Kids & Quilting

$250,000 Raised for Local Charities

Quilts reflect joys and hopes of life

Each year in spring, Southport Congregational Church, CT, hosts a multi day fundraising event through a celebration of the quilting arts by featuring new and vintage quilts from throughout the country.

Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice was the theme of the 2012 art exhibit. In keeping with the theme, the show presented artwork and everyday articles that, through inspiration and ingenuity, have been created from materials originally serving other purposes.

Bed-size quilts, wall hangings, miniatures, pillows and other quilted objects were displayed in the church's sanctuary and chapel.

A silent auction included a twin-size "Grandmother's Flower Garden" quilt by Gail de Marcken, illustrator of the children's book, The Quiltmaker's Gift.

 

 

Proceeds benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Connecticut, Emerge Inc., a social service program in Stratford and the Bridgeport-based Project Learn, Throughout the past decade the show has enjoyed major funding support from area benefactor Elizabeth M. Pfriem.

For the public as well as individual quilters, the allure of creating or owning a handcrafted item with "a story to tell" is compelling. Every quilt has its own history and unique design, often created to celebrate a birth, a wedding and hope for the future and stitched with love and the joy of giving. It ties in with the show's theme in a way, the cycle of life and the recycling of reusable items.

Sometimes a small amount of effort (in taking the time for a recycling task) results surprising outcomes - the myriad of ingenious items that are now made from recycled articles.

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Breaking and Reversing the Cycle of Poverty

Vima Lupwa Home, Luanshaya, Zambia

The goal and premise of Vima Lupwa Home is the "whole village" approach. Rather than being institutionalized in an orphanage. this is a home for children where they are raised in their own culture and in a home parented by a Zambian couple, eating typical Zambian food and speaking their own language in an effort to empower these children in their own culture and to become self sustaining leaders and members of their community. The children are educated in their Zambian community along with the other children of the town of Mikomfwa.

lupwahomes.org

 

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Tiny Doll, 8.5 inches Wins Quilt Contest

Like training wheels before the big bike kids, many little girls put their dollies down for naps in tiny doll beds.

Doll beds and their coverings appeal to our earliest sentiments. Norman Rockwell's iconic image of "Mother Tucking Children in Bed" captured the essence of this experience in a popular illustration in 1921. In it, a mother covers her two rosy-cheeked youngsters with a patchwork quilt.

At the 2011 International Quilt Festival in Houston, "Sleep Tight II - Doll Quilts and Beds" was the theme of this annual mini quilt event. The handwork of the 12 finalists was displayed. mini3. In the category of traditional doll quilt with bed, Luz Maria Hernandez of Mexico City took the top prize for her "Lucy Mocha Quilt" of tiny brown Irish Chain patchwork over a checkered bed ruffle. She detailed her bed linens with decorative machine stitches. Hernandez chose her quilt colors because they remind her "of chocolate and mocha coffee, my favorite beverages and two products we grow in Mexico."

Samantha "Sam" Nixon, an Australian who lives in Malmo, Sweden, won first place in a category that required a handmade doll with quilt and bed. Her entry, "There's A Rabbit in the Flowerbed," featured a slim cloth bunny wearing a petal skirt. The doll sleeps under a hand-stitched quilt of delicate fabric flowers that measures 8.5 inches. Nixon also fashioned the rabbit's bed from a papier-mâché box lid, vintage wooden spools and a vintage mirror headboard.

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Young People Bring Comfort to Children

Young Piecemakers Quilt Guild - one quilt at a time

Interested young people learn new skills at each meeting of the Young Piecemakers Quilt Guild. They are exposed to color, fabric, and design. They receive the satisfaction of seeing their projects evolve into beautiful works of art. The youngest member sits on mom's lap, learning to manipulate needle and thread. The oldest quiltmaker is seventeen and already creating her own quilt designs. And members are not limited to girls. The boys also join in.

These kids also learn the importance of helping other children. The chosen charity for the Young Piecemakers is UCLA Medical Center. The children create quilts and donate them to children exposed to HIV/AIDS.

