A Generous Heart

Gregg and I stopped by to see Lucile this weekend. She continues to organize her home, organizing, sorting and accomplishing other important tasks which must be done after Noble's passing. We went for a visit, but Lucile's thoughtful generosity never stops; she handed us a bag of five new fleece blankets for Seattle Children's Hospital!

Thank you so much, Lucile!

Mary's Gifts of Time, Talent and Blankets

Our Vice President, Mary, is always generous in sharing her time and talent with Katie's Comforters Guild. Mary is our "Gratitude Ambassadress" - the one who writes "thank you" notes for each contribution, and keeps records (via spreadsheet) of all donations made to the guild.

Mary also gives blankets to our guild, quietly and without fanfare. This week, she donated two bright, cheerful movie-themed fleece blankets to our guild.

Thank you, Mary! 

These blankets are going to be a great thrill to patients at 

Seattle Children's Hospital!

Lucile and 4,155 Quilts

I went to see Lucile & Noble at their home on Monday. Lucile is still sewing nearly a quilt a day; even though her sewing machines wear out and need service, Lucile simply takes the broken one to the shop and turns to a substitute machine. She works those machines so hard that I think she might need a commercial-grade model!

I asked her how many quilts she has made for charity, and beyond the 1272 she has made for Katie's Comforters Guild, the grand total is 4,155! Let me put that another way: Lucile has made a total of four thousand, one hundred and fifty-five quilts for charity! She keeps careful records in a ledger-book, and she showed it to me; I was flabbergasted.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the manufacturer of her favorite sewing machine (Bernina) would donate their heartiest, most durable quilting machine to Lucile? I think she deserves a sewing machine that works as hard as she does! It would be a great advertisement for Bernina, as well.

Lucile donates a great deal of her own time and resources to making these quilts; while we do our best to provide her with supplies, we aren't able to furnish everything. This means that she and Noble are giving much more than just time and effort; they are also using their own funds to pay for materials. If you multiply 4,155 times the cost of fabric, batting, binding and thread for each quilt, you'll come up with a very large number indeed.

When we talk about her quilting, Lucile often says, "I have to keep busy!" Remember, she is in her 90s - and she started sewing as a very young girl. What a wonderful, inspiring lady she is - and Noble is her greatest supporter and #1 fan.

Here are photos of Lucile and Noble at home with her latest holiday creations.

I took these directly to nurse Tracie's house, so that they could be delivered to Seattle Children's Hospital in time for Christmas and New Year's Day.  
Thank you, Lucile, Noble and Tracie!

A Gift from Bonnie P.

Yesterday, our guild received a gift of time and talent from member Bonnie P. She came over and spent several hours with me, sorting donated fabric. Bonnie's expertise is deep, as she is a gifted quilter and designer, and dyes her own fabric. Bonnie knows a lot about what we can use and what we cannot. Together, we sorted fabric by color combination and proposed use (separating top pieces from backing, pieces that would go well together in color and/or theme to make a nice quilt top) and organized about five bags of fabric which we cannot use, and which will be donated to charity.

What this means for our members and friends is that we have a LOT of lovely fabric which is now much easier to sort through, so if you want to make a quilt for our guild to donate to the hospital, we can provide the fabric in most any color combination you wish!

In addition to her generous donation of time and expertise, Bonnie also brought a gorgeous wall-hanging to donate to our (future) auction:

Isn't this awesome? It is made of special paper, though it looks like fabric, and the backing of it is fabric. Bonnie even sewed a special sleeve for hanging it. The colors are more vibrant in person.

Thank you, Bonnie!

Gratitude and Generosity

We have had quite a blessed couple of weeks here at Katie's Comforters Guild. We're giving thanks for the generosity of our members and friends, as well as for those who have received the gift of one of our quilts and have let us know what it means to them.

First, the recent donations:

Two fleece beauties from Guild member Mary R.:

From Guild Member (& Gratitude Ambassadress) Mary R.

 Four crocheted lovelies from Katie's Comforters Guild friend Sonia B.:

From Sonia B. (aunt of Katie's aunt Cheri)

 and 44 (yes, that is forty-four)  

new quilts and fleece blankets from Lucile & Noble N.!

Four of Lucile's latest creations...

and four more...

seven of the fleece blankets Lucile made...

and four more fleece!

Did you know that Lucile has donated 632 blankets since her first donation in September of 2010?
 
We received a note on our Guild's facebook page (check us out there!) from a grateful mother of two children who have been admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital at different times. Fortunately, both of her children are fine now, but the time of their admission was a scary one.

Kari tells, in her own words, what our blankets/quilts mean to her:

"Thank you so much for your guild. This week I had the worst night of my life, when my 2 year old daughter was admitted to the hospital for croup. Your dog and cat quilt brightened her spirits. She loved it and slept with it. Thank you so much for all your efforts."

She goes on to say:

"This unfortunately was not our first hospital stay in our family. My son was hospitalized a year and a half ago with a strep B infection at age 4. He received a Linus blanket from your guild that still lays at the base of his bed. He looks

back fondly although I remember it otherwise, staying at the hospital and receiving his blanket. You can imagine how excited he was to greet his sister when she came home with her beautiful quilt. I think it is such a gift you all are giving young children, a positive attachment to an otherwise traumatic experience. I truly appreciate all the love you put in to your quilts. It has really made a difference with my children."

Thank you to every one of our members and friends for your generosity, creativity and compassion!

 Thank you, Kari, for letting us know about our Guild's positive impact on your family!