Veterans quilts and April meeting and sew days

I made our first quilt delivery of 2026 this week. There are 39 quilts ready for delivery to our veterans!

Our meeting and sew days are all next week.

The meeting is Tuesday, April 14 at 7pm. Our program is being presented by Mary Knight and she will be showing us how to make this cool quilt.

Our sewing days are Wednesday and Thursday,  the 15th and 16th. Come join us for one or both days. Bring any project that you want. 

Last Veterans Quilt Delivery

We weren't expecting another quilt delivery in 2025. The 23 quilts I have were going to be delivered in January.  But our contact had a special holiday request.  One of the nurses that Jen worked with in Richmond is part of a group that "adopts" 20 veterans in the VA nursing home for Christmas.  Jen asked if they could have 20 quilts for "their" veterans. 

I happily delivered these 20 quilts Tuesday.  That brings our 2025 total delivered to 123! Great work everyone!

Veterans quilt delivery

Another delivery of veterans quilts has been made! This time it was 23 quilts, bringing our YTD total to 103!

July Meeting Notes

 Our July meeting is Tuesday, July 8 and the Sewing Days are July 16 - 17

The program for the July meeting is "Managing Your Scraps" presented by Sharon Gustafson and Gwendolyn Waranis. Peg will not be with us to run the meeting so we will have to behave on our own.

A note from out June meeting. We did our annual voluntary collection for the Montpelier Center and I'm excited to report that we donated $730. It was very timely as they were dealing with and HVAC issue while we were at sewing last month. Mary Anne and Anton were thrilled and very grateful!

July is our annual mid-year food drive for WHEAT. When you bring your items you can leave them just inside the front door to the center. Cathy will pick them up there. We will also pass an envelope for anyone wishing to make a monetary donation.

Here's a list of items that WHEAT has ongoing need:

• Boxes of breakfast cereal
• Boxes of instant oatmeal
• Oatmeal
• Pancake mix with syrup, some low sugar or sugar free
• Boxes of mac and cheese
• Any size/type of tomato products
• Boxes of spaghetti noodles
• Ramen noodles
• 16 oz jars of peanut butter and/or jelly
• 6 oz cans of tuna
• cans of chicken
• other canned meats
• canned vegetables
• canned beans and pork and beans
• dried beans, black and pinto
• pound bags of white or brown rice
• cans of fruit, some low sugar and sugar-free
• any soups
• any type of one-dish meals like Brunswick stew, beef stew, chicken and dumplings
• Dried milk in 1 quart envelopes
• Dried instant potatoes
• Dressing mixes
• Mel starters, like hamburger helper
• Paper bags
• Hygiene kits in a zipper bag containing soap, shampoo, hand towel, wash cloth,comb or brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor, 5 bandaids, deodorant

A special delivery of veterans quilts!

 

On Tuesday Marcy George and I (Vicki Welsh) delivered 48 quits to the new Fredericksburg VA facility. This brings our YTD total to 80!

This new facility is HUGE! We were greeted by Jen Farrell (our normal contact) and Dr. Tracey Graham, the Director of Nursing. I couldn't believe that she even had 5 minutes in her schedule to meet us but she took over an hour out of her day to give us a private tour of the facility! She was profuse in her praise of our quilts and our work. She is sincerely excited to have them as a resource for the patients in Fredericksburg.

We saw loads of exam rooms and walked through the Women's Clinic and Mental Health Clinic, saw where the Pharmacy, Optical, Rehab and other areas are. 

This is a room where patients will get infusions, like chemo.

I seriously don't remember everything we saw but I am sure that there are MILES of hallways. Before going to see Interventional Radiography, we met 3 veterans and were allowed to present them with quilts.

It was fun to talk to them about how we make the quilts and to watch each one choose their special quilt. One is an Army vet and 2 are Air Force vets. They also volunteer at the facility, greeting patients as they arrive and helping them negotiate their way around, or just providing hugs of support.

Here we are with Jen (far left) and Tracey (far right). I can tell you that our quilts are highly valued by Tracey and the entire organization. At the end of our visit, Jen gave us a tour of Interventional Radiography. It's not open yet but is coming along. The whole facility is being opened in phases and will be 100% operational in early 2027. IR will be open in a few months. Because it's not open, we were able to see places where we would normally not be allowed.

This is the control room for the IR operation. 

This is where the patients will have IR procedures, like getting ports inserted.

This is another big machine, maybe a CT scanner? I couldn't keep track of everything!