The response from nearby guilds and communities have been very generous. Everything is free and no membership fees. The guild is solely dependent upon donors. Even notable quilt teachers donate their time to the children.

It is the goal of the founders of The Young Piecemakers Quilt Guild to promote the love of quilting and to give children of all ages the opportunity to express themselves positively in an environment free of violence and turmoil. Volunteerism is encouraged to help guild members wrap those less fortunate in our communities with blankets of love. It's fun and empowering:

• sense of accomplishment
• increased self-esteem
• compassion for giving comfort to those in need
• involvement in the arts
• participation in exhibitions and shows

Contact Young Piecemakers Quilt Guild at www.ypqg.org and check out their "Wish List"

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Helping Military Family Children Understand "Deployment"

Reminding Children What Daddy Wears

Deploy That Fabric is a new how-to book by Jen Eskridge. Jen is an ex-military seamstress, quilter and pattern designer.

She has made some of the 23 projects so simple that children and Dads can help. Eskridge recommends that a parent who is going to be deployed work on a project with their children before leaving. An ideal one is a quilt that is "kid-on-the-couch size.

"I don't know that kids really get it," Eskridge said of deployments. The quilts are helpful because they remind children of what Daddy wears. If Daddy can make the quilt with the kids before he leaves, the association is even closer. Then they can curl up in the quilt while watching TV or reading a book.

Repurposing the fabric is a great way to honor a service member. A lot of military people have several extra military uniforms, especially if they retire. Because a uniform is such a big part of military people's lives, it enriches their lives to have something useful to do with torn, worn and discontinued styles.

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Project Linus

Over 3 million blankets have been lovingly given to children in need since 1995.

Marsha Bergen, noted quilt teacher and author teaches Project Linus volunteers how to make stimulating quilts for children in need. Marsha has designed a special tool that she markets as Lil' Twister and with this template and method, dynamic quilts suitable for babies and children are quickly produced. Marsha is one of many volunteer teachers joining together under the Project Linus Institute 2011. The Institute also has a mission statement, Education - Inspiration - Fellowship

Project Linus is comprised of hundreds of local chapters and thousands of volunteers across the United States. Each volunteer and local chapter all work together to help us achieve our mission which is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, lovingly created by volunteer "blanketeers."

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Make a Plastic quilt

Plastic Quilts Divert Junk From Landfills

In Portland Oregon, kids know how a lot of plastic waste makes its way downstream, polluting ecosystems and the food chain. For the third time since 2007, Portland area school kids are exhibiting their "plastic awareness IQ" by making quilt squares out of junk plastic.

The International Plastic Quilt Project, sponsored by Create Plenty gets parents involved with their kids in joint projects within their communities. "This project showed us how much plastic our family actually uses. It serves as a great reminder to get creative with solutions, including swapping recipes for packaged items with other parents, to reduce plastic in the landfill", commented Christi Miller-Kuziensky, a parent-volunteer at Sunstone Montessori and part of the Center for Earth Leaderships Eco-schools Network. Christy's school submitted 48 plastic quilt squares for the project.

Sixth graders at King Elementary School ironed out plastic bags to make a collection of ponchos. Other students created a rap video, cleverly titled "Plastic wRap.

Create Plenty is a not-profit organization that turns trash into works of art.

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Make Kids Quilts Instead of Filling Dumpsters and Land Fills

A New Green Initiative

In 2007, Sue Patrolia, founder of the Sample Wast Initiative for Furniture and Textiles approached global recycling company Avangard Innovative, about extending Avangard's recycling programs. Patrolia was eager for Avangard to take on an extra unit for recycling the mountains of sample swatches that the furniture industry churns out. Before long, Quilts for Kids, founded by Lynda Arye in 2000 and based in PA, USA, became another working partner. A diverse group of dedicated volunteers worked to form Green Initiative for Furniture and Textiles. In 2008, in its first year, 2000 tons of fabrics were diverted from dumps and instead were stitched into quilts, wheelchair bags and other items for needy kids..
Furniture companies Rooms to Go and Ashley signed on. Freight company C.H. Robinson volunteered to move the fabric free. Warehouse space was donated by Avangard in Houston, TX, Sonoco Recycling in Greensboro, NC. and Sunburst Paper in Loxley, ALA.

