Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Hugs - Charity Through Your Local Guild


Elm Street Quilts is not affiliated with any of the organizations in the series.

The objective in the series of Elm Street Quilts Hugs blog posts is to encourage the giving of handmade to someone who needs extra support.  This could be a family member or friend or perhaps to someone in your community.  I'd like to turn February into a month of giving handmade hug. #handmadehug #ESQHugs.   


A great place to find like minded individuals who want to quilt for charity is to look no further than your local guild.  Capital Quilters is one of the guilds in my area.  They've been donating quilts since the guild began in the early 1980's with quilts in those early years going to Ronald McDonald House and local Neonatal care units at area hospital.



While not yet a member of the guild, I did attend one meeting to get to know the organization.  I was very impressed with the parade of charity quilts that surrounded the large audience.

Bonnie Hunter was speaking that night which clearly drew in a lot of people.  Which met circling the audience with the parade of  charity quilts even more impressive!  (Bonnie's post from that evening.)

The guild newsletter said more than 80 quilts were collected that evening alone.

Raleigh Capital Quilters Donation parade Bonnie Hunter
Photo credit to Bonnie Hunter from http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/11/and-then-there-was-some-raleigh-show.html

The Capital Quilters guild has focused their charitable quilt making for 2015-2016 on quilts for kids, Quilts on Wheels and SAFEchild.  Goals to donate 225 quilts have been set for each group.  The quilts for kids are donated to  the Neonatal Intensive Care units at two local hospitals.  Quilts on Wheels is a program that provides lap sized quilts to residents of local nursing homes.  SAFEchild (Stop Abuse for Every Child) organization provides support for children who have been identified as abused or neglected in our local county.

The guild provides kits to members for some of their charitable quilting and accepts donations of supplies.

The guild's primary purpose for making comfort quilts is to provide a personal gift of a lovingly created textile creation to area hospitals nursing homes and families graduating from the SAFEChild parenting education program. The are well over 300 members who make these quilts to share their love of quilting with the community.  

In the guild's December newsletter, there was a great quote from someone whose mother-in-law had received a quilt through the Quilts on Wheels program:


"Thank you so much for the beautiful quilt you made for my mother-in-law. .......When she was younger she made about 125 quilts to give to her four children. They are a treasure to us!! She is 95 years old now and is not able to quilt. We appreciate your thoughtfulness!!”

The members of the Capital Quilters guild are certainly doing a lot for our community.  I thank them for all of the handmade hugs they are creating.

Have you done charity quilting through your guild?


Have a wonderful day! Patty

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