Community Projects 2021 – 2023 End-of-the-Year Review
Pamela Holst, Ranell Hansen, Linda Estrada, and Mary Maxwell (followed by Rochelle Schneider)
At our first locker meeting in May of 2021, we practiced folding fabric correctly so that it would fit nicely in the size-marked white containers. Then we explored the locker and took stock of all the available inventory: counting completed doll cradles, pillowcases, placemats, veteran’s quilts, finished quilt tops and completed quilts, both adult and children. We found several large bedspreads that were donations from the Bacara Hotel in large tubs under the cutting table. On one shelf were bags filled with squares of flannel and large containers of patriotic fabric. Other boxes were filled with pieced quilts waiting to be finished. We were surprised by the large amount of fabric in the locker. It was clean and neatly organized. Thanks to Darilyn, Kathy, and Laura, we had an excellent example in organization and service to follow. We chose fabric off a bolt to make matching t-shirts to wear at our Guild meetings. We practiced sliding up and down the locker door and working the lock.
By the middle of May, 2021, we set up our calendar and identified our Community Outreach roles.
--Mary reported our progress and gathered suggestions on zoom at Board Meetings.
--Ranell wrote the Coast Lines newsletter article every month.
--Linda would load her car with fabric, the cash register, kits, and patterns to take to St. Andrews to sell at noontime get-togethers following COVID guidelines. Using locker fabrics, she made many cradle kits.
--Pamela reported locker activities at General Meetings. She also took photos when quilts were gifted at various functions.
On June 4th, Nancy Butterfield, our Guild’s PR/Social Media representative asked to join us to take photos as we made scheduled donations to various organizations. She also offered to write news articles and post to Instagram regarding our activities.
We were also busy identifying recipients for the large backlog of quilts and placemats. We had a notebook filled with the names of potential quilt recipients, and we began contacting them in May. We took note of the organizations that had been past recipients of quilts made by our Guild members. Each of us chose two or three organizations to contact, noting which had “traditional status”. Several never returned our calls, and we divided up the ones that did. Covid was still in evidence throughout the community.
--Ranell - Transition House and the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission with no response from either.
--Pamela –St. Vincent’s, Villa Majella, and Unity. Only Unity responded enthusiastically.
--Linda – Visiting Nurses and Hospice responded and Food From the Heart did not respond.
--Mary – Teddy Bear Foundation (no response) and Meals on Wheels (happy response).
Early visits to the locker included our assembling doll cradle kits to take to general meetings and ordering supplies to make the kits. Unity Shoppe doll cradle kits was a traditional, yearly project for woodworkers, painters, and our Guild. We also made several veteran’s quilt kits using red, white, and blue fabric from the locker. We decided to recycle fabric that was fading or discolored, put smaller pieces of usable fabric on the Treasure Table, and take containers of fabric to sell at the general meeting, usually priced at one dollar per pound. Ranell selected a quilt from the locker to be used for a Guild Christmas auction. We re-organized the Guild’s fabric locker in a way that would work for us, and quickly reopened the locker for sales by appointment. Covid restrictions were eased in March, but kits were put on Linda’s doorstep for pick-up, and if that didn’t work, a kit would be delivered to the requester’s home. Red, white, and blue fabric was readily available at meetings, in the locker, or delivered. We put out a request for fidget quilts and/or materials that could be used for embellishing them. The Visiting Nurses would distribute them wherever they were needed. We found homes for the Bacara bedspreads, thereby gaining more storage space under the cutting table. It was our responsibility to encourage Guild members to make and provide support in the form of supplies to members who complete their projects.
As Covid restrictions eased, we had afternoon gatherings at St. Andrews every month. Linda would load her car with fabric from the locker, the cash register, kits, and patterns. Later, she continued this activity before, at break time, and after each general meeting. Mary manned the cash register and helped display the fabric bundles on the tables. Pam spread quilt tops that needed finishing on the church’s chairs, greeted members as they entered, distributed dozens of finished quilts to representatives from Unity and Visiting Nurses, and collected several quilts finished by Guild members. We all helped members select fabrics. Nancy took photographs for publicity. Mary, Linda, and Pamela were always so grateful to the many Guild members who donated hours to sewing quilts for Community Outreach Programs. We were well aware of how much time and patience goes into making a quilt. It was so uplifting to see our quilting family giving so graciously. These afternoon quilt gatherings were so much fun. Thanks to Marilyn Martin, we distributed six different patterns for simple three-yard quilts. Marilyn helped members choose coordinating fabrics to make the quilts. Many veteran’s quilts were made with these patterns. She also helped transport many placemats, pillowcases, and quilts back to the locker. Marilyn became an invaluable, honorary member of our Community Projects team.
In August of 2021, we put out a request for doll cradle bedding. Kits with all the necessary parts (batting, foam, pillows, and coordinating fabrics) were ribboned, bagged, and available. Thanks to our Guild members, we donated over 150 cradle sets to Unity Shoppe in December. Pamela, Mary, and JoAnn Dovgin were interviewed at Unity for the annual Christmas Telethon. The filmmakers visited the Just Friends satellite group to video quilt-making in progress. The same footage was televised on KCET in 2022.
The Rotary Club of Santa Barbara asked our Community Projects Committee if the Guild would be willing to donate quilts for the Welcome Baskets they were gifting new families moving into affordable housing in the Santa Barbara area. Three Rotarians carrying a box of cupcakes picked up the quilts at a Just Friends satellite meeting, and later our Guild received a $200.00 thank you check from the Rotary Club! Our Committee was happy that the community group reached out to us. As it turned out, many more groups requesting help were to follow.
