Grab a cup of coffee and....

... please read what follows. Many of you abroad have certainly heard about the terrible earthquake that struck the italian central region of Abruzzo the night of april 6.

298 people died, half of them were students since L' Aquila ( the capital city of Abruzzo ) has a university, 55 thousand people are now homeless, the situation is still after two weeks one of emergency and on top of it all, the earth is still shaking. The italian people answered in a marvelous way and many are there to help, the Protezione Civile ( the italian relief corps ) is doing an incredible job and in no time tents were up and folks were fed and given medical assistance.

Many people used what they had, their skills or just their hands to help. A pizza truck, baked pizzas, a small orchestra played music to cheer up the folks, a hairdresser went with her scissors and combs...... My answer to this is I' ll make quilts !!! Well even if i will sew 10 or 20 throws they will be like a drop in the bucket, so i felt i should involved all the quilters who feel they would like to participate with me in this project i called " A thousand colors for the children of Abruzzo ". The purpose is to provide children ages three to five ( here in Italy it is call kindergarten and most children attend all day ) with a quilt they can call their own, they do not need a blanket, you all quilters know what i mean.

In Italy quilting is not a tradition, but it is becoming more and more appreciated and many women of all ages are learning the art.

I am one of the founding members of the italian guild Quiltitalia (1996), the founding member of one of the first local guilds Sala di Quiltatura ( 1998) the promoter of the first quilting convention in the north east Italy and the inventor of the Quilting Day ( an event that is now duplicated in many parts of Italy :)). I'm also one of the first quilting instructors and i feel a pioneer in participating with other few to make the beautiful art of quilting known in my country. I felt i should share these informations to introduce myself on the blog since many of you whose blogs I read regularly, do not know me. All that I have accomplished has been to the advantage of the project for Abruzzo, since it is for this i decided to start blogging again. I shared the project on april 13th with my italian fellow quilters, students, quilt shops and I' m not done yet....... The response i 'm getting is amazing, quilters surely know how to show their solidarity, and i felt i should extend the opportunity to all outside the boundaries of Italy to participate. Maybe you are of italian descent, or you love italian food or you are just a mother thinking that you sure would like your child to have a quilt that he can consider his own possession after losing all he or she had and cherished. Think about it or... do not think at all and just drop me an e mail at roberta.sperandio@alice.it requesting the details of the project ( measurements , deadline ect....), I answer all the e mails that come my way. Also if you feel like you would like to involve other quilters wherever they may be, feel free to pass this message on.

I had the privilege of having the owner of Bernina Italy publish the project on the first page of their official web site and the italian version of the quilting magazine Magic Patch will publish it on their upcoming issue. Thank you for listening , and thank you also to all who will answer.

I will post regularly the progress of " A thousand colors " on the blog, so visit when you can and if all you can do is that and think and pray for all the folks of Abruzzo, that alone will make me happy.

Always stitching

Roberta