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By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Saturday, April 8, a quilt-a-thon was held at the Unitarian Universalist Area Church in Sherborn. Held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., volunteers gather for the day to work mostly on quilt tops, but also for socializing and camaraderie. Cris Crawford, who has been running the quilt-a-thons for five years, relayed that in a single quilt-a-thon, the group will complete maybe 10 quilt tops. Since 2003, the Quilt Project has produced 2057 quilts in total. Their goal is to provide comfort through quilts to women undergoing chemotherapy.
“I was a church member and I’ve been a quilter for many years. I joined as a participant and participated for about five years, and the founder had left, she moved away about seven years ago and another woman took over,” Crawford said. “Then the other woman left, and there was nobody else to do it, so I took over. I’ve been running it for about five years.”
Cris Crawford, coordinator, and Jill Carroll hold up one of the many quilts made by the Quilt Project.
The group is pretty tight-knit, the “newbie” of the group having been involved for about three years. The quilt-a-thons help get a nice chunk of work done, but much of the work goes on behind the scenes. “People bring the quilts in that they’ve made prior to the quilt-a-thon, so at a quilt-a-thon, it’s not like we make entire quilts start to finish,” Crawford explained. “We make parts of quilts, so we make quilt tops. We might make 10 quilt tops and then other people will make quilt tops at home. Then the ones we made will go home with people and people will then bring them back, finished.”
While the UUAC provides some of the funds, the majority of the quilts are made through donations. “We buy the felt that we put on the back, but the fabric is donated. We always have plenty of fabric,” Crawford said. The Quilt Project hosts three quilt-a-thons throughout the year. They offer volunteers free lunch, and refreshments throughout the day.
Once the quilts are distributed, they are taken to recipients in a number of ways. One way is through a request by a friend, loved one, family member, or themselves by contacting Crawford. There is a woman associated with the group who takes quilts to the Harvard Vanguard Cancer Treatment Center in Kenmore Square. The majority of the quilts go towards adults, however, once a year, the group will accumulate enough children’s quilts to donate to Project Linus.
The Quilt Project is always accepting new volunteers. “People always reach out and ask: ‘How do I get involved?’ said Crawford. “I tell them, ‘Just show up!’”
Whether you are an expert quilter or have never seen a sewing needle in your life, if you’d like to get involved, the Quilt Project would love to have you.
