Special Delivery

The details of this post have been forming for the past 5 months. I hate keeping things under wraps--I hate secrets--and I have a hard time keeping my mouth closed when I am super excited about something. And so, FINALLY I can reveal these beautiful quilts which were delivered to Margaret's Hope Chest last week.
Here is the story behind them. In November of last year, I was nosing around on Jennifer Chiaverini's website. (Aside: If you are a quilter and you haven't heard about or read one of her books, you need to. She is an excellent writer and her books are worth your time and money). I saw this announcement: "In celebration of the publication of Jennifer Chiaverini's new novel, A Quilter's Holiday, Elm Creek Quilts fans are invited to piece a block for charity quilts, choosing a pattern symbolic of their own gratitude."
And then there was this sentence near the bottom of post:"If you would like to nominate a favorite charity, please include information about the group with your package."
I bet you can guess where this is going....I submitted a block and I wrote Jennifer to tell her of Margaret's Hope Chest and humbly asked to be considered to receive ONE of the charity quilts. Imagine my surprise in December when I opened my e-mail and found a personal e-mail from JENNIFER CHIAVERINI!!! Seriously, this was one of the most exciting moments in 2010 for me. She was not going to gift us with one quilt--but all of the quilts that were made from the blocks--FIVE in total.
And so, last week 4 of the 5 quilts arrived--and they are lovely and so very special. Each one made with blocks from ladies around the country who wanted to share something that they are thankful for. And now we have the honor and pleasure of sharing them with the people that God has chosen. Can't wait to see who they will be.

The quilts were so special that we took them on a field trip to the Toronto Botanical Gardens to be photographed today.
A special thanks to my mom and dad who lost all feeling in their arms while holding up the quilts and waiting for the wind to behave or one of my children to exit the picture :)!