HUG Quilts

Karen posted this about 5 years ago... I think it still fits! (Although I am now the official "keeper of the list".)

from Karen....

I've been asked to post a few facts about what a Hug is, and what is the Hug List. First, the list. I have an email list of over 250 rctq'rs who want to be notified when someone wants to sponsor a Hug. When someone does want to sponsor a Hug, they email me with the reason and the colors, block size, deadline, etc. I send it out to the list. I never give out the member's email addresses. Then everyone on the list can decide if they want to, or are able to, make a block for a particular Hug. If you do, you make a block of the size requested, sign it with your screen name and location, or according to the request, and mail it to the Hug sponsor by the deadline given. That's it! We have a ball with it!

Karen, Queen of Squishies

The rest is from Miss Sairey -

And so. What is a HUG?

A HUG is bits of fabric put together with love and understanding -- and sometimes, a serious case of stitching-out-the-pain, for some of us who cannot BE there to administer the real, personal HUGs. A HUG is one way (sometimes the only way we have, in this chunk of cyber-space, this big quilting bee many of us have depended on in ways we can never fully explain) to put our arms around someone (and each other); to reach out and say "I wish I could be there with/for you, in person, but I can't, and this will just have to do, at least for now."

A HUG wraps the absolute Caring that goes on in this newsgroup into a tangible package for someone to touch, and feel, and cuddle down into when times are tough. Sometimes, a HUG is all we have, when words aren't enough.

Now, don't think for an instant that HUGs are ALL sadness and tragedy. Not by a long shot, they aren't. There's almost always a lot of LAUGHTER stitched into each HUG, and a lot of shared good-times. Lots of puns get worked into many of the HUG-blocks, and lots of the things we've just LEARNED about each other, from time to time. Lots of rainbows and butterfly wings and sunshine and flowers and just downright-silly-giggles, too.

There is an astonishing amount of POWER in a HUG, folks. Lightning and thunder and some really sharp edges and planes. Anger, sometimes, in a HUG. A good, clean kind of anger.

A HUG is for Friendship and Family. A HUG helps with fear and pain. A HUG is for Laughter and good times and spinning around the room in a happy-dance.

A HUG is all the things quilters do, for all the reasons they do the things they do. But because mostly, quilters do what they do because they CARE so very deeply, and simply understand the perfect beauty of a HUG, the quilters here on RCTQ just HUG, from time to time.

Thanks Miss Sairey.... these words still hit the target dead center for me!