VoiceQuilt's Founder - Volunteer of the Month

VoiceQuilt’s Founder, Hope Flammer, was recognized as Volunteer of the Month at Second Helpings.

Second Helpings is a non-profit food distribution project that delivers fresh food that would normally be thrown away by restaurants and delivers them to various shelters and food banks.

At 5pm every Tuesday, Hope retrieves bagels from Goldberg's on Roswell Road in Atlanta. She then drives them down to the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children the next morning.

Congratulations, Hope!

VoiceQuilt - "A Musical Prayer Chain"

Over the years, numerous studies have shown that words of comfort and love can improve the healing process. It has also been proven that music and prayers can promote healing. Recently, a family showed us how a VoiceQuilt could combine all of these winning elements -- encouraging messages, prayers and music – to help a young woman named Michelle before and after her breast cancer surgery.

Michelle’s mother, Joyce, wanted to encourage her daughter prior to treatment and through a lengthy recovery. After learning about VoiceQuilt, she recruited family and friends to leave messages to sustain Michelle through the difficult months ahead. Because Michelle and her father are avid music fans, she asked Michelle’s sister, Rebecca, to add music to the VoiceQuilt that was meaningful to Michelle.

Using VoiceQuilt's toll-free telephone number, caring souls called by the dozens. Friends put Michelle's name on prayer lists across the country, and people who had never even met Michelle left prayers and scripture readings. Rebecca searched for music online that referenced these passages and uploaded them to the VoiceQuilt, along with additional musical selections she knew would inspire her sister.

Michelle listened to a portion of this musical prayer chain prior to surgery. After returning home from the hospital, her mother gave her a beautiful keepsake box that plays all of the messages. Michelle tells us that she is healing well and plans to use the keepsake to store her many get-well cards and e-mails.

Go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to start capturing your special memories...

A Scrap at a Time: News Roundup

How do you share family history and happenings?

Here’s a creative tip from MacWorld.

Put down your scissors and use mouse-clicks to create gorgeous digital scrapbooks. Yes, once you’ve saved the pages as images, you can add your VoiceQuilt soundtrack to them.

Read our post on adding sound to slide shows

Tell a story about an event by scrapbooking for a cause. 250 scrapbook enthusiasts came together on Staten Island, New York to raise money for The G.R.A.C.E. Foundation's fourth-annual Crop for Autism.

Whether you collect family mementos and desire to share them or want to inspire others to join your cause, scrapbooks are a perfect combination of words and pictures. Create a digital scrapbook and add your VoiceQuilt audio to put together an effective statement.

VoiceQuilt - "Unique 80th Birthday Gift"

A customer emailed us on the one-year anniversary of her VoiceQuilt:

"Working with all of you and creating the VoiceQuilt for my Dad was a truly memorable and rewarding experience. With close to 80 messages for his "80th", my sister and I felt the project was a huge success. Dad still talks about it, and takes the VoiceQuilt box on the road when visiting friends and family members who helped create it. One of his closest friends died just a few short months after completion. His message is a really special one that I am so glad we have recorded.

I have told so many people about your company and this special gift. Thanks for helping create something so unique. Keep up the fantastic work you do!"

Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own unique, personal sentimental gift...

VoiceQuilt - Social Media get Audible

One of our favorite Tech Friends, Jim Phillips, stopped by today. We asked him to give us a quick review of the new social media sites that feature voice. Check out his comments below!

Social Media get Audible

Social media on the Internet are mostly about text so far. You might update your Twitter account with your 140 characters and that might include a link to a Web page or a picture. You have more space with your Facebook posts, but those are about text too. The Internet has been such a text universe that voice is mostly missing, unless you're into podcasts. But why not use your voice to update your friends and followers? There are some startups out there that are trying to push us in that direction. One is Bubbly .

Bubbly lets you post a voice update to their servers. Friends and followers can dial up and see what you have to say or they can get updates when you've posted something new. So far, Bubbly has been aimed at markets where Internet penetration is relatively low, but lots of people have mobile phones. The company has only licensed it to mobile carriers in India and a few other countries. But the company is based in the US, so they clearly intend to roll out here eventually. Will they put it on the Internet? You have to think they will.

But wait! There is already a company that lets you post voice updates just like you would post updates on Twitter. It's called Audioboo . With Audioboo, you can record 60 seconds of audio and post it to your account. Just like Twitter, you can follow others and be followed. Your post is called a "boo" (mightier than a "tweet"?). And like the social news site, Digg, you can vote a boo up or down. You can listen to my sample boo embedded below. Audioboo has apps for both iPhone and Android phones that allow you to send a boo while you're away from your computer. When you visit the Audioboo site, you can browse boos that others posted, see featured boos, popular boos or only boos from people you follow. They just celebrated their first year in business. Why aren't they generating more buzz? Well, they're not in Silicon Valley, where every blogger writes about what his friends are doing and promotes it. They're in London. But the idea is a good one and I would love to see it catch on.

