SCVQA Community Quilts

In 2022, we donated 695 quilts!! We were able to bring joy and comfort to those individuals, their families and caregivers! This impact is truly amazing! The organizations that we were able to support this year include:
PAMF Mnt View and Sunnyvale Chemo treatment patients
Sequoia Hospice in Milpitas
Veterans Administration Palo Alto Healthcare System
Oakland Children’s hospital NICU & Palliative care units
Unity Care providing housing for Foster Youths
Parisi House on the Hill women’s shelter
Loma Clara memory care facility, Morgan Hill
Assistance League Los Gatos-Saratoga helping under privileged new mothers
Casa de Clara – Transition shelter for homeless mothers & kids
C.A.R.E. SF Bayview shelter helping babies, kids and teens
Sew for love (large white garbage bags of fabric and batting scraps – used to stuff sit-upons forschool kids)                                                                                                                                              
SF Chapter of CA Association of Nurse Practitioner’s (annual appreciation event - holiday donation)
Santa Clara County and SVDP Mentally challenged adults (holiday donation)
 
 
C.A.R.E. SF Bayview area
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C.A.R.E. is the Center for Academic Re-entry and Empowerment in the Bayview section of San Francisco. Our donations include quilts for children, teenagers, and their babies.
 
“One of the quilts that was donated went to this young man who is soon to be a Dad. Mom and Dad are both SFUSD students who will graduate this year. The other students gave a baby shower and this young man was thrilled. See the look on his face!
This is another young person who's life has been touched by the generosity of the quilting guild of Santa Clara.
Thank you!
Kathy”
 
Another new mom was so pleased and grateful to have a quilt for her baby!
 
Supporting our Veterans
We continue to take donations for the veterans. With the cold weather, consider knit hats, long sleeve tee shirts, socks and sweatpants. Do you have any gently used books you no longer need? Have you started receiving 2023 promotional calendars in the mail? If you will not be needing them, consider donating them to the veterans. They really appreciated the set we included in our December donations. These and the other items from the full Patient Needs List (see below) are much appreciated by the veterans. Bring them to the CQ workdays in Campbell or contact me to drop them off at my home in Sunnyvale.
 
Unity House
I pulled some information from their website to share. “Over the past 29 years we have served thousands of youth transitioning out of foster care and breaking the cycle from foster care to street, by providing safe supportive housing, case management, independent living skills education, mental health support through licensed therapists, and LGBTQ identity support.”
 
“Unity Care’s housing programs provides current and former foster youth, including probation youth, ages 16–21 with safe, secure, and affordable housing while they focus on their emotional, educations, and employment goals.”
 
Sequoia Hospice
Dee sent the following comments:
“Here is some feed back from our patient’s regarding the amazing quilts Santa Clara Valley Quilt Assoc provides.  Before they are prepared for our patients, all of the staff enjoys looking at each one  and admiring all the love and detail.  Seeing the expressions of the nurses and medical staff choose a quilt for a specific patient is priceless!  The quilts brighten everyone’s day. 

1. Our massage therapist took a quilt out to a hospice patient he was seeing.  The patient and family could not believe the “high quality and detail” of the quilt they were given.  This was the butterfly quilt from last month.  Even the massage therapist enjoyed picking it out and commented how “beautiful” it was. 

 

1. I gave a quilt to a patient who is confused, when she saw it her eyes opened wide and she stroked it.  I placed the quilt across her lap and she kept touching and stroking it.  The colors were bright and it was evident she enjoyed this amazing gift.

 

1. I’m also continually being told by the health aids and nurses, when they’re at a patients home they will put their quilt over the patient after cleaning or treating them.    They enjoy and take pride this was made from love.   

 

1. When I deliver or talk about the quilts provided to our hospice patients, I tell them who makes them and a little about your organization.  All of our volunteers who attend an orientation are shown quilts and I tell them about your organization. 

 
Thank you with all of my heart!  We are  blessed and honored to have these amazing handmade quilts  provided to our patients and families.”
  
Dee Walsh,
Hospice Volunteer Coordinator, Sequoia Hospice
 
Even our small scraps
We collect even the small scraps of fabric and batting “trash” that are generated while making quilts. These are used to stuff pet beds by guild members and to stuff the cubies made by Sew For Love. We put to use all the scraps we receive, keeping them out of the landfill. One guild member mentioned that she has stuffed over 30 pet beds with scraps last year!
 
Are you cleaning out closets before putting away your holiday decorations? keep in mind: Sew for Love will take old clean blankets, pillows & towels for the pets, yarn, cotton fabric, denim, flannel, sherpa, polar fleece, vinyl, upholstery pieces or batting, fabric and thread scrap pcs - - - nothing is too small.
 
Community Quilts Workday Meetings:
During our Community Quilts workdays, our group members work on the tops that have been donated by our guild members, layering them with batting, backing and binding. These are folded into quilt “sandwiches” that are then picked up by our guild members. They take them home to quilt. Once they are quilted and the binding is attached to the edges, the finished quilts are returned to our group. During our workdays we also sort and organize the finished quilts, now ready for donation.
 
Thank you to Christ The Good Shepard Lutheran Church for helping us to joy, hope and comfort to 695 individuals, their families, and caregivers!
Robin Scheiderer
SCVQA Community Quilts