Quilts For Kids has more than 50 chapters in the US, the main chapters being in the East Coast area. One of the main goals for Green Initiative is to be able to designate chapter drop-off points so that thousands of quilting volunteers would have access to fabric supplies.
Materials that the group cannot use go the Salvation Army or are advertised on freecycle.org

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Operation Kid Comfort

Quilts for Armed Forces familes

OPERATION KID COMFORT, almost a decade old, has served thousands of children of deployed service men and women from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina.

Throughout America, volunteers create photo-transfer quilts and pillows as gifts for the children of America's heroes. Contributions, grants, and donated materials and services allow Operation Kid Comfort to provide these volunteers with materials and tools they need free of charge. Assisting Operation Kid Comfort
is one way of saying Thank You to all of America's military, by caring for their families while they are away.

Operation Kid Comfort was awarded the Raytheon's Best New Program of the Year at a congressional luncheon on Capital Hill. CNN American Morning highlighted the success of Operation Kid Comfort in their weekly Extra Effort Series. Operation Kid Comfort has been the subject of many news and magazine articles: locally, nationally, and even internationally, from the Fayetteville Observer to the Army Times to Quilter's Newsletter Magazine.

Contact OKC founder Ann Flaherty:operationkidcomfort@gmail.com.

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Kids Quilts for Orphanages in Chernobyl

Canadian'S Quilt for Chernobyl's Kids

Thousand Islands Quilters' Guild, Brockville, Ontario, Canada has made over 750 handmade quilts for the children in various orphanages in Belarus.

Mary Bernard, shown right, "These quilts are handed out to children in the orphanages that we work in. Since the children are in orphanages they have very few personal items, and this is a gift that they will treasure for the rest of their lives.

Mary continues: "Having seen, first hand, the presentation of many of these beautiful quilts in Mogilev, Chausy, Klimovichi and other orphanages I've seen the impact that they have. They are so very warming to each child. These children live in cool to cold rooms in their respective orphanages. The quilts warm their bodies body, more importantly the children receive these beautiful gifts feeling very special about the love put into the creating of each one. They feel special, cared about, honoured and valued – a special kind of warming.?A "touch" of beauty!"

The guild's quilting project supports Canadian Aid for Chernobyl, a NPO that has hand delivered over $28 million in aid to the region of Belarus most affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

Fast Facts

• Approximately 70% of the children in orphanages in Belarus are not true orphans. They have been placed there due to neglect or abuse.
• CAC has reconstructed washrooms, provided infirmaries, educational supplies, furnishings and medicines for several orphanages with $2.5 million raised.
• Since 1991 CAS has hosted over 600 children from the contaminated zone, providing medical, dental & visual care and a chance to grow up healthy.
• CAC annually delivers boxes of food and household products to over 700 families.

For more information and ways to help contact   www.canadianaidforchernobyl.com

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Quilting for Kids in Nepal

To Earn an Education for their Children, Nepalese women gather to make quilts for sale.

James Hopkins, founder of Quilts For Kids Nepal, has graciously given me permission to share the Quilts For Kids Nepal website with you. I want to help raise awareness of the multiple goals of his project, Quilts For Kids Nepal. Kids Nepal is in the process of applying for American 501 3c tax status.

The women quiltmakers of Quilts for Kids Nepal come from the states of Punjab and Rajasthan in India, near the border with Pakistan. In Kathmandu, they continue to live in a traditional Hindu community, with two or three generations of family members being supported through group effort. Having received almost no formal education, these women are usually married by the age of 18, immediately start a family, and begin taking care of in-laws.

Quilts for Kids Nepal helps turn women's traditional skills into sustainable income for themselves and their families. This not only empowers the women in the community and gives them a sense of pride, but it also helps them play an active role in the education of their own children.