Since you're a fan of VoiceQuilt, you're already a fan of voice. Go check these out!

VoiceQuilt - Verbal Treasures

Words used to honor and recognize individuals are verbal treasures. If you’re asked to speak at an upcoming wedding, don’t stress. It’s easier than you think.

The basics of a good toast are simple phrases that speak from the heart and relate a connection to the person being honored. If you’re giving the toast, seek inspiration in your relationship to the person, then use your own words or mix in a famous quote. Search “Bartlett’s Quotations” and “wedding” at Bartley.com http://www.bartleby.com/). Or, find a quote appropriate for the special couple at The Quote Garden (http://www.quotegarden.com) or The Board of Wisdom (http://www.boardofwisdom.com).

Prepare for the event by writing down what you want to express. Rehearse it out loud and edit your words if necessary. That way, you’ll be ready when you are asked to raise a glass and say a few words. Check out more ideas here

Parents of the bride and groom often record their toasts ahead of time in a VoiceQuilt – and then ask other friends, family and wedding party members to call in their stories, toasts and tributes. It’s a special piece of history – and it reduces the pressure to perform on that special day!

Whether it's a wedding, birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to capture your verbal treasures...

VoiceQuilt 50th Birthday Gift - Great Invitation!

This is my one of my all-time favorites.



















It is a paper invitation to a 50th Birthday VoiceQuilt.
(Note the sequence of birthday girl photos…and the playful instructions.)

Ellin P. created this using a template on the Kodak web site and then snail mailed it out roughly 3 weeks before the event.




























Create a unique, personalized, sentimental VoiceQuilt gift to commemorate a special occasion - Birthday, Anniversary, Retirement, etc. Go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started".

VoiceQuilt - We have wonderful customers

We received this check in the mail today.


It's for $.99.

A VoiceQuilt gift giver sent the check because she wanted to add a song to her VoiceQuilt and couldn't figure out how to upload it -- so, we did it for her.

She wanted "Happy Birthday" and we downloaded the song from Amazon (on her behalf for all the music royalty folks) and uploaded it to her VoiceQuilt.

It may sound dumb, but we like living in a world where someone makes a promise....and that promise is kept.

Thank you!

Creating a Tribute with VoiceQuilt and iPhoto

Many VoiceQuilt gift givers are creating photo shows and videos using a VoiceQuilt mp3s as the sound track. Maureen T., one of our iPhoto veterans, gave us permission to share this excerpt and her “Quick Start” instructions.

Quick Start Instructions

1.) After finalizing your VoiceQuilt, choose“Instant/Memory Card” on the “Choose a Keepsake” page. Then, select “VoiceQuilt Download”.

2.) While in iPhoto, select “New Album” and then slide show. Be sure to give it a unique name.

3.) Go to the photo album that contains the images you want to include. Drag and drop images into the slide show icon that appears in the bar on the far left of the screen.

4.) Pick a theme. This one shows the Ken Burns effect.

5.) Now, just add the VoiceQuilt mp3 by opening “Music” in the selection bar at the bottom of the screen. Then, select “Custom” and drag and drop your file into that place. Under settings (the gear icon) , choose whether to fit the voice track to the length of the show (that’s what I did) or have it repeat until the end of the slides. You can also add music from the options offered.

6.) Preview the show. When you’re satisfied, go to “export,” and pick the size of the file you need.

The possibilities are endless.

Check out this cool voice/music montage that Tiffany S. created for her best friend’s wedding.

Go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to start capturing your special memories...

VoiceQuilt "A Movie-Worthy Life"

There are incredible tales in every family—an individual who succeeds despite the odds, an immigration saga, or a person’s role in a local history event. Although Hollywood might not be knocking on your door in the near future, documenting family stories is an important task.

Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, told us about the recent film, Extraordinary Measures. Starring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, the movie chronicles a man’s search for a cure to save his children. It’s a passionate and compelling story of dedication and persistence. An inspiring story...and there are many more. Just browse through the Netflix.com selections under the subject “Dramas based in real life.” Plenty of inspiration there to get us through a cold winter...

Those movies portray real heroes -- who are someone else’s family members. …Is your family story, movie-worthy or VoiceQuilt-worthy? Of Course!

Whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation or some other special occasion, you can go to www.VoiceQuilt.com and click "Get Started" to create your own collection of family stories...