Cool Ties - Update

After the Interfaith Quilting Bee on Saturday morning, several of us gathered at the Emlgorve Community Room to make Cool Ties for those lacking A/C in Houston. I had completed about 40 of them before the event and the group completed another 90. That makes about 130 of them I can give to the woman who is organizing this project for the city of Houston.

Pretty Impressive pile isn't it?

We used up about 17 yards of fabric in a variety of prints from a cute white and light blue to a more somber brown and cream print. We could use nice prints because these are not made for the troops overseas who require dull, unobstrusive fabrics.

A few of those helping out today made a few for their family's use and I expect to see some on lawn mowing husbands or motorcycle riding babes in the near future.

The goal is for 2,500 cool ties to be made and distirbuted... a huge number that seems to dwarf our efforts today. I hope others will be inspired by our efforts and complete the rest of the number needed in the next week or so.

You can make some for the needy in your area or for your own family and friends. The instructions are here. To finish them off, all you need to do is find the water absorbing crystals, determine how much to use (I use 2 teaspoons of the 'Soil Soak' brand availabe at my local Lowes hardware store) then sew up the opening. To use you need to soak the whole thing in cool water, store in a zip lock bag in the refridgerator, tie one on when doing outdoor work and enjoy!

I want to make special mention of the women who turned out today. Lish, Janetta, Fonda, Marjory, Joyce and Betty, many of whom had spent the morning at the Interfaith Quilting Bee, continued their sewing day with this project. I hope they realise how much their generosity of both time and talent will make a difference in the lives of fellow Houstonians. You all humble me with your dedication to projects for which recognition is almost non-existent but the impact is huge. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.