Charity Quilts in Arizona

[dancingstitcher]

I just finished my first quilt and it was for charity. Someone will enjoy seeing all the variety of stitches since I scribbled to my hearts content. My friend gave me another charity quilt she made, then the Mesa Regal quilters gave me four more on which to practice. They did 127 "Arizona Blankets for Kids" last year. Once a month the women meet to cut and sew the quilts. However, a few dedicated souls work on tops at their summer homes as well.

Hobbs has a charity batting program. The women send in ten bar codes at a time from the back of Hobbs batting they purchased and in exchange get reduced pricing $1.75 per pound on large rolls (40 pounds in the two rolls from rejected product, any type available). What does Hobbs charge on a wholesale level for poly batting? The women get nearly 80% of all their fabrics from donations of quilters who live in the park and friends of quilters from all over the US and Canada.

Doing charity quilts seems like a great way to get some practice and not waste the valuable thread. Is charity work part of your business? I know that many of you offer your services for auction quilts because I have seen some beautiful quilts that were posted. What parameters do you use? Do organizations cover some of your costs or do you donate those too along with your time? What are your thoughts?

Vicki

[shadows4]

My mom & I organized a group called Quilts for Kids. It is sponsored by our church and if we need $ they have said they will be willing to give it to us though we've never had to ask for it. So far we have gotten so many donations that we are going to have to start being more picky on what we accept. At first I bought the rolls of batting from FabriQuilt with my own money. That way I could also use it when I needed it. Now I usually use Hobbs for mine, but we can't afford that for the charity quilts. We've had donations of batting, a new serger, a small Janome sewing machine that was almost new, a Pfaff machine, alot of unfinished quilt tops, and much fabric and some cash also.

We meet 2 Thursdays a month in my studio, and have started meeting on some Tuesdays now. We donate baby blankets to Crisis Pregnancy center, and lap size quilts to Spofford Home for kids ages 4 to 12 who have been taken from their homes and will probably never go back, and also to C3 ministries who start orphanages in countries like Haiti, Phillipines, Thailand, Cambodia, etc. where there's been much turmoil that's left kids as orphans and nothing but a few clothes on their backs.

I have some of the pictures of ones we've made on my Webshots page, but I regret that we didn't take pics at first. On my Webshots album, the one named My Quilts, you can see some of the fabric that was donated in my studio pics. You only see about 1/2 of it. It has just about taken over my basement, but it's been worth it.

A lady from Spofford came and talked to our group. She started to cry several times when she talked about the kids, once was when she talked about the affect of the quilts on the kids. She said when the kids get there, the first thing they do is take them to the quilt room where they are allowed to pick out a quilt that will be theirs from then on. They are usually distraught when they first arrive, but calm down when they get their quilt. Many times they pick out one that reminds them of their mom. Talk about the wonderful things quilts do.

I've learned so many technics on those quilts, and have gotten to practice quilting on them. As far as costs, the bulk of needs have been provided by donations. What hasn't been provided we've been happy to donate ourselves, or use the cash that was donated, but that has been very little.

I'm glad you told us about the Hobbs program. I would like to check into that. Is the info on the website or where do we find out about it?

[GERRY]

Hay Vicki

Our Guild gives about 100 "Community Quilts" away every year. At the moment I am the gal in charge of co-ordinating fabric donation, handing out batting, storing finnished quilts ect. ect.

Anyway last year when Dianna (the other LAer in our guild) was in trainning , she volunteered to quilt 1 quilt (any size) per month, she only asked if she could be given $8.00 for thread use, so last June I started doing the same, thought I've done more than that, because I need the PPPing time, I think between the two of us, quilting the larger tops & the

rest of the gals in the guild doing the baby tops, we have managed to get over 150 quilts done this year.......These quilts go to the R.C.M.P.

"Victims Services" for victims of violence, "Coastal Missions" take a boat up the coast during the summer months, to supply families on very remote islands, & they hand out baby quilts to the Mommies with new babies. Plus we have a "Mid-wife" progam here, we give to them & they give quilts to babies born under difficult circumstances.

Jeanne:( had to blow my nose after reading about those kids, can't think of a better way to give out quilts......good work:)