Between June and December 2021, our accomplishments included:
150 cradle quilt sets - Unity
52 large quilts - Unity
16 fidget quilts - Unity
7 veteran quilts - Visiting Nurses
16 large quilts - Rotary Club
40 placemats - Gardens on Hope
160 pillowcases - Gardens on Hope
135 placemats - Meals on Wheels
Holiday quilt - Holiday Opportunity Quilt
We also submitted photographs to Coast Lines of quilt tops that needed finishing—either to keep or regift to Community Projects. Sixteen unquilted tops were beautifully quilted by one of the Just Friends quilters at no charge, and another did the binding. Several Guild members as well as members from the area at large donated fabric to the locker. Fabric was coming in as fast as we were making kits. Dozens of quilts were donated by our members. Satellite groups, such as Knotty Threads, challenged themselves to make children’s quilts out of jungle panels. We encouraged members to search the locker for an appropriate fabric to make their own quilts. Any fabric used for a community project was free, and if members wanted to enlarge their own stash, the price was nominal. One month we sold over 90 lbs. of fabric! Patterns for placemats and pillowcases were available on the Guild website and at the afternoon meetings. The three-yard quilt patterns provided by Marilyn and photocopied by Pamela continued to be popular and kits were made with coordinating fabrics. Edalee Keehn made over 100 placemats in 2021 {and Barb Postma broke Edalee’s record the next year}. As Ranell said, making placemats was a good way to practice machine quilting; small and doable in an afternoon, and so addicting! Homes were found for 14 Veteran’s quilts! Mary and Pamela attended a ceremony honoring veterans at the Montecito Friendship Center, who were in close contact with Visiting Nurses, our connection. The honorees along with their families were thrilled with the quilts. Later, our guild supplied the Center with quilts for their daybeds.
Our dear friend and committee member, Mary Maxwell, moved to Texas. Rochelle Schneider jumped right in and took her place. The number of Community Outreach programs we served grew substantially in 2021 and continued throughout 2022. Word spread and several agencies contacted us.
Thanks to the remarkable quilters in our Guild, Community Outreach got top grades. Our committee was actively involved from Day One doing the job we were supposed to do. Our goal was to successfully help our members share their talents, their time, and supply materials they needed in order to reach out to community members in need. Throughout 2021-2023, we continued to sort fabric in the locker and accepted several donations of fabric from the community as well as quilts and other items from Guild members. Community Projects donated 165 Placemats to Meals on Wheels at our December meeting.
Our Guild member, Sandy Hess, connected us with Transition House. The committee took 30 children’s quilts to them the following week. The quilts went to children who went to the shelter because their families had lost their homes and, sometimes, everything.
Rochelle Schneider’s connection to Domestic Violence Solutions found homes for several large and medium-sized quilts. Fidget quilts continued to be in high demand by organizations whose assistance was needed to those with dementia. Fidget quilts will always be a wonderful way to use creative energy. Zippers, buckles, touchy/feely fabric, fur, buttons, scrunchy plastic, keys, charms—all carefully attached to a small quilt or a placemat can provide stability to those who feel stressed in the late afternoons. A workshop to make fidget quilts was organized by the Outreach Committee.
Nancy Butterfield connected our Guild with Angels Foster Care who were thrilled to receive beautiful baby quilts, receiving blankets, and burp cloths. Jan Hawkins, our Unity Shoppe contact, told us that lap quilts will always be needed, especially by folks in wheelchairs. She was our connection to Garden on Hope as well as the Unity Shoppe. We supplied three large quilts to a local organization called Dying in Grace – End of Life Care Doulas. This wonderful organization of volunteers provides end-of-life care for individuals in their homes, at Serenity House, Sarah House, and other residential facilities in Santa Barbara County. Dana Vandermay, one of the Dying in Grace End of Life Care Doulas, wrote “it takes a whole village to help loved ones live and die well. You quilters are part of our village.”
Whenever possible, we invited representatives from community programs to our general meetings, now convening at the Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Goleta. We introduced them to our Guild members at in-person meetings and by zoom to other Guild members in their residences in the Goleta/Sant Barbara are, out of town, or out of state. The recipients spoke about their organizations and thanked the Guild members for their wonderful contributions. Quilts were paraded around the audience, so all could see and appreciate them. It was heartwarming to share the effort among so many dedicated members.
In the spring of 2023, the Committee organized an “Orphan Block Placemat Challenge”. At a general meeting, orphan blocks made my members were placed inside paper bags and exchanged, sight unseen, by other members. The following month dozens of amazing placemats were returned, giving the next Community Outreach Committee a head start on placemats for Meals on Wheels this December.
Ranell organized an amazing and profitable fabric sale at St. Andrews Church on June 24, 2023. Much of the fabric and a myriad of sewing supplies of all kinds were donated by Guild members as well as folks outside of the Guild. It was stored in the locker and in Linda and Marilyn’s garages for the event. Nice fabrics were sorted, folded, bundled, and ribboned by Guild members at a workshop held at Unity Shoppe Headquarters Additional bolts and containers of fabric from the locker were added to the sale, as well as library books, sewing implements of all shapes and sizes, and tasty food snacks.
This Committee left lots of fabric, placemats, and quilts in the capable hands of the newest Community Projects Committee to send out into the world! Together we are changing our community, one stitch at a time.
This report is respectively written and submitted by Pamela Holst.
2021-2023 Community Outreach Committee:
Linda Estrada, Ranell Hansen, Rochelle Schneider/Mary Maxwell, Pamela Holst, and Marilyn Martin.
