Archive: Around Town

Quilters are a generous lot. They regularly give their quilts to friends and family, they donate quilts and handcrafts to charitable organizations, they share techniques and knowledge freely, and they organize service events to benefit the less fortunate around the world.

Even a casual foray into the quilting world presents myriad opportunities for charity. Poke around the quilting community on Pinterest or Instagram, for example, and you'll quickly find quilters who donate their work to soldiers, patients in hospitals and nursing homes, at-risk babies, or children in war-torn areas.

This season's hurricane relief efforts include Instagrammers Nicole Daksiewicz (@modernhandcraft), who organized an online auction of donated quilts to raise $26,095 for Hurricane Harvey victims; and Stephanie Palmer and Kitty Wilkin (@thequiltersplanner), who are currently overseeing an auction of donated quilts for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands hurricane relief (#helpingprandusviauction).

Daksiewicz herself seems a bit amazed by the response to her auction, saying "I couldn't have done it without everyone's awesome donations. It's seriously inspiring how generous everyone was."

Here in Tompkins County one local guild exemplifies the giving nature of its members. In its 40-year history, the Tompkins County Quilters Guild has donated quilts, handcrafted items, or other services to at least 30 different nonprofits on the local, national, and international levels. In just 2017—well, up to August—the guild had donated 52 quilts and crafts. One of its longstanding beneficiaries, the Cancer Resource Center, has received 400 (and counting) tote bags over the years. Guild members make the bags for cancer patients during chemotherapy treatments, and they often use vibrant, whimsical fabrics to lift the spirits.

"Thanks to the generosity of the guild volunteers," says Rocio Zepp, client services assistant at the CRC, "we can improve the well-being of members of our CRC community. We fill these beautiful bags with comfort items that our clients need in the most difficult of times. They are a beautiful expression of love, support, and care."

Each February TCQG devotes one meeting to "service night," in which members gather with their machines and fabric to create as many quilts as possible for charities. The members set up "stations" for piecing, or sewing together the blocks for the quilt top; for "sandwiching," or basting the top, the backing, and the batting together; and for quilting, which may be done on a machine or may be tied. In 2017 they completed close to 30 quilts to send to At-risk Babies and Children (ABC) Quilts, a nonprofit that gathers and donates quilts for at-risk babies and children in hospitals; to the Teen Pregnancy Center and to Birthright of Ithaca; to local nursing homes, which take lap quilts for elderly patients; to foster care groups that share them with foster children; and to other needy groups.

The guild's work with the ABC Quilts organization—which started in the late 1980s in response to the plight of babies born HIV/AIDS positive—developed in the 1990s, and its connection grew exponentially under the coordination of Alanna Fontanella. A guild member, Fontanella organized many local events and service projects to involve not just the guild but the whole community in the joy of making and the joy of giving.

Her efforts included coordinating area groups—schools, 4-H clubs, churches, college students, and more—in their participation in the Names Project and Kids to Kids, in which guild members encouraged and supervised children's participation in quilt making. Under her guidance local groups made and donated thousands of quilts over the years, adding to the half a million quilts ABC Quilts has delivered.

In addition to ABC Quilts and the Cancer Resource Center, current guild projects include the Days for Girls, an international nonprofit that collects and distributes feminine hygiene packets to girls whose lack of access to proper hygiene prevents them from participation in school and work. Guild member Aafke Steenhuis coordinates guild volunteer participants for sewing events to create the packets for the girls.

A number of guild members donate individually to local and global groups as well. Their work goes to Quilts of Valor, a group whose mission is "to cover service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor"; ALS organizations, which distribute donated quilts to patients with ALS; Habitat for Humanity; and other organizations.


A long-time member of the guild, Marie Witzel, estimates that she has made and donated 37 quilts to the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS, a project near to her heart. Three years ago she lost a granddaughter to the disease. Not long afterward, she found a magazine ad for Hopes and Dreams, a project for donating quilts to patients with ALS. She says, "I thought, 'Oh, I can do that!' And I got to work at it." She and her Wednesday morning quilting friends donated 26 quilts that first year. "It was our answer to the Ice Bucket Challenge, using warmth instead of cold," she says.

Witzel's work will be featured during the TCQG's biennial Traditions and Beyond quilt show at the Tompkins County Community College field house on October 7 and 8, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. The event showcases hundreds of quilts, soft sculpture and wearable art, a small-quilt silent auction, quilt-turning exhibit, and more.

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