HEARTS FOR CHRISTCHURCH - THE SEQUEL

Some months ago, I think I mentioned that I had heard about an appeal for "Hearts for Christchurch", where the Needleworking world was encouraged to show their support and caring for the people of Christchurch by creating fabric hearts. These would then be distributed to individuals, and hopefully be of comfort.

Above are the two hearts I created at the time, and I seem to recall that I used greens because they seemed to symbolise new life.

 The lady who was collecting the hearts on behalf of Christchurch kept a blog, and she published these pictures of my hearts when she received them, apologising that they appeared bluer than they looked in real life.
I believe that more than 4000 hearts flooded in!
Then a few weeks ago, I began to receive a flood of letters and emails from people in Christchurch, saying thank you for the hearts and expressing appreciation.
It would seem that the hearts were displayed in the Christchurch museum, one of the few historic and traditional buildings to have escaped major damage in the quakes.
Two ladies, Bee and Lisa, were kind enough to send me photos of the display.

Apparently not many people had attached a name or address to their hearts. I had attached a tag with my name, Norfolk Island, and my email address. This was not because I wanted thanks or acknowledgement, but I thought it would be nice to put a "human face" to the gift, and to give the message that the caring came from real people. It seems that this was appreciated.

 Evidently my hearts are among these!!

Then last week I had this email. I was so glad to hear from someone who actually received one of my hearts. "C." (name supplied) explains how she actually came to get my heart - what lovely feedback.

My name is (name supplied) from Christchurch, NZ.





Just letting you know that I now have one of your hearts - actually the top one in your article about them and thought you might like to know how it came about that I got it as you had attached your name, message and email on the heart.






Myself and a friend were visiting the Canterbury Museum this morning to visit Hearts for Christchurch display and the WOW exhibition and were told that the Hearts display was in the process of being taken down and this Saturday and Sunday people were being given one heart each as a gift. Another friend had visited the display a few weeks ago had commented that she had seen one from Norfolk ( where she had recently visited) as of course she knew of my love of the island.






With this in mind I asked if the one from Norfolk Island (not realising there were two until I googled your name - your surname being familiar to me from time spent there - and found your blog) was still there and was given that particular one which I am thrilled about and will treasure - it was very interesting reading about the process of the fabric and the making of the final product on your blog also - oh to be so clever!!!

I believe that anyone who has ever visited that beautiful city of Christchurch would have grieved at the loss and destruction of so many lives and landmarks. Making the hearts gave me some personal comfort. And knowing that the wonderful spirit of Christchurch lives on is heartwarming too.






Norfolk Island is very special to me as I worked on the island for a while many many years ago as well as having enjoyed many happy holidays there over the years - my husband and I both love everything about it the island!!!!






So thank you very much for the thought involved, the making and sending of it as the hearts. As well as being a spectacular display, they have meant such a lot and been a real joy and comfort to us here as you can imagine after such a devastating incomprehensible event that has had so many unimaginable repurcussions, and is even now one that nobody can be sure has actually finished.






Thanks so much once more