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 2010

Annual ALL-DAY Outreach February 6, 2010 - please mark your calendars!!

Now that the New Year is here, our Outreach Day will be here before we know it!  Our Outreach Day is planned for Saturday, February 6, 2010, 9:00 a.m.at the First Baptist Church in Sudbury. 

We hope all of you can participate as we spend the day working together to finish, sandwich, tie or machine quilt comfort quilts to donate to injured veterans who are back in this area. The recipients are both men and women; any colors are acceptable as long as they are cheerful and upbeat. You can bring something you have started yourself, or can work on something someone else has started or donated.  

We are accepting donations of fabric (washed please), which you can bring to any guild meeting.  If anyone needs batting cut before Feb. 6, please call Benje      (or email) and it can be cut to size. 

We also have some large pieces for backing and a small selection of other fabrics if anyone needs them to add to your quilt. We will have labels which say "Made by Wayside Quilters 2010" available at the January meeting if you are ready for them. 

We will also be passing around the sign up sheets for workers and food donators at the January meeting.  

Please plan to sign up and join us, as the day is always fun as well!  Thanks - Benje and Jennifer

Wrap-Up from Outreach day Feb. 7, 2009

Outreach Day was a HUGE success!  The weather cooperated (we even had to open the windows in the afternoon). We had 32 people come thru the senior center that day (we think this is a record!) to help, many stayed most of the day. The assortment of food was sumptuous, and we were busy as bees completing as many quilts as we could. We think the final count will be around 23 completed quilts (some people took their quilt home to bind or finish). Betsy Tyson Smith, the executive director of the Healing Garden, came by to see our efforts, Jane took her around and she was definitely overwhelmed. Benje and I were blown away by the generosity of all of who donated your time and your talents. Thank you all who came for making this such a phenomenally successful and productive day............this was such a success because of YOU!  

Gratefully,

Leslie and Benje, Outreach Chairs

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.