Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Packing Charity Quilts for Shipment: Day 17



Do you remember me telling you the MCC Connections Store and warehouse was like a well oiled machine? Well, a machine is only as good as its parts, and today I have another example. Two brothers team up to make sure the donated comforters that arrive in the warehouse are properly packed for shipment around the world. I stuck with them from start to finish, and so can you to see how it's managed.


All comforters are visually inspected for pins. That could be a nasty surprise to a recipient or someone on the other end. While I could see one being forgotten, we actually encountered an entire baggie full pinned onto one comforter. They had been through this before.

They use the table dimensions to gauge how to best fold each one. The sizes varied from lots of crib sized yesterday up to about a queen size. 



They alternate the folds front and back to maintain evenness in the load, and keep count by inserting a piece of cardboard every 5 comforters. They laughed when they said it kept them from recounting while they talked. Oh, if they only know I do this, too, after counting 10's of 4 patches into the 100's!


Variety would be the word to use about the designs. There were whole pieces of fabrics, designs of everything imaginable, and even kitchen-sink-style with every last piece in your scrap pile used up without regard to the print. Each one was beautiful!


The stack grew and grew. Twenty-five comforters to a bundle was the goal, and they had plenty to make one. 


The doors were shut, I stood back, and the magic began as the machine compressed the bundle into a bale. Then the straps were manually wrapped and cinched down, and a metal band compressed on the bands to keep them in check for the ride by truck and ship to the their final destinations.



The men were smart in how they worked using the table to roll the bale out onto, and not trying to manhandle it themselves.


Rip-stop plastic was wrapped around the bale, and the sealed it with packing tape. Then one more strap and band before it was ready to be weighed and labelled.


It weighed right at 30 kilograms or about 66 pounds. The proper tags for weight, content, and origin were applied, and it was all ready to be shipped. You can see the love all squished inside, can't you? It's hard to believe that holds 25 comforters. As Andy Rooney used to say, "Now you know."


                    




Come on, Doxie girls.
Let's go sew.

10 comments:

QuiltShopGal said...

Bless you. What a well orchestrated team. I've never seen such efficient packing of charity quilts. Great job. I'm sure these quilts are going to homes that deserve a good quilty hug and will make a difference in their lives.

QuiltShopGal
www.quiltshopgal.com

Janice Holton said...

Fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing this process with us! That is wonderful!

Angie in SoCal said...

I see you wrote they get crib quilts there also. Could you make some that size instead of those twin size? Interesting posts.

Teje said...

This is a lovely post Julie! x Teje

Steffi said...

Wow, ich bin beeindruckt!

Stitchin At Home said...

That was interesting. Thanks Julie.

Barb Neiwert said...

Wow - that's quite the heavy-duty packing machine! Looks like these guys enjoy the process :)

helenjean@midgetgemquilts said...

Now we know indeed x
This whole process of charity quilting has fascinated me

Kate said...

Wow, they get the most out of each process. Making sure they can ship the most for the least cost. Thanks for sharing. It's a pretty amazing process.

Anja @ Anja Quilts said...

What an interesting production to package the quilts. That's amazing that it got shrunk so small.