Lois Violanti and Linda Cornish, Senior Village, display one of the donated lap quilts; Photo by Kris Prass.
Baby quilts all wrapped up and ready to be donated; Photo by Kris Prass.
Varda Main
Quilters create quilts to bring joy and warmth to their family, friends and those in need. There are many ways that quilt clubs participate in charitable work. For the SaddleBrooke Friday Quilters, it is more like “let me count the ways.”
Kris Prass and Janette Volz are the Friday Quilters Community co-chairs. They, along with committee members Beth Bradford, Linda Crum and Jeanne Soling, are responsible for coordinating the myriad charitable ventures of the club. They reach out to various charities to determine their needs and their fit with the Friday Quilters projects. The club then votes on which charities to support each year. For 2019 the charities are Family First Pregnancy Care Center (Oracle), SaddleBrooke Tucson Troop Support and SaddleBrooke Senior Village. Additional charities are chosen as extra items and funds become available. For example, this year funds were raised from an auction to club members of fabric and supplies donated to the club by a previous member. Ever resourceful, club members turn their leftover scraps from quilting projects into dog beds.
Donations from the Friday Quilters take many forms. The quilters make baby quilts and blankets, adult lap quilts and comforters, placemats, mug mats, animal quilts and dog beds. The quilters also raise funds through auctions at club meetings of donated items, the sale of quilted items at the boutique at the biannual SaddleBrooke Quilt Show (mark your calendars, the next show is Sunday, March 1, 2020) and from a live auction with a wine and cheese event held every three years.
So far this year the Friday Quilters have donated 11 baby quilts and 11 stuffed animals wrapped in play quilts to SB Troop Support, four adult lap quilts, six placemats and six mug mats to Senior Village, two twin comforters and 12 baby blankets to Family First, two animal quilts to Pet Rescue Auction, 60 dog beds to SaddleBrooke Pet Rescue and $700 to the Hayden Senior Center. Last time the wine and cheese and quilt live auction was held, 17 quilts were auctioned off. That event raised over $6000.
Quilters helping neighbors, that’s what we do at Friday Quilters. Want to get involved? Contact Tina Scott, Membership Chair, at [email protected] or come to Friday Quilters every Friday at 9:30 a.m. at SaddleBrooke One Arts and Crafts Studio 4.