Quilting and Patchwork

Making Quilts of Comfort

by Mary Emma Allen on July 31st, 2007

Quilts have comforted people since their first creation, whether covering someone for warmth, pulled over someone who is ill, sewn from family fabrics that bring memories to someone far from home, or simply giving pleasure with their artistic colors. 

Quilts made in war time have comforted and warmed soldiers and families in war torn countries.  Women on both sides during the Civil War sent quilted items to their husbands, sons, and brothers on the front.  During other wars, women at home did their comforting this way when they couldn’t be there in person.

During World War II, Mennonite women in the United States made quilts and sent them to Holland to comfort hiding Jews and others.  Some of these quilts resurfaced and their stories appear in Passing on the Comfort.

Nowadays, school children make quilts for ill babies in hospitals.  The sixth graders in our local elementary school undertake a quiltmaking project each year that involves math, language arts, and science as they create these coverings for ill babies.

Various organizations make quilts for youngsters beset with illness.  Granny’s Quilts of Love, in Pea Ridge, Arkansas does just this.  This organization’s story appears in The Morning News, Granny’s Quilts of Love Wraps Children in Compassion.

Do you know of organizations and groups that make quilts of comfort?

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Related Stories

The Comfort Quilt
Wartime Quilts in Other Countries
Quilting in Times of Sadness
Quilting and Tragedies
Quilters Make Quilts for Hurricane Victims

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