It's important to have love in our hearts as we serve others through the work of our hands, so we try to do our best when making things for others. We want to make sure our edges are finished and our work is not rushed or sloppy.
With that in mind, we also recognize that everyone's skill levels are different and this should be an opportunity to fun and even growth, rather than stressing over "not measuring up" to some unattainable standard of perfection. So please have fun and sew (or knit or crochet) with a friend (or group of friends)!
For quilts it's best to use woven all-cotton fabric, or cotton flannels, or at least a small percentage of woven polyester like maybe broadcloth. But really, cotton is preferred. You can choose to pre-wash or not, it's up to you. BUT each quilt should be consistent in that - either all pre-washed or all not-pre-washed. There are very nice-looking quilts of both types. If you have some fabric in your stash that you know will "bleed" when washed, then please pre-wash (and rinse well) all the fabrics you'll use in that quilt.
Next - thread: again, it's good to use cotton thread in the needle and bobbin, for construction and any quilting or tacking you do. IMPORTANT NOTE: we absolutely cannot accept tied