You can get involved by sewing your own welcome quilt. We accept homemade quilts from individuals and from groups. You may send us one quilt – or rally friends and neighbors to form a “crew” and sew dozens. Our quilts come from church groups, sewing circles, neighborhood groups, individuals – anyone who wants to help.
We are open to your most simple or creative designs to “sew welcome” into your quilt.
Our Simple Quilt Strategy
To make more quilts, our First Crew uses a simplified quilt design that eliminates expensive batting and binding. We sew the patchwork front to the back flannel, face to face, with a hole for turning the quilt right side out. We usually top stitch around the outer edge. We tie most of our quilts with embroidery floss. (We’ve found that the floss used for friendship bracelets works especially well.)
- All quilts are made from new, 100% cotton fabric
- Quilts can be 40 x 40 inches or 40 x 60 inches approximately. (This makes it easy to back the quilts with 40-inch wide flannel.)
- Smaller quilts (40 x 40 inches) can be bright patterns and colors for babies, toddlers and the youngest children. The larger quilts (40 x 60 inches) are most useful in subtle colors that draw less attention. We provide quilts to children, adolescents and their families.
- Batting is expensive and makes quilts heavy. Quilts with batting are more expensive to send to border organizations for distribution. They are also bulkier to carry for children and families still on the move. (See our Simplified Quilt Strategy above.)
- We accept quilt tops. Last year we received 51 quilt tops from Sun City, Arizona. First Crew enjoyed backing them.
- These are guidelines. We accept all quilts, as long as they are made with new, 100% cotton.
Send quilts to:
Susan Adcock
2420 NW Marshall St., Apartment #204
Portland, OR 97210
Email: susan.adcock48@gmail.com
Donate Funds or Supplies
We are a grassroots organization. As a ministry of First Congregational United Church of Christ in Portland, Oregon, our organization is run by volunteers. Quilts are homemade and donated. Our largest expense is sending quilts to border organizations. It costs around $100 to send 20 quilts from our workshop in Portland, Oregon, south to the border. You can help support our project with a donation of any size.
We are also open to in-kind donations of new 100% cotton fabric, thread, embroidery floss and other supplies. Please contact us by email (susan.adcock48@gmail.com) before sending in-kind donations or to find out more about monetary donations.