While in the Mental Health department we met someone who helps coordinate finding homes for homeless veterans. They recently were able to house about 40 veterans! Tracey suggested, and we agreed, that it would be nice to use some of the new quilts to provide them with a "housewarming" quilt gift.

Once IR opens the quilts will primarily go back to those patients. These are 2 of 5 bays where patients go to recover after they have had ports inserted. This is where they are presented with quilts.

We left very excited and energized to make more quilts. It was rewarding to see how much care they take with them and how much they appreciate our efforts.

Our friend Jen is leaving the VA to become a professor at the Bon Secours School of Nursing but she has asked to continue to be our delivery coordinator because she believes so strongly in the work we do. I'm thrilled that we can still deliver through her. She loves our quilts and our veterans as much as we do.

VA Quilt Update and Call for donation art quilts

Tuesday night we were honored to have Jennifer Farrell, our VA contact, attend the meeting. It was a great opportunity to deliver our first batch of quilts for 2025.  These 25 were bagged up before the meeting and an additional 7 were donated at the meeting for a total of 32! We are off to a great start. Brenda and I brought home 9 more ready for quilting.

Jen came specifically to tell us about the new 470,000 sq ft Fredericksburg VA Clinic! It just opened March 2 and will offer every possible outpatient service, including interventional radiography, that was the target of our quilts the past 6 years. Jennifer has transferred to the new clinic and we all agreed that we were happy to have the quilts used in the new facility. She could also offer the quilts to other departments, like mental health and primary care. We know that she has always treated the quilts as special and has seen that every single one goes to someone who is truly in need. The new head of nursing at the facility is delighted to have the quilts. The facility is just off Route 1 in Fredericksburg and she said the public is welcome to come check out the facility if you are in the area.

Call for art quilts

One thing that she mentioned is that there are a LOT of bare walls in the facility and the Director of Nursing would love to have some art quilts to hang in various areas. These would not be patriotic quilts, but quilts that would be soothing or uplifting. We don't have a ton of guidance as to what they are looking for so I offered to put together a file of available pieces for them to choose ones they would want.

THIS WOULD BE A DONATION! Quilts that are accepted would not be returned and there will be no compensation.

If you have any art quilts that you would like to offer please send the following to vickiwelsh at protonmail dot com

photo of the quilt

size dimensions

quilt name

donor name

I will compile them all on one file and send it for their consideration.

   

 

Our 2025 "rent" quilt

 When we moved to the Montpelier Center for our meetings, they offered us a very reasonable rent that included a nominal fee plus a raffle quilt ever year. Last year I was looking for a new project and feel in love with Elizabeth Hartman's Fab Farm quilt, but I didn't have anyone to make it for. Once we moved to MCAE I knew it would be perfect to be one of their raffle quilts.

I named it Hanover Country Life and it's about 75" x 77". I hope you like it!

If you want to see more photos, you can see them on my blog.

The last quilt delivery of 2024!

 

Today, Saturday, I am making the last quilt delivery for the year. This stack of 34 quilts brings our YTD total to 163!!

By comparison, in 2023, we delivered 116 quilts and, in 2022, 114.

Since 2020 we have delivered an even 600 quilts! 

Out VA contact is always eager for more quilts. They mostly, but not exclusively, go to cancer patients and she says they have a minimum of 15 - 20 ports a month. That's over 180 a year but probably over 200. These quilts make a big difference.

Veterans Quilt delivery!

 I wasn't planning to make a quilt delivery to the VA Hospital representative until after the event this weekend, but I picked up so many quilts at the meeting Tuesday night that I needed to go ahead and move some out. I try not to deliver more than 30 at a time because I don't know how much storage space they actually have at the office. We had 30 more quilts so I asked if she was ready to receive more. She said "yes" and I delivered. We can add the Montpelier Center display quilts to the next delivery.

Out YTD total is now 129! That's 13 more than we made in all of 2023! I think we might hit 150 this year.

Well done ladies!

Quilt delivery and Quilting Friends Luncheon announcement

 

On Thursday, I delivered the next batch of quilts and we had 42! I think that's a record for one delivery. Jennifer told me they had gifted the last quilt yesterday so these were perfectly timed. This brings our YTD total to 99. That's another record! Of course we have 16 quilts hanging at the Montpelier that will be in our next delivery. That means that we are easily going to beat our number of quilts for 2023, 116.

