Quilting a community together

A quilt is puzzle where different pieces of cloth are sewn together to create something more beautiful and warm than each piece on its own. It is the challenge of that puzzle and the rewarding results that brings the members of the Cape May County (Camaco) Quilt Guild to the Millman Center in the Villas every month. Once there, they share their knowledge and love of quilting with each other.
“We have beginning quilters and very accomplished quilters,” said guild member, Billie Anne Bradley.
It is a tight-knit community of some 60 quilting enthusiasts, who learn a lot from each other through teaching sessions and demonstrations of new techniques. Then, as part of their charter, they reach out into the community to share their talents.
Last year, guild members donated Christmas quilt placemats to be distributed to older and infirm residents through Meals on Wheels over the holidays. This year, the guild focused their energies toward providing support to young mothers. On Wednesday, Sept. 10, the guild presented 27 quilts to the Hope Pregnancy Center, of Rio Grande and Ocean City.
“The idea is to provide some comfort to the children and the mothers to be,” said Bradley.
Hope Pregnancy Center is a Christian non-profit organization that counsels and supports pregnant women in crisis. It is supported by churches, as well as individual donations.
“We get about 400 client visits a year,” director Marian Stevenson said. The center’s client base is diverse, ranging from young single women with unplanned pregnancies to married working women, who are expecting a child and having trouble making ends meet.
“So many of the girls (we serve) find hope in the Lord, Jesus Christ,” Stevenson said.
The center provides free, confidential pregnancy screenings, biblical counseling, abstinence education and referrals for prenatal care and financial support. The center also helps out by providing essential baby supplies like baby equipment and clothing.
Now the lap quilts, donated by the Camaco Guild, will be offered to its clients, as well.
“(The mothers) so appreciate things that are homemade because you seldom see that anymore,” Stevenson said, and they find comfort in knowing that strangers care enough about them to make something just for them and their child.
Camaco members created the quilts, using a new quilting technique learned at a recent guild meeting. Using crayons and a hot iron, quilters melted colors into the fabric, enabling them to include bold designs and child-friendly graphics in their creations.
In spite of using the same technique, however, each quilt is unique in theme and style. Some quilters chose more traditional and muted themes, while others featured colorful animals and Disney characters.
“Quilting is an old art,” Bradley said. “It’s something people did traditionally to keep warm, but its progressed through the years,” she said.
Still at its heart, quilting remains essentially the same. It still involves connecting disparate scraps of cloth into a harmonious blanket. It is the art of bringing fabric, and people, together in unique and comforting ways.
For more information on the Camaco Quilt Guild, call 609-884-7490. For more information on Hope Pregnancy Center, visit hopepregnancyofnj.com.