A to Z Quilt Challenge: D = Donate Quilts or Blocks for Charitable Causes

For the month of April, I have taken up Frédérique's Quilting Patchwork and Applique challenge to blog daily (except Sundays) on a quilt topic related to a letter of the alphabet.  

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Quilters are well known to be generous people.  As  a 2018 National Quilters Circle article on where to donate quilts noted, "When it comes to quilting, many people don’t realize we aren’t always quilting for ourselves.... many of us like to donate quilts to charities and give something back to the community."  I have Donated a few quilts over the years and in more recent years have found it even easier to donate blocks to a good cause when I can.  

My first experiences at donating came in 2010 through the efforts of quilt designer Victoria Findlay Wolf.  In her early days as a designer she had put out calls for House blocks that she would then make into quilts for BASICS Housing, an organization that at the time helped transition homeless families into permanent housing.  Using a block pattern she provided, we were asked to donate the blocks and she would make them into quilts for the organization.  I submitted these for one of her drives:

Victoria was inundated with so many blocks that she eventually arranged with the organization to accept finished quilts directly from quilters.  Later that year, I donated a kid quilt made from the leftovers of a quilt I had made as a gift for a young cousin of mine.  I donated again in 2012 when she and Pat Sloan teamed up and put out a call for another drive. For that one I submitted two more quilts.

Since that time, I've personally found it easier for me to donate quilt blocks to causes.  In 2011, MODA Fabrics did a "Just One Star" block drive for the Semper Fi Fund, that helps to support wounded veterans.

MODA eventually collected over 15,000 blocks (!) and MODA staffers and their network of sewers and longarmers eventually made and donated enough quilts to surpass their original goal of donating 100 quilts in 100 days.  

Read more about it all here!

I also submitted to a Canadian drive looking for string blocks through the String Thing Along linkup blog.  

My blocks and those of others that participated went into a completed quilt that was called "Anything Goes" and was donated to the Katie Cares Foundation that helps support Canadian families whose children are being treated for Cancer.

In 2019, I learned about Kat's Covered In Love bi-monthly block drives.  Kat is a critical care nurse in Texas and I loved her idea of blocks created around themes.  That year I submitted blocks to a couple of her drives as well as made a donation to her cause:

Like Victoria did, Kat makes the collected blocks into quilts and distributes them to hospices in her area.  Kat also accepts completed tops and quilts as well.  Covered In Love is also one of  five charities being supported by this year's Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Drive hosted by Sarah on her Confessions of A Fabric Addict blog.  Entering into the 11th year that this drive has been done, it has helped to get over 2,800 quilts donated to various charities.  

I do hope to get back into donating finished quilts --- both for the cause and to give me another incentive to practice quilting my own quilts.  I've made four QOV tops that I want to donate in my community through the veterans organization here.  

I am hoping the donation will also help me gauge whether there is interest in having an annual QOV sew-in event in our community.  

If you are looking for places to donate quilts or quilting related items, here are a couple more popular places that are calling for your goods right now:  

Recently after being asked by her viewers if there were places they could submit just tops, Pat Sloan set up a "Quilt Tops For Charity" page on her "I Love To Make Quilts" website to provide links for places willing to accept those donations.  If you have other links to charities that you can share, you can leave them in the comments section on Pat's page and she will add them in.  

Popular quilt designer and blogger Jo Kramer has quilters send her quilt tops and supplies that she distributes to a network of charity quilters she is familiar with.  Information for those submissions can be found here.  She has also recently established a page that lists the contact information for charity quilters who will accept tops and UFOs directly.

Have you donated any blocks or quilts for a good cause?  See if there are organizations or quilt guilds in your area that will take your projects or supplies to help people close to you.