No, not me, silly! I’m talking about six Iraqi Bundles of Love.  This project was started by an Army officer in Iraq, who was moved by the absolute poverty of the people near his base in northern Iraq.  He was struck by how completely every scrap of scarce material is used up — paper, metal, packing material — everything.  And, knowing how we quilters and knitters tend to amass far more material than we can use in a lifetime, he dreamed up a little project with his wife to brighten the lives of local women and to do so in a way that won’t cost anybody very much.  The bundles are packed inside of UPS flat-rate priority mail boxes and are self-wrapped inside a large piece of fabric and some ribbon.

What’s inside?  Just about anything you can think off — fabric, thread, needles and pins, ribbon, small boxes to hold notions, buttons, and patterns.  The more I imagined the happiness and hours of contentment this material would bring to women who have nothing, the more I found in my sewing room that I could do without.  My daughter helped to put collections of material together and we crammed everything in as tightly as possible.

Poor Major.  He  thought that he might get 50 boxes or so.  He’s already received several hundred, and I’m guessing that the numbers will jump significantly as the deadline draws near.

You can still join in — the shipping deadline is 8 September.  Priority Mail postage to APO’s is discounted, so you pay only $11.95 a box.  See the website for details, and leave a comment on any of the posts to request the address.  You can see more pictures and information at the Flickr group and on the Facebook page.