If you ever found yourself in the Fellowship Hall on a Tuesday morning, you likely, depending on the time of year, saw between twenty-five and fifty Sewing Bee members, making quilts. What you wouldn’t have seen is what these women do the rest of the week. Some come in two Wednesdays a month to cut pieces and assemble kits to be sewn into quilt tops at home. Others make smaller quilts or blankets at home for St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic or San Juan Bautista Lutheran Church (a sister church in Tucson) for baptismal blankets. Some make bags to hold personal possessions for those who use a walker. Others do machine quilting at home. Still others take items home on Tuesdays so that they can be finished and ready for the next Tuesday. And others are busy making items to be sold at the annual Fall Boutique.
One of the best things that happens during the week is delivering to the charities because sometimes we get to interact individually with a recipient. Each quilt made by the Sewing Bee is much more than just fabric and thread. Each is made to be as beautiful and well-crafted as possible so that the recipients will know the love and care that comes with each one. And that is what happened recently when thirty-five quilts were delivered to Sister Jose’s Women’s Center, which is dedicated to caring for women who are experiencing homelessness and helping them find permanent housing. The quilts are delivered in clear plastic bags, and a guest of the shelter remarked how pretty the quilts were, not knowing that she would be a recipient of one of them. When she learned this, the widest smile of joy crossed her face as she realized there are others outside of Sister Jose’s who value her and believe in her power to change her circumstances for the better. This quilt could be the very first item to furnish her new home. Love, hope, and joy all in the form of a quilt.
We also delivered thirty-one walker bags to Valley Assistance Services that same week. We didn’t see an actual recipient of one of the bags, but we did see the joy on the face of the woman who hands out the bags and heard how much they are appreciated. Her joy came because the ability of those using a walker to carry a bottle of water with them on these hot summer days is much easier if they have a walker bag, and she had just given out her last one the day before.
Stop in some Tuesday and witness the women of the Sewing Bee as busy as bees. They don’t see what they do as work, but as a way to bring joy to someone in need. They like making a difference!