Ideas for guild projects?
 

Hello all... our guild is hoping to complete more community service projects next year... but I'm not good at new ideas...Please help??? What are some public service projects your guild completes? Thank you everyone for helping!!

We make simple cosmetic bags for shelters and fill them with small sized toiletries.

Our guild makes stockings and another service club in town fills them.

Watson

Bedding for animals in shelters, changing pads for babies, pillowcases and quilts for veterans, foster children, anyone in need... Perhaps there's a place with special needs in your community, such as a home or hospital for veterans, a children's hospital, a shelter for abused women and children, a camp for disabled youth?

Daysforgirls.org is a non-profit that supplies feminine hygiene kits for girls in underdeveloped countries. The purpose is to reduce absenteeism from school during girls' menstrual cycles.

The non-profit accepts partial kits, so it is easy for a group to specialize in whatever part fits its resources. They have sewing specifications for a colorful cotton drawstring bag to hold the supplies, pads made from flannel, and panty shields to hold the pads (made from cotton with a PUL waterproof inner layer).

Our guild also makes shopping bags for the homeless-- plastic bags are banned here -- quilts for children going into foster care and also when a foster child graduates from HS. Premie quilts and tiny quilts for stillborns --when they are held by grieving parents. Chemo hats - I made several lightweight ones for my SIL last summer.

and of course the cuddlequilts for the police and fire depts. when children are in need.

Pillowcases for childrens's hospital through http://caseforsmiles.org/
lap quilts for VA hospital
pillows and turbans for cancer society (your local office might have the patterns)

We do natural disaster (fire, flood, tornado) quilts for any family in county experiencing this; quilts for the local cancer foundation resource center; big tote bags for foster kids so when they are forced to move they don't end up putting everything in garbage bags; Alzheimer's patient "fiddle quilts". We've done many other projects over our history, but one thing I would caution you on is taking on making many full size quilts--besides the costs, it places lots of demands on your long arm members.

We make very simple small stuffed dolls for kids in the local hospital, Dignity Robes for ladies undergoing treatment for breast cancer at another local hospital where the robes are not provided (they are like a scrub top which opens all down the front, easy to make), drawstring bags for ladies in domestic abuse shelters in three counties to use to hold all their belongings (instead of plastic garbage bags), Project Linus quilts, preemie quilts for a large maternity hospital, lap quilts for veterans. One lady has made hundreds of pillowcase dresses for girls in third world countries.

It's endless with my Guild. Meals on Wheels placemats, pillowcases for foster children, lap quilts for Veterans, Habitat for Humanity quilts for new homeowners, Neonatal bassinet covers, neonatal mini pads, Quilts for foster children aging out, Breast cancer quilts, Ronald McDonald house quilts. Pretty much any organization that could use one and if someone thinks they want to give them one, organizes a group and gets together and makes quilts. The material is mostly donated but we do actually have two community quilt groups that are sponsored by the Guild and the Guild provides funds for fabric ect. mostly from J's on sale.

Below is the link to a post I did for a service project our guild does..uses scraps or orphan blocks!

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t261574.html

Also, our guild makes simple tote bags for the women's shelter:

http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...s-t278596.html

We are geographically close to Boulder Crest, located in Bluemont VA. It is a Rehabilitation (both physical and emotional) Camp for injured service personnel and their families. They stay in cabins at this wonderful place, are treated by Physical Therapists, and receive Emotional Counseling (also extended to family members). At the end of their 2 weeks stay, every member of the family is given a gift to take home with them.

Our Quilt Groups (social, not official Guilds) make and donate quilts (EVERY SIZE IMAGINABLE), tote bags, pillow cases, etc. Very small quilts are presented to daughters for their dolls. EVERY GIFT is used and so very much appreciated.

Please check this wonderful, private (no government funding involved) organization on line. Since families rotate in and out every two weeks, there is a constant need.

Our guild makes pillowcases and flannel shawls for our nursing home, twin quilts for the VA hospital in Helena, activity bags for Dept of Family Services for children who are removed the homes, and ambulance quilts for children.

make quilts for homeless vets(not quilts of valor). We are also making pillows for the homeless( easy=make a pillow casing and stuff with small scraps , sew or serge the end closed. entire pillow is washable.

Our guild makes quilts for veterans. We've made for all the WWII in our county, and have started on Korean. At each meeting we have kits made up for twelve 12" blocks using guild military color fabrics. A member presents the block to the group and 12 quilters each take a one-block kit. They (hopefully) bring the finished block to the next meeting. Someone takes the finished blocks, applies sashing and a border. Someone else quilts it, and someone binds and attaches a label - - or one person takes the 12 blocks and finishes it. This way we for sure get twelve veterans' quilts done each year. many members also make veterans quilts.
Another thing we do is to make potholders for food pantry christmas baskets. We demo one style of potholder each month, and at our show we give a potholder to each attendee who pays for a ticket. Leftover potholders go to the food pantry.

For the homeless and the shelters, reusable tote bags (with closures) that contain small containers of soap. toothpaste.etc. An excellent addition is socks (the #1 requested item). Also small containers of lotion. That may seem like an odd item, but the hands and feet of the homeless can be so ripped up and worn. If you have a battered woman's shelter (check with the local police dept. because they will not give out address), along with women's items include smaller bags (I like to make small messenger bags) filled with coloring books, simple books, small toys. Often the children leave their homes with nothing. One of our scouts made her gold award project building a small bookcase, filling it with children's books and recording these books on tape for our local shelter. Many of the books were recorded by 'older' folks. It helped ease the burden on these little ones while they were there.

The larger of my two guilds makes Cuddle Buddy Bags - they are small tote bags - maybe 10" - 12" square with a small stuffed animal and a small quilt (12" - 15" square or so). These are collected from members all through the year and st our Christmas luncheon we invite reps from local Polica, Sheriff and Women's shelter to come for lunch and receive a very big bag of these totes. Police and Sheriffs carry them in their trunks to be given to children whom they find in difficult situations. The women's shelter uses them for small children who come through with their moms. Most have nothing st all,so the totes work well for them to carry new possessions in. We give away 100 - 200 per year divided among the groups. The bags started out as very plain but have been elevated to almost works of art. We provide a basic pattern but members can do what they want.

Sandy in Mooresville, NC

Red, white & blue lap quilts & wheelchair quilts for VA HOSPITALS, Fidget quilts for Alzheimer's Centers, minky quilts for your local fire dept to give to families, doll size quilts for your local neonatal intensive care unit, camp quilts, camp pillowcases, Project Linus. It's my experience that no matter where you donate, quilts are always appreciated! Good luck!

During a horrific aftermath of a hurricane one year our guild donated lots of quilting supplies to a "sister guild" included was a portable sewing machine. Many of the local guild members lost everything and they were overwhelmed with generosity.......they even sent a picture of some of the members and all their New to them treasures. . . .smiling ear to ear!!!!
Usually we made quilts for our local VA vets and schools or groups that need quilts.

Kudos to you for doing the Vet's quilts. We did that project--for 3 years! started with WWII and then Korean and any that were physically doing poorly and may not make it to later presentations. All total we spent over $7000 on materials, bat, backing and presented over 680 coming up to the present. We still get a few names for Vets---we limited it those that live in our county (pretty rural) and had served during war time--with more recent "war events" it seems like we've had wars for so long now that it basically covered all of them. We did end up receiving donations from individuals and groups so that our efforts in the end about broke even . Unfortunately we completely wore out our "welcome" with the long arm quilters in the group (about 7 of us did all these)!