Janice Collins Bailey, Prairie Quilt Guild=600 Donated Quilts Per Year

Janice Collins Bailey

I am a member of the Prairie Quilt Guild, which includes almost 300 quilters. Year round, the Prairie Quilt Guild donates quilts to charitable organizations in Wichita and south central Kansas. Since January of 2000, the guild has made and distributed an average of 50 quilts per month, 600 per year, from infant size to single bed size. We also have donated eyeglass pouches, colorful children’s pillow slips donated to the guild, and also a couple of raffle quilts for other non-profits who have asked. During Covid, when the guild could not meet, the Charity Committee held drive-throughs at our meeting site so members could take and turn in quilt kits and finished quilts.

Members or former members donate fabric and our Charity Committee makes kits for the type and size that each of our chosen charities can deliver to the people they serve.  The kits allow members to choose the part of quilting they enjoy doing, whether it is piecing, quilting, or binding the finished quilt. The Charity Committee keeps the donated fabrics organized and housed, puts the materials necessary for each kit, and delivers the finished quilts to the appropriate charities. 

The kits our members take home include the cut pieces for the pattern and the backing for the size of the quilt. They take the kit home, sew together pieces for the top, and return it at a future meeting.

If the kit does not include backing, it is added along with batting  (the quilt stuffing that goes between the top and the backing) cut for the size of the top. Then, a volunteer quilter sews together the pieced top, batting, and backing in a decorative pattern.

The next step is to bind the edges. If the quilted piece needs binding, the Charity Committee sews one side of the binding to the top of the quilt, and another person who likes to sew binding by hand takes it home to finish this step.

When the completed quilt is returned, the Charity Committee measures and labels it by its size and possible recipient. The final step is to add a Prairie Quilt Guild label to the back. The committee does this.

 At this point the finished quilts are sorted by size, then they are divided according to the size or sizes our chosen non-profit needs. The quilts are placed in plastic sacks and delivered the same week as the guild meeting when they were turned in. Some members prefer to use their own materials and turn in completed quilts or pillowslips.
 
The charities/non-profits we have served since 2000  are as follows:
  • KVC Children’s Psychiatric Hospital, serving children 6-18 years
  • The Family Crisis Center, which provides transitional housing to battered women and their children, infant to adult
  • ict-sos, helping people in prostitution find a safer way to make a living, mainly teen girls
  • The Tree House, which provides supplies and support for new single mothers, serving infants and toddlers
  • Southcentral Kansas Mental Health Association’s Comfort Care Program, which supplies a companion for seniors needing a companion in their home, lap robes
  • Wichita Children’s Home, serving young people from 12 through 17 years of age, single bed quilts

These agencies can use the smaller size and the types of of quilts our members like to make. Some of our members report that their families have enough quilts, but they still enjoy sewing them, so it’s a win-win all around.

As a member of the Prairie Quilt Guild, I am proud of the quality and number of quilts we share with distressed members of our community.
 
Editor’s Note: Please check Janice’s first quilting story, Janice Collins Bailey, My Life in Quilting and her section in the Gallery to see the quilts she has made over the years.
 
 
0 Comments

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

The maximum upload file size: 50 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video, document, spreadsheet, interactive, other. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop file here

Copyright ©2024 Wichita East Class of 1960

CONTACT US

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Sending

Log in with your credentials

Forgot your details?