Quilt Donation Drive!

I first got into quilting by making quilts to donate. For over 20 years I was the director of the Bright Hopes Collaborative Quilt Project which I founded with my mother. We decided to close Bright Hopes last year (a difficult decision, but it was the right time) after many years of running programs and donating hundreds of quilts.

So when Stacey from Stacey Lee Creative asked me about joining the Quilt Donation Drive blog hop, I was thrilled to be back at what I did for so long. The Quilt Donation Drive collects handmade quilts to comfort children entering foster care. The quilts are donated through Comfort Cases.  Comfort Cases is a nonprofit that provides backpacks filled with essentials—and love—to children entering the foster care system across the U.S. You can find out all of the details HERE!

A few thoughts about donating quilts:

• Always use good quality materials and do good work.

• Always read and follow the guidelines for whatever organization you are donating to.

• Stop and think before you sew. Are quilts what this particular group needs right now? For example: Are material and shipping costs better donated for medical supplies and food? Do frontline workers have the staff and resources to receive, sort, store, and dispense quilts? Donating through an established organization like Comfort Cases will ensure that your beautiful quilts will get to where they are needed, and will provide the warmth and love you put into them. 

The Quilt Donation Drive for Comfort Cases asks for either 30” x 40” or 50” x 50” quilts. When guidelines call for specific smaller sizes like these, I like to pull out one of my favorite quilting tricks: Altering a quilt pattern. Here, I used the center medallion from the Lace Museum quilt pattern. The original Lace Museum is a 60” x  80“ quilt and has quite a bit of bias tape appliqué. Using just the center is great for learning bias tape appliqué or brushing up on your skills without making a larger quilt. For this baby quilt, I trimmed the top and bottom edges of the medallion just a bit and added a piano key border on the sides. Now, I have to admit that my least favorite part of making a quilt is the actual quilting. And I also have to say that I am really bad at it. So this quilt top will either be tied or sent off to an intrepid longarm quilter to be quilted. 

Another pattern that is simple to make smaller is the Garden quilt. Just make the first 2 rows in the center. For a bold design and even simpler bias tape appliqué, try Sweet Strawberry. Change the size of the background fabric as needed. For a free pattern, try Circus Tent. Make fewer blocks and adjust the width of the sashing if you need to. (Lace Museum and Sweet Strawberry are available in paper and PDF. Garden and Circus Tent are PDF only. Find them all HERE!)

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the stops on the Quilt Donation Drive blog hop to find all kinds of fabulous ideas and patterns!  Find them all listed and linked HERE!