The Wayside Quilters participate in a number of outreach activities every year. Any one is welcome to participate and all help is greatly appreciated by the outreach committee.  

Outreach 2008

Annual ALL-DAY Outreach event is in February, Sat. Feb 2, 2008 at the Sudbury  Senior Center from 9 - 5.
.

Outreach day is from 9 am to 8-ish pm.

It is our annual quilt marathon for charity. Bring whatever supplies you need for a day of cutting, sewing, quilting and/or tying. We have a lot of material, batting, and thread available.

About Outreach

Outreach NEEDS

Donations of fabric are at an all-time high – thank you so much! Our storage unit is brimming with your generous donations. What we need most now is you. Many caring guild members have made countless quilts for Outreach from home, and we appreciate that greatly.

About Outreach

Community outreach and charitable efforts have always been important founding principles of the Wayside Quilters Guild. Year in and year out, guild members give generously of their time, skills and supplies to make quilts and related items for the needy in our area. Your help has made this program successful, and we can’t thank you enough.

Each year guild members make and donate quilts to local charitable organizations. These have ranged from adult shelters in the area to organizations like Linus Quilts and ABC Quilts. The Outreach Committee reviews potential recipient organizations and selects a group for the donations. The groups chosen for 2006-2007 are Abby’s House and Spring House, organizations dedicated to helping abused and indigent women, some of whom are pregnant, and their children. The Outreach Committee has chosen to "adopt" these shelters, meaning that we will establish relationships with them and provide them quilts as they are needed, as residents come and go, over the course of at least one year. Both shelters have enthusiastically embraced our cause, and are most thankful for our attention.

Our annual all-day Outreach Quilt-a-thon was held February 13, 2006. Despite a raging snowstorm the day before (most towns in our area got 15 or more inches of snow!), an intrepid group joined us throughout the day. We completed 25 quilts, with several more near completion that went home with caring guild members. A heartfelt thank you to all who attended, especially the committee and guild members who stayed all day, and the husbands who came to set-up and break-down!

In 2004-2005, Outreach was expanded to include events throughout the guild year. In addition to our traditional all-day event, held every year in February in lieu of an evening guild meeting, Outreach also held monthly gatherings which were dubbed Outreach Bees. These bees are ongoing, and are scheduled through May 2006 (see calendar above for details). Typical events at these bees included sewing blocks, attaching borders to quilt tops, tying or basting quilts and sewing on labels, and they are fun community events. These bees represented a bridge to the quilting traditions of our past, where quilters would gather together to help each other finish their quilt projects.

Stay tuned – or better yet, get involved – for more fun, caring and sharing with Outreach

Outreach History

2004-2005: Outreach Committee formed; recipients of our quilts were social service agencies that primarily serve adults, Turning Point, a men's shelter in Framingham, Mass., and Shadows and Meadows, sister shelters in Ashland, Mass., exclusively for women. Baby- or child-size quilts were also created and donated to Sandra's Lodge in Waltham, Mass. and the Marlborough (Mass.) Food Pantry, with a few going to the Shadows and Meadows adult shelters for residents with small children and babies. Our guild created and donated a total of 110 quilts in 2005!

In 2005 we were pleased to be among 20 organizations nationwide to receive a grant including a generous donation of Thinsulate batting and funds from 3M Corporation. The total value of this grant was $700, and was put to good use in the creation of our charity quilts.

Holiday Placemats

For the past few years the Guild has made holiday placemats for Meals on Wheels. This program provides the food and we help to provide some cheer through holiday placemats that are distributed with the holiday meals. If you are interested in helping make a placemat or two, then use the link below to request more information.