Community Service: preemie quilt challenge
Wow! What started out as a Mini-Group challenge turned into a huge — 444 preemie quilts! — Guild success. A big "thank you" to everyone who participated.
First, the challenge! Those dedicated Designing Divas took first place with 142 preemie quilts. Next was our Guild community service with 108, and not far behind was the Colfax Junction Quilters with 105. In addition, the Sisters in Stitches made 55 quilts and honorary member Hector Lauiner made 34.
Now the response! Foothill Quilters, you made the day for many nurses and babies with your preemie quilts! On October 16, 2007, 444 preemie quilts were delivered to the UC Davis Neo-Natal Unit in Sacramento. You can not believe the response we received from the nurses. They loved the quilts!
We were then given a red carpet tour of the preemie unit and shown how the quilts get used. Each isolette has at least one quilt in it. The quilts can be are wrapped around the babies like a bumper guard; or babies lie on them; the quilts are also laid over the isolette to provide shade from bright light.
As we entered each unit we were introduced, and again the nurses couldn't thank us (you) enough. They said the parents would be very excited to see the quilts as it makes things feel a little more like home. Currently very few quilts get sent home as most are used over and over again due to the short supply. With our preemie quilt challenge hopefully that will change. And yes, they would love to have more.
Rhonda Kucala will continue to collect preemie quilts. They need to be 18” to 20” inches wide and 20” to 24” inches long. They can be made out of flannel, minke, cotton or any combination of these.
Congratulations, quilters, you did a wonderful job and made many people very happy.