CJ Kerley
Many of you have spent years being involved in community organization in order to give back. Well, here at the Ranch, you, too, can get involved at every level. Maybe you only have a few hours to donate or maybe you want to be more involved. But whatever your choice, you might find your need met in the wonderful organization of the SB Ranch Piecemakers. We are an organization of women who come together on a weekly basis to share ideas, both good ones (we call Ta Das) and the ones that went wrong (we call “Oh S#*&ts”) and learn how to quilt and make a variety of things.
We recently delivered lap quilts to the Veterans Home in Tucson as well as a large wall hanging. Members each donated one or more squares to create a beautiful quilt. Four of our members, Peggy McGinnis, Alice Ann Lenzini, Barbara Martin and Kathleen Morgan Squires, delivered the quilts in person. It was a very meaningful experience for both the Piecemaker ladies as well as the Veterans.
Our current community project is making quilts for foster children at the Aviva Children’s Center in Tucson. These children often go from home to home with few personal items. These quilts bring them a sense of comfort as well as warmth. We plan to deliver the quilts around Valentine’s Day.
One of our next projects will be to support Youth On Their Own, a local community outreach. The Piecemakers will be constructing lap quilts, cosmetic bags for the girls and dop bags (for shaving kits) for the boys. As you can glean, these projects can serve all skills of sewing and quilting with classes offered to assist in making many of the projects listed above.
Not only do the Piecemakers provide projects for community outreach, but they are a group of incredible and talented women who know how to have fun! Recently, Cherry Leger opened her home for a holiday party and Secret Santa exchange. Ladies provided a $10 bag with quilting supplies or a handmade item and had a fabulous time picking gifts and even stealing from one another!
We hope you will come by and check out our group. The Piecemakers meet for an hour every Friday at 10:00 a.m. in the Needle Arts Room. Following the meeting, classes are often offered or women stay and work on their projects. As a new quilter myself, I can share that this is a fun and comfortable place to start!