Old 11-05-2025, 04:46 AM
  #8  
Iceblossom
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Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Peoria, IL -- Midwest Transplant
Posts: 7,260
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My Tuesday sewing group supports a couple of groups that don't want quilts, but do want flannel type receiving blankets and burp cloths. We keep in touch and they let us know how their need is, we are happy to do a couple of donations per year but if the need is great, we are there too. We usually have about 6 people per week and they/we donate maybe 100+ blankets a year, I don't handle the donations myself. Is just hemming around the edges, is nice to have the large library tables to work on.

Different members do different things, soft cloth bags for cell phones, wheelchair suitable lap blankets and organizers. Bed side organizers. Placemats for Meals with Wheels. Quite a few quilts of valor. I typically do larger projects for aging foster kids and resettled families. We also work on our own projects sometimes, but those do tend to be ones that are planned to be donated.

We meet at the local library for 4 hours once a week. The group is technically a closed/private group (we have to pay for the room), but we have the doors open and have many visitors some of whom have joined the group and others that will just come for a chat, or for a basic sewing question, or sometimes machines we can help them with. Toddler story time happens about the same time we meet and we have a couple of the newest generation of potential quilters who come visit us -- it helps when we have candy

The library has a fund raiser of baskets of (donated) goods each year, each basket is to express a theme. The group makes many fancier/artier things for that. There is a library-supported crafts and yarn group (they don't have to pay for the room) that also joins in, there is some cross over between our groups. Typically the "Home for the Holidays" or the "Kitchen" themed baskets (which are heavily sewing/craft made items) are the highest bids. This year though, the "Pride" basket looked really good!
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