It takes three or four women approximately ten days to make one quilt. Quilt making is a time for the women to share stories, discuss family problems, and of course, catch up on a little bit of gossip! More importantly it is often a time for passing on skills and wisdom to a younger generation.

Through Quilts for Kids Nepal, many young women are learning traditional quilt-making skills and finding out, for the first time, the real value of their own creativity.

Each quilt made by the women of Quilts for Kids Nepal is sold for $140-- this is the cost of sending one child from the begging camp to school for one year, and of buying school supplies, two school uniforms, a backpack, books and two pairs of shoes.

$140 can change a life.

At the Kumari Elementary School, children learn not only the fundamentals of math, science, computers, and English and Nepali language, but also basic life skills such as health and personal hygiene.

Without your help, most children in the begging camp would never have an opportunity for education. Through direct donations and through the sale of quilts, Quilts for Kids Nepal keeps children off the streets and sets them on a new path -- one of self-discovery and

To support the women of Quilts for Kids Nepal, make a donation today. That money will be used to purchase cloth and thread, and to help pay the women's salaries.  www.quiltsnepal.org

    

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Children's Antique Crib Quilts

19th Century Children's Crib Quilts

Children's quilts varied greatly in size, from doll quilts, carriage and cradle quilts, crib quilts in a variety of sizes and the larger quilts made for an older child's bed.

Antique crib quilts sometimes exhibit very fine quilt making skills. Often done in complex patterns with fine quilting, crib quilts could be just as elaborately and expensively made as adult sized quilts, and no less beautiful in design and workmanship. These small quilts were usually made in tiny patchwork patterns that correspond to the small size of the quilt. Blocks may measure only two or three inches in size.

While a quilt measuring 60 to 70 inches in size would most likely have been made for an older child, it still may be difficult to identify specifically as a child's quilt. For a utilitarian child's quilt, a busy mother might simply use materials and other patchwork pieces on hand. In order to cover a bed with a warm cover, a child's quilt might be made more quickly with standard patchwork squares or be cut from a larger bed covering. It might even be a regular size quilt that was not finished as originally planned.

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Delta Employees Donate Quilts to Sick Kids

Delta Air Lines Donates Record 2,250 Handmade Quilts to Primary Children's Medical Center

Delta Air Lines employees presented Primary Children's Medical Center with a gift of more than 2,250 handmade quilts during ceremonies at the Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City.

In a breathtaking visual display, the facility's entire playing surface and much of its lower level seating area were draped with the colorful bedcovers that were later delivered to the hospital to be given to young patients requiring extended stays away from home.

"This project began as a labor of love for our flight attendants here in Salt Lake City, and it has continued to grow each year," said Cindy Atkinson, manager - Delta In-Flight Service. "Now, we have participation from Delta employees, their families and friends from all over the world." ??Delta's annual community service outreach, now in its eighth year, has donated more than 8,500 quilts.

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Atlanta School Kids Make Quilt

800 Schoolkids - 40 Quilts

As part of a schoolwide project at Freedom Park School in Augusta, Georgia, pupils from kindergarten through eighth grade are reading books then translating them into art, which will be donated to area hospitals and veterans' organizations.

The art project reinforces what children read, according to Leigh Hearn, art teacher. After reading the books, the children are drawing a picture of the book on muslin fabric.  Then, a group of parents will sew together about 20 of the muslin squares to be incorporated into a lap quilt.

Freedom Park has about 800 pupils, so there will be about 40 quilts when the project is finished. Fabric to complete the quilts will be donated by Branum's Sewing and Vacuum Center.

The project will probably take most of the year. Some of the quilts will be given to the Medical College of Georgia Children's Medical Center and some to an organization such as the Fisher House, which serves wounded soldiers and their families.

"I think it's going to a person who needs it," said Taylor Sonntag, a seventh grader.

