Valerie Duff, a member of the Grateful Threads quilting guild, addressed the Americus Kiwanis Club on August 23 on the campus of Georgia Southwestern. “We are a service oriented guild. Every year we choose a project or two to work on, in addition to things we want to do too, our personal projects. In the past, we have done quilts for veterans, we’ve done quilts for cancer patients.” She shared details about their current project. “Recently, we are working on things for Called to Care, which is an organization here that serves families who have foster children, and so we’re making things for children and babies right now. But our new project begins in September.”

She told how they had chosen two projects for the new year. “One is that we will be making quilts for first responders to distribute when they go into a crisis situation, whether it’s fire fighters, law enforcement, EMTs, whomever.”

Duff explained the second project. “For nine or ten schools and public libraries, we plan to make sets of quilts that go along with children’s story books.” She noted a desire to share their initiative with Kiwanis due to the club’s emphasis on reading to children. “I’m going to ask for your consideration as you’re working on your new budget, that you consider helping us with that.”

She gave details. “It’ll cost about $125 per school to get their set because the books range from 10 to $15 a piece.” She mentioned that if Kiwanis wanted to sponsor the effort, they would mark the inside of the books with the sponsor.

After the program, member Fran George talked about how she had joined. “Valerie offered a class on T shirt quilting, and that was the first thing I did, so that kind of got me interested.” She mentioned she had sewn for years, but that it had been awhile since she had gotten her sewing machine out. “So we had a t-shirt quilt class, and that just got me going.”

She talked about the highlights of being in the club. “To be able to actually make some quilts that are important, like we did for oncology. We did several for veterans.” She also told how they were able to support Hands of Hope and Perfect Care.

The Grateful Threads meets at the Parsonage of Lee Street Methodist Church on Tuesdays from 1-3 pm and Thursdays from 6-8 pm.

Correction: The original post stated the quilting guild was a service “orientated guild.” the correct quote by Duff was “oriented.”