Quilts. Big quilts, small quilts, quilts with dogs, quilts with robots, patterned quilts, colorful quilts, all for one purpose., ill children. The Tehachapi Mountain Quilters is a guild of more than 170 people, each with friendship groups of ten to twenty people that make quilts for sick children at the Children's Hospitals in Los Angeles and Madera.
"I got into it when my niece was diagnosed with leukemia at two years old", Mary Landis, quilter with Tehachapi Mountain Quilters said. "I just wanted to do something."
"We make comfort quilts of all different colors and sizes for sick children and I think it helps, it brings a smile to their faces," Landis said.
The guild members aren't permitted to give the quilts to the kids personally, but they know they are making an impact.
"I went up on the floor one time and got permission and saw some parents up there and the nurses and they said you don't know what these quilts for for these children," Landis said.
Chairperson in "Comfort Quilts", friendship group in the Tehachapi Mountain Quilts guild, Monica Colella says she got a thank you note from a child who received one of her quilts.
"I was very honored and it moved me tremendously," Collela said. "It just gives me goose bumps," Colella said.
The quilters set a goal to double their quota for a recent trip.
"Normally Mary takes around a hundred and then we kind of challenged ourselves, so this year we delivered two hundred quilts, which was really amazing," said Robyn Woodhouse, President of Tehachapi Mountain Quilters.
Woodhouse says she knows the group is being called to do this service because they keep being blessed.
"In the Bible it says the Lord will provide and there is no end. "If we weren't supposed to be doing this we would be running out of fabric and we don't," Woodhouse said.
Colella says the fabric the women use it either donated by people outside the group or from within the group.
"Some just out of their own heart, their own love of quilting they will find a sale somewhere and just go 'Oo this would be great,' and you know and they will come in and donate brand new fabrics that they just happened to pick up," Colella said.
When you come to a monthly Tehachapi Mountain Quilters day at Stallion Springs Community Church you will see anything from San Francisco Forty Niners quilts, to cat quilts to toy quilts. The quilts are made for particular ages and gender and of course the material the quilters have to work with has a say in it.
"It's the flow of the pattern, it's the vibrancy of the colors, whatever works together, whatever moves you in what you're doing," Collela said. "The creativity of these ladies is just amazing."
The Comfort Quilt friendship group is planning to take their next load of quilts to the Madera Children's Hospital in June. If you would like more information on how to donate material or other resources to the non-profit you can go to the "Tehachapi Mountain Quilters Guild" email President Robyn Woodhouse, tehachapimountainquilters@yahoo.com.
