My group of quilting buddies, The Ya Ya Sisters (as we call ourselves) get together once a month. At our February gathering, we picked a charity to contribute to for the year and decided upon the battered women’s shelters in the greater Rochester, New York area. Our intent is to make a large quantity of pillowcases and come this Fall, give them to the shelters along with toiletries. This effort ties in nicely with the American Patchwork & Quilting’s (APQ) 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge.

At our March meeting, I demonstrated how to make a tube pillow case. We all made a few during the meeting and will continue to make more at home. If you don’t have a a pillowcase pattern, there are many sources for them on the Internet. Start with the plethora of patterns available at the APQ website!

These are some of the pillowcases we have made so far.

Toiletries

Often people put the toiletries inside the pillow case, but our group decided to purchase some shoe box size plastic bins to give the residents for personal storage. That way they can use their pillow cases for a pillow!  The Ya Ya’s are going to spend the summer collecting these toiletry items. Every time we go shopping, we will pick up a few toiletries. Doing it piecemeal will help to spread the cost out. We also decided it might be nice to pick an age bracket and throw in some items that would delight someone in that age bracket.  Women’s Shelters house more than women. The children that sometimes end up in the shelters would certainly enjoy a coloring book and crayons, a stuffed animal or something similar.

Storage Bins like this will be used for the toiletries.

I’ll let you know in September the results of our efforts. As a group, the Ya Ya’s have years of sewing experience. Using our talents to make someone’s life a little better is the least we can do.

If you are looking for a service project for YOUR guild, group, quilt shop, Girl Scout troop, I would highly recommend a service project such as this. Pay it forward!