joe'smom

If you have a guild in your area, I would contact them to see if they'll accept your quilts. If they donate quilts, as many guilds do, they will have good information on where to donate.

mmunchkins

How about making doll baby quilts for kids in homeless shelters or kids in foster care in the future? Our local quilt store also collects quilts to be delivered to a group who distributes them to people who have been affected by natural disasters.

tallchick

As suggested by many, reach out to your Police & Fire Departments! As a former first responder who often carried a bag full of small stuffed animals with me while on patrol, I can’t express just how well received items like this are to those in a crisis. Often times kids are overlooked and forgotten when responding to a situation, a simple act of kindness goes along way to helping not just a child but also your fellow man. If the response to a stuffed animal is met with such happiness and enthusiasm, imagine what a quilt of their very own would mean to them! It’s easy to forget that so many have very little in life, and it’s these things we do and share with our community that can have such a impact. The same goes for kids in Foster Care, let me assure you that while most foster homes are fine, not every foster home is a loving and wonderful place to be! Imagine being in strange home with very few, if none of your personal belongings and really nothing to call your own and then being placed in different homes over a period of years. A quilt can provide a little bit of love to wrap themselves up in that is theirs to keep!
So please, don’t give up quilting but find a worthy cause in which to share the love!

toverly

I think it's good to get rid of them before they go on in an estate sale. I was going to give a high school friend one of my quilts when I saw her, I thought I would give one too her just before we said goodbye. During our catch up conversation, she said. "You're a quilter, what do I do with a bunch of quilts?" Her mother in law had passed away and had left a closet full. Her husband, didn't want them. I told her to donate them to the hospital or cancer ward. Thank goodness, I didn't offer her a quilt. Some people appreciate them and some don't. Donating them is a great thing to do.

meyert

I make lots of quilts for kids. There is a hospital that will take as many as my group can make for their NICU babies. Keeps me sewing and these are smaller qiults so they are not such big projects

I have also donated to local fire departments. The one fire chief has told me stories of how much the little ones really appreciate getting the quilts when they are so scared at the fires and vehicle accidents

ckcowl

I have worked in nursing homes and donated lots of quilts to them- the residents absolutely love them. The staff is careful to keep them ( used as a bedspread) clean so laundering doesn’t have to happen often and the laundry staff treat them well. I gave a special quilt to a dear friend who had a stroke and wound up In a local long term facility. He was their for ten years before he passed away- the quilt was passed on to someone else. About 5 years after he passed away my mom fell & broke- she wound up doing rehab in the same facility- was there about 5 months. One day I was visiting her at home and there was the quilt I had made for Bill 15 years earlier. I asked her where it came from she said one night - in that place- she was cold and the nurse took it into her- when she was ready to go home they asked her if she wanted to take it home and she said yes. I was So Surprised it was still in pretty good shape, very soft and well loved, I told her I had made it forBill After his stroke . After she passed away I held onto the quilt for a couple years- thinking about her and even more- Bill. then felt like it really belonged back at the facility- I gave it back , now it is on the bed of one of my mom’s childhood friends.

ckcowl

I also give quilts to the women’s resource center for the emergency shelters and the homeless shelter. I donate quilts every time there is a benefit/ fundraiser for a family or individual fighting a battle. Around here the groups who have raffled my quilts include the library, humane society, veterinary clinic, garden club, the art center, the elementary school, the senior class in a high school. The list goes on & on.

pocoellie

If you want to donate to a nursing home, make sure that when the resident dies, that they don't just toss the quilt out if the family doesn't want it. This is what our local nursing home does, so I won't donate to them.

patricej

every quilt i make gets washed in hot water and dried on the hottest setting before it leaves my house.
that way i know whether or not it will survive the most aggressive care.
all but a few have looked just fine.

aashley333

I donate a quilt every year to a cancer walk fundraiser. They auction it at the end of the evening. One year, a bidding war raised $2600! Then another individual told the organization that they would donate $1000 if I would make them a quilt.
Long story short... I had two snuggle quilts that I made for my aunts (the fundraiser is sort of a family reunion)--I donated one of those to fulfill the individual's request. My aunt was very understanding!