Loving Hands News - May

Tina Jones

I’d like to start out by thanking everyone who turned in their Isolette quilts. I made a trip to one of the local hospitals to deliver some quilts and the reception I received from the nurses was delightful. They are so grateful and so excited to see each quilt. You are all doing a great job! We only have 2 more months left in this round of the Isolette commitment so keep up the good work!

I have had the pleasure of assisting Ruth in accepting your wonderful donations for a few months and I cannot tell you how much it touches my heart every time someone makes the effort to create one (or more!) of these quilts.

There are only a few guidelines in making these tiny treasures; please use all cotton materials, keep the finished quilt size at 32” x 32” and don’t forget the label. If you haven’t made an Isolette for donation, please do and let your creative juices flow!

See you in May,           
Tina Jones Co-Chair to Ruth Snedden, Loving Hands

Loving Hands and Clubhouse Quilters

Loving Hands and Clubhouse Quilters make the Isolette® quilts, which are only 31 inches by 31 inches, to cover the incubators to diffuse light levels in the neonatal wards because premature babies are very sensitive to light. The quilts are sent home with each baby as a gift. This program is much appreciated by both parents and the hospital nursing staffs.

The need is great to keep our local hospitals supplied with these quilts so there are two different groups of quilters working to keep up with demand. Loving Hands is coordinated through the guild at the monthly meetings. Kits are available or quilters can use their own fabric and batting. Labels are available to sew on the back of each finished Isolette® identifying the guild as the donor.

Clubhouse Quilters meets on Monday evenings at Sharon Ihde’s house. Quilters may get together and stitch or donate tops to be finished, fabric, thread, and/or batting to help in this worthwhile effort. For further information e-mail Sharon at sharonihde@cox.net.

Turtle Pillow Patterns Available

The Sew Serious Friendship Group has obtained a copy to the pattern for the turtle pillows given to each attendee at the Painted Turtle Camp at Lake Hughes. If you are interested in making a pillow to be donated to the camp, please call Steffani McChesney at 664-5963 for the pattern. There will be a small charge for reproduction. Let me know before the next guild meeting so that I can get it printed.

Steffani McChesney

Painted Turtle Camp

The Painted Turtle Camp in Lake Hughes, California is the sixth addition to Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camps, which are located in the US and in France, Ireland, Israel, and Africa. These camps provide an opportunity for seriously ill children with life-threatening diseases and conditions to experience a traditional summer camp. The camps are fully staffed with doctors and nurses and there is one adult for every two campers to provide a safe and healthy environment. Over seventy percent of all campers are at or below the poverty level. Painted Turtle Camps provide these kids with the experience of a lifetime. “To date, these camps have served over 70,000 children from 34 states and 27 countries,” says the website for this wonderful program. For more information go to the website at www.thepaintedturtle.org.

The camps need many different kinds of supplies to maintain them. Quilters can contribute lap quilts, quilts for the beds, and turtle pillows. Our guild has held several workshops to make quilts to be sent to the camp at Lake Hughes. We have also made lap quilts and turtle pillows. The turtle pillows are sent home with the campers as a souvenir of their stay. Be sure to check out the website for information on how you can make a quilt or a turtle pillow (they provide the pattern). You don’t have to be a member of a guild to participate.

New Home of the Brave Coordinator for Kern County

The name and contact information for the Home of the Brave Project is:
Terisa Edwards
phone 661-822-3891,
e-mail teriquilts@earthlink.net

If you are interested in making a quilt or even some blocks she would very much appreciate it.

Home of the Brave

We are just beginning a new philanthropic project to provide quilts to be given to the families of soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq or who later died of their wounds. These quilts are to be made to replicate quilts made by the US Sanitary Commission during the Civil War. These quilts were made by northern women and donated to the hospitalized Union troops. Of the approximately 250,000 quilts made during this time, only six are known to have survived. The Lincoln Shrine in Redlands, California exhibits the only known one of these quilts in the Western United States.

Don Beld, a quilt teacher and speaker who specializes in Civil War quilt subjects, has started an ambitious project to provide these quilts to the families who have lost loved ones in this war. As quilters we want to support our troops and their families and this is one way we can do it. Local Veterans Administration officials are one hundred percent behind these projects and more quilt guilds around the country are needed to make quilts for families in their areas.

There are specific requirements for these quilts. If you are interested in providing these quilts for families in your area contact Don Beld at 323-667-3370 or e-mail him at donbeld@pacbell.net. He will get you the information you need to get started such as quilt size, type of fabric to be used, patterns, labels, etc.