IBOL II - Stash Busting for Peace

I ran to the post office at lunch today. Well, actually, it was more of a stagger. First, I mailed the La Fred patterns to the winners of the pattern giveaway in honor of Fred Bloebaum. Once again, congrats to Kathryn (fzxdoc) and Deb!

I also had two flat rate boxes stuffed-to-the-gills-but-forced-to-hold-together-with-strapping-tape and headed to Iraq for the IBOL II project. I was blog surfing last weekend and I came across the Slapdash Sewist's blog with information about this project. The deadline to send something was today, October 1st, which didn't give me much time to dive into the stash.

IBOL, or Iraqi Bundles of Love, was started last year by an American soldier stationed in Iraq. The project was designed to dovetail with the Muslim month of Ramadan, which includes the tradition of generosity. This soldier, the "IBOL Guy", is related to quilters, and he decided to get sewing supplies to the women of Northern Iraq, who have very little. To do this, people sent him bundles of supplies, in large flat rate boxes, and mailed to an APO address (which is charged at a discount rate of $12.50, instead of $14.50). The person at that address distributes them. (The IBOL Guy himself is now back in the states, but he has arranged for the program to keep going.)

I have amassed fabric and supplies in the last year that I will probably never use, but are too good to cut up for muslins. It felt great to create two bundles. I threw in rolls of elastic, ribbons, buttons, and appliques from when I sewed for my kids. I would have loved to send more than 2 boxes, but I just ran out of time.

At any rate, the IBOL guy tells me they will probably have an IBOL 3 next year. It felt great to share with my sewing sisters across the world.