Quilting Friends Luncheon July 26

It’s summertime hot, the gardens are demanding attention, and vacations are calling. So let’s meet at Kitchen 33 at 12:30 for lunch on Friday, July 26. Please bring your projects to share. Good food, friends, and laughter are a great way to end the week. Please let Brenda know by email, text, or phone/voicemail if you are coming by Wednesday, July 24. See you soon!

A note from WHEAT

 Thanks you for your generous donations of 112 pounds of staple foods, $90.00 in cash and $425.00 in checks yesterday at your meeting. It is folks like you who give to those in need in Our Western Hanover Community that allow us to do what we do…you are greatly generous and loving towards others, allowing families to receive emergency services when needed and additional food to feed their families through WHEAT.

Love You Gals,
Cathy williams, WHEAT

Patriotic Blocks for Veteran Quilt

Let's make fun easy blocks for some veteran quilts. Red centers will be provided and you add your patriotic fabric to make it a block. Just 5 pieces in this easy block. The blocks will be trimmed and set on point so you don't need to trim anything.

Some examples:

  Have fun sewing - and please bring your blocks to our August meeting. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Third veterans quilt delivery!

 I delivered 20 veterans quilts today! I almost got them out of the house without taking a photo. I held back 7 quilts for Becky to consider for the exhibit in August. This delivery takes us to 57 quilts for the year.

Jenn told me that, as of yesterday, they were down to 2 quilts and she already has 6 ports scheduled for next week.

Keep up the great work!

Second quilt delivery of 2024!

I came home from the meeting with so many quilts that it's time for another delivery! Thursday I'm delivering 22 quilts to our VA contact and that makes a total of 37 YTD. She told me they are completely out so they are excited to get a new batch.

Way to go!

Another delivery of veterans quilts!

 Usually I make the last delivery of quilts to our VA contact in December but I received a message yesterday that they are seeing a record number of patients and desperately needed more quilts.

After the meeting Tuesday, we had a stockpile of 25 quilts! I'm delivering these Thursday. That will bring our YTD total to 116.

Assuming this is our last delivery for 2023, this tops last year's total of 114. Since 2020 we have delivered a total of 437 quilts! That averages 109 a year. Any that we receive in December will be delivered next year unless I get a call for more quilts.

Well done ladies!

More veterans quilts delivered!

25 more quilts were delivered to out VA Hospital contact Saturday! That brings our YTD total to 91.

Great job everyone!

 

ou note from the VA hospital

 At our June meeting we had representatives from the VA Interventional Radiology Department come and talk to use about how they use our quilts. They left us with a gift bag of treats and this note. I jsut wanted to post it here for posterity.

The treats are being put out at Sewing days and meetings until they are all gone.

First Veterans quilt delivery of 2023

29 quilts delivered this week!👏👏👏👏👏

Last veterans quilt delivery for 2022

I delivered 27 quilts to our hospital contact this week and that brings our 2022 total to 114! I know that they really love receiving them and I also know that they are seeing an uptick in cancer patients so the quilts are absolutely needed and appreciated. I'm trying to get Jenn to a meeting soon to talk with us again about how they use the quilts.

We haven't kept great records until the last few years but scrolling back I see that we have made at least 321 since January 2020. I think that's pretty amazing for our little group!

I have at least 12 tops here that Brenda and I will get started quilting soon. 

For anyone new to the group and interested in making veterans quilts, here's all the info that you need:

- Quilts are to be as close as possible to 48" x 60". The hospital prefers patriotic or masculine colors/themes. Scrappy quilts seem to work very well too. Florals and pastels aren't so much in demand.

- You can quilt your own or we will quilt it for you. If you want to quilt your own quilts I can provide backing, batting and labels for you. 

- If we quilt your quilt for you we have complete control over the design and thread choice. We can't keep up with special requests. Fortunately, so far, we haven't had any complaints. We quilt them as we have time. Since quilts are quilted in pairs (matched to a backing) sometimes it takes a while to get your quilt back for binding. Occasionally when the maker isn't at the meeting to pick up a quilted top someone else volunteers to do the binding. Many hand make light work.

- We appreciate all efforts to avoid fragrances in your fabrics. I can't have fragrances in my house because of my allergies and I have had to hang quilt tops and finished quilts outside for days to get fragrance smells out. I don't like doing that to your tops and quilts but sometimes I have to.

It's always rewarding to fill the back of my car and deliver a new batch of quilts. I'm already looking forward to a Spring delivery.

Vicki

Veterans quilts delivered

 This week I delivered 23 more quilts to our VA contact.

This brings our YTD total to 87!