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Steven's Quilts

A story of an abused little boy with a new hockey quilt

Nearly 20 years ago I made a hockey themed quilt for a 7 year old boy in one of my second grade classes. Steven was a special needs child. He suffered multiple abuses. He had quite literally nothing secure in his life except his grandmother and his name. When I gave Steven a quilt on his birthday, his count was up to three things, a quilt, a grandmother and a name. When a child such as Steven asks, "why can't you be my mother", it sears your heart. I have never forgotten that boy, an innocent child at major risk from every corner of daily living. I don't think Steven fared very well. At seven years of age he already had only a very slim chance of a happy life.

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Want to Make a Quilt of Your Own?

Make your own kids quilt

Do you have basic sewing skills? Maybe you have a small stash of cotton or cotton blend fabric, even lightweight drapery fabric.

The sites listed below show free patterns that would be easy to adapt to a kid's quilt. Please abide by the guidelines (where stated) for making quilts for your own use or as a gift.

While these patterns rely on printed fabrics from the major quilt fabric producers, it certainly is not necessary to be constrained to the suggested fabric selections and color schemes.

If you have a little experience and basic sewing skills, and you don't want to use prepackaged fabric kits or follow exacting patterns, the first two free quilt patterns could be easily adapted by the beginner contemporary quilt maker.

Beware however, fabric costs alone could easily set you back well over $100.00, batting would be $20.00 and you should realistically expect to put in 50 plus hours of work time.

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Quilting for a Cause

How you can participate

For fundraising, for comforting at-risk children and for making social connections, many organizations actively seek completed children's quilts, suitable fabric remnants, publicity and volunteers to make these goals turn into reality.

There are academic organizations with specific goals for the education of the youth of the world to teach awareness of global concerns, compassion for children living in poverty, or with chronic illness or other distress. These associations have targeted goals to engage more privileged children to take real and substantial action to help children in need.

When kids are part of the quilt making process and these philanthropic educational goals, they learn that

a quilter leaves a part of themselves in every quilt they make.

Wrap Them in Love wraptheminlove.com

The mission is to collect donated quilts and distribute them to children locally and around the world, so they can be wrapped in love and comfort. Over 320 of the thousands of donated quilts are shown on the website.

Photo shown is the Mercy and Grace Orphanage in India.

Climate Quilt climatequilt.org

The Climate Quilt Campaign is an effort to tangibly connect kidsworldwide around the issue of Climate Change and what they can do about it. The Campaign is designed to empower youth, raise awareness, build global community, and be the voice of children around the world who are pledging to do their part to help save their planet.

Quilts For Kids quiltsforkids.org

Volunteer quilters transform fabrics into patchwork quilts that comfort children in need.

Project Linus projectlinus.org

Providing love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans, loving created by volunteer "blanketeers." Nearly 3.5 million blankets have been donated since 1995.

>More Than Warmth morethanwarmth.org

More Than Warmth quilt project provides a simple but direct way to help our more privileged kids understand and respond to the world around them. In  the January 5, 2009 More Than Warmth Newsletter, specific examples of areas of action are listed and are inspiration to all of us - Darfur, Iraq, HIV orphans in Zambia to name just a few. Since 2001, quilts have been sent as gifts from over 11,000 students.

>ABC Quilts, find information at americanmothers.org/reach

*American Mothers" adopted ABC Quilts as a National Project. Over half a million quilts have been delivered since ABC Quilts was founded in 1988. If you are sending fabric or perhaps donating a completed quilt, hey do not want any black in the quilts.

Children With Diabetes childrenwithdiabetes.com/activities/quilt

The Children With Diabetes (CWD) Quilt For Life is part of the CWD on-line community for kids, families and adults with diabetes. A giant quilt show displays personal quilts made by kids with diabetes each year at the Friends For Life conference in Orlando. The website shows hundreds of kids individually with their photo, their personal quilt and a message the child and family want to share.

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Pupils at St Mary's Primary School in Henley, England win competition with giant quilt.

The 10-year-olds spent two months under the supervision of art teacher Kate Findlay making the 2mx2m work, which depicts town landmarks such as the town hall and Tudor House antiques shop. They entered the prestigious Malvern Quilt Festival in Lincolnshire and won the under-16s category. Headmaster Tim Ackroyd said the pupils' achievement was "phenomenal".

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