Making Charity Quilts
 

My obligation to make family quilts (new babies) is over with for awhile, and I want to start making quilts for the homeless people. Some of my friends who do this are advising me to not make it pretty because they say those quilts get stolen in shelters. I hope this is not true, so I am asking those folks who are so generous and make charity quilts if they have ever heard of such a thing. I am not a great quilter so I plan to make simple designs like 9-patch or strip quilts. I get blankets at estate sales to give to Operation Uplift, an organization that feeds and cares for homeless who live under bridges or along railroad tracks. I would be giving the quilts I make to this group.

I have also heard this, but I can't see the point of making something ugly as a gift. I do think a blanket may be better for the homeless than a quilt, since blankets can be cleaned more easily and cost much less to produce.

There are many charities other than the homeless for which quilts are a great gift. Homes for abused women, foster children, children in hospitals, veterans in hospitals, victims of fires...

I'm not sure about your area, but there are some transition/temporary shelters where people are on a wait list for permanent housing. The quilts that are donated for the beds, go with the person when housing is found. So always there is a need for replacements.
As far as not making something pretty, I think functionality for the homeless is better. Keep in mind with no place to live, there is most times no way to carry your things around and when things get wet, they unfortunately get left behind.

Who needs warm bedding more than the homeless who are living outdoors in this frigid weather?

Like Dunster, I can't see purposely making an ugly quilt! Besides the obvious goal of wanting to gift something useful and nice, I also use the experience of making charity quilts to try new quilting designs/techniques and to experiment with fabric color/pattern combinations. This way I get some useful education as well as creating a useful item for charity.

I have heard this. I think simple comfort quilts are preferred to bright or complicated patterns. On the street nothing is safe so i can see really nice quilts being taken from the defenseless

I never heard of this happening but it wouldn't surprise me. You could use up your scraps doing something like this that was posted here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEROi6myQ9s
I suggested to my church group might like making some of these quilts from scraps

Yes this does happen. One of our church members is a bus driver and a recovering addict. He can spot the homeless a mile away. He has a kind heart, and truly can see the need in a person. Before Christmas he saw a woman on this bus daily, just looking for a place out of the rain and cold (rare in So California) So he asked if we had a larger size quilt, he could give her for Christmas. We gave one for her, less than 2 weeks later, it had been stolen from her in a shelter. So we made another and put her name on it, and gave her a bag with her name on it also. So far she still has this one.

I agree with CJ sews that the quilts you make for the homeless need not be complicated. Big blocks of any color, not necessarily ugly but quick sewn. I sometimes make a quilt out of one piece of material. Don't know if that would fit in with your stash. I have heard people crochet with plarn, (plastic bags cut in strips) for the homeless to place on the ground to keep the dampness under control. Shame on anyone who would steal from the homeless.

On our local TV news, the "law" is chasing out a dozen or so people out of a homeless camp. They are bringing in bulldozers, etc. to "clean" out the little patch of trees, tents, etc. that the homeless have put up. The camera caught a couple of quilts just laying on the ground, dirty and wet, etc. So, I, personally would not want a quilt of mine to end up like that.