Ladies and gents,

This letter was posted on a DJ forum, thought I would pass it on to you, the more people who are looking the less likely the quilts will end up in the hands of a private collector:

"I saw this notice on another list and thought I would pass it on...

Valerie Hearder is a talented quilter, who was once a Guest Artist at the Applique Academy.... While her style is NOT Baltimore, I think that
the more people who know these are stolen, the better chances of Valerie getting them back.

Please keep your eye open for Valerie Hearder's quilts, which were stolen at Quilt Canada. Here is a new report from CBC news:
http://www.cbc. ca/arts/story/ 2008/06/11/ stolen-quilts. html
<http://www.cbc. ca/arts/story/ 2008/06/11/ stolen-quilts. html>

And you can see Valerie's work on her website

www.valeriehearder. com

The news article tells who to contact if you think you see any of these quilts. Be aware, especially if you are looking on eBay, since that is one place thieves try to unload these things.

Please send this to all your quilting friends so these works can be recovered."

Thought you'd like to know they have been recovered.


Stolen quilts saved by the call of nature

By BEVERLEY WARE South Shore Bureau
Sun. Jun 22 - 7:28 AM

Thank goodness Billy Jordan needed to take a leak.

Because of that, a Mahone Bay artist has her quilts back — 70 per
cent of her life's work. They were stolen two weeks ago when she was
in St. John's, N.L., for a conference.

Valerie Hearder's quilts, worth at least $15,000, were in two
suitcases locked in the trunk of her car.

She never expected to see them again.

But Billy Jordan, a 22-year-old who was taking a shortcut through
the woods to answer the call of nature, found the quilts and turned
them over to police.

He'll be getting a $1,000 reward from Ms. Hearder. "I'll pay some
bills with it, I guess," he said Saturday in a telephone interview.

The story began June 8. Ms. Hearder was in St. John's, where 550
delegates from across Canada had come to learn at the hands of the
best fabric artists from Canada, the U.S. and as far away as South
Africa and New Zealand.

Ms. Hearder was exhibiting her work at the conference and doing some
teaching. When the event wrapped up, she went to a friend's house
for dinner. She parked her Lexus in the driveway. In the locked
trunk were two suitcases filled with her quilts and her husband's
briefcase and laptop.

The next day, she popped the trunk to get some coats out and she saw
the suitcases, briefcase and laptop were gone. "I closed the trunk
and opened it again and thought, No, no! It was complete disbelief."

She was crushed. The quilts represented two decades of work,
including nine wall hangings and 30 smaller framed pieces about the
size of a sheet of paper.

Ms. Hearder said she has been overwhelmed by the support of
Newfoundlanders and quilters around the world. She has received
thousands of e-mails from people expressing sympathy and support,
and even offering prayers for their safe return. The messages have
come from France, Holland, Australia, England and across Canada and
the U.S.

The story of her loss was on the radio, TV and in newspapers in
Newfoundland and has been the talk of many a town. "One person told
me her postman asked her every day if there was any news," she said.

Ms. Hearder got back home from Newfoundland at 6:30 a.m. Friday. The
phone rang at 4:30 p.m. It was a journalist with a St. John's
television station to say her quilts had been found that afternoon
by a young man in the woods on the western edge of the city.

Mr. Jordan said he was heading over to a friend's home about 2:30
p.m. He took a shortcut through the woods and after stepping off the
well-used little path to relieve himself, "I looked over and I seen
these two black garbage bags."

He peered inside and saw the quilts, which he took to his friend's
house. It turned out they were the very quilts everyone had been
looking for.

Then he promptly turned them over to the Royal Newfoundland
Constabulary.

"If I never had to go, I guess we'd never have found them," he said.

Ms. Hearder said she expects a friend to pick up the quilts, which
are in fine shape, and she should have them back within a
week. "This really is a happy ending," she said.

The quilts will be on display in August at the Chester Art Festival.

A happy ending with a comic twist - how great is that?