy.  Delma, Siblings Together

And from Lynne, thank you to all the people who have jumped in with both feet and worked to make something special for these children or have donated fabrics, time or resources.  So that I can read more and cry more, what I would really love you to do is to write a blogpost about why you became involved in this initiative, what it meant to you, what you made, donated, helped with.  And pictures of course would be lovely so that we can see all the wonderful quilts that have gone to Siblings Together or will do at some point in the future.

And as a thank you to anyone who took the time to read this post, Becca from Sew Me A Song has allowed me to twist her arm into giving away this amazing 16 FQ print text bundle and Mr Random will pick a winner one week from today.  Here are your chances to win:

1.   Leave a comment on this post.
2.   Extra comment if you are a follower of this blog.
3.   Extra comment if you link to this post with a Siblings Together post.
4.   Extra comment if you were involved in Siblings Together in any way at all - whether you mailed off a whole package of quilts, just made one block or donated fabrics.  Any involvement is good involvement.
5.   Extra comment if you spread the word about this post - tweet, blog, facebook, google +, whatever.