Hands 2 Help 2022

Do you know about Hands 2 Help? It's a comfort quilt drive to benefit several designated charities, or you can choose to donate locally. I've been participating for several years. This year Sarah, the founder and usual host, is indisposed, so Mari at the Academic Quilter is organizing and hosting the event. There are prizes! You can read more about Hands 2 Help at Mari's kick off post here. 

Since moving to Arizona last year I've become involved in my quilt club's charity committee. The club has a stash, used for charity quilts. Unfortunately the stash wasn't being used to best advantage and there was a lot of frustration trying to kit up projects for charity sew days, so I worked with the committee chair to help solve that problem. We ordered some light neutral fabrics to combine with the mish-mash of mostly dark and medium prints in our stash, and I put together some tutorials and some plans for kitting up projects for future sew days. 

If you've been reading my recent posts, you've seen my scrappy tops and the tutorials for them. Here's a recap: 

Kid Quilt, shown baby and toddler size, 38-1/2 x 45". Pattern also for 45 x 60" size.

Scrappy Color Bars, shown 60 x 80". Pattern also for 50 x 60" size.

Basketweave, 60 x 80". Pattern also for 50 x 60" size. 

Scrappy Spinners, 64 x 80". Pattern also for 48 x 64" size.

The kid's and basketweave tops above were made using my personal stash so they're less representative of what the club has available. The Spinner quilt is made entirely from fabrics in the club's stash. We do have a bin of kid prints, so we should be able to kit up a few scrappy kid quilts.  

The club has charity sew days every month, a different theme or project each month, and we have prep days for the committee to kit up the projects. I've written simple tutorials for the projects shown above that we can include in the kits, and they'll be posted on the club's website as well. 

Hands 2 Help encourages local donations as well as donations to their designated charities. The tops above will be used as teaching samples for my club's charity sew days. Then they'll be quilted and donated to the charities that the club supports, the local family services agency (abuse, domestic violence, kids going into foster care, etc.) and local hospice. 

I encourage you to participate in Hands 2 Help, whether by officially signing up and checking in, or informally by making and donating a quilt to the organization of your choice. PDF patterns of my tops shown above are available to jump start your efforts and bust some stash. Just leave a comment and be sure to type your email address into the comment field.