The past few weeks have seen many boxes arriving at the post office with beautiful quilts, and much progress in our project to get quilts to hurricane victims. Settle in for a long and picture heavy post! And grab a tissue, you might need it by the end of this post. It has been truly heartwarming to see the generosity of quilters. These two quilts arrived from Elaine E of Goldsboro, NC.

Judith C of Orange City, FL sent 4 twin size quilts.

Deanna Augustin of Columbus, NE sent this huge queen/king size quilt.

Fellow guild member Lydia G here in Hendersonville was working on learning how to use her new longarm machine. She spent her time quilting and finishing four quilts for the project. All were twin size.

Lydia’s quilts are beautifully quilted, and I told her she was not a newbie anymore after these. There are such great colors in both of these.

Next, a couple of boxes from the Loose Threads Quilters Guild in Spring City, PA arrived with these wonderful quilts and more.

Last Friday, it was a good time to meet Rev Don Freeman at Bearwallow Church in Gerton, and Michael Alburl at the same time to distribute the quilts collected. My Sweet Babboo and I loaded up the MINI and made our way to Gerton. Along the way we saw lots of debris still lying on the side of the road, destroyed cars and a wrecked trailer were still lying in the aftermath of a flooded creek. The police checkpoint was gone, but the barricades are still there, with warnings that the roads are treacherous. But we didn’t have that far to go past the barricade to get to the church. It took about 15 minutes less than we thought to make the drive, so we were early.

We met Rev. Don Freeman and once again spread out the quilts over the pews so we could see the sizes and colors.

Rev Don (second from the left in the photo below) had several of his parishioners with him that day. They were going to go to another church in Hendersonville to pick up split wood for their neighbors who only have fireplaces and wood stoves for heating. One had received a quilt in the last delivery, the other two were going to pick one up on Sunday.

The sanctuary looks so warm and inviting. We had to admire all the different patterns and colors while we waited for Michael to arrive.

When he got to the church, Michael was told to choose a stack for his neighbors who had been through the worst of the disaster. I actually was amused at both of them. Michael was a bit shy, wanting to be sure he only took what Rev. Don was OK with him taking, while Rev. Don was acting the same, wanting only to have what Michael didn’t take. So, I stepped in, and started picking up quilts in a variety of sizes for Michael to choose. We folded up his choices for a quick photo, then helped him get them to the car.

The quilts left at the church were enough to complete getting at least one to every household in the parish. Last night was a flurry of text messages from both Rev. Don and Michael on the deliveries made. First, after the service on Sunday, Bearwallow church members who had not received a quilt in the December delivery were allowed to choose one.

Happy faces are so heartwarming to see, and we know they will all be a bit warmer on these cold nights of winter.

Michael sent some information about the people receiving quilts with his photos. All went to residents of his small community of older people. He had asked me if there were any rules for who could get a quilt, and I said the only request I had was that they live in Gerton, although if he knew someone else outside Gerton who was in need that was fine. Everyone in the community endured the trauma of those days, and deserved to know they are cared for. Michael gave a quilt to Dale and Sandy, saying “Dale and I met on a work crew trying to reach people trapped on top of a mountain. Dale did a lot of volunteer work for our community.” The quilt was large enough to cover their bed in their very small home.

Ellen and Steve were trapped for several days when the bridge across the stream at the bottom of their mountain was washed away by Helene. Steve did a lot of volunteer work for their community after a makeshift bridge was put in place so they could walk across.

Lee and Dan were two of the main people planning community gatherings and cookouts when the community didn’t have electricity for 15 days.

Michael said they were all thankful for the quilts, and no one felt that they deserved a quilt. He still has a few more to deliver, and will do so soon. As it was for our small community on our one lane road, and communities all over western North Carolina, neighbor came out to help neighbor. We shared what we could share, and accepted help where we needed it. We built relationships with each other, leaning on each other through those days and beyond. Four months later, many have gone back to our regular lives, and we don’t see the neighbors as much anymore. But we know if adversity strikes, we are there for each other. And the residents of this tiny community hit the hardest know that they are not forgotten

As the news moves on and the focus is still on other parts of NC like Swannanoa and Black Mountain, I will continue to take quilt shipments and make deliveries throughout 2025 to Gerton, Chimney Rock and Bat Cave. My address is on my contact page if you want to be a part of this effort. Thank you so much to everyone who has been a part of this project, it wouldn’t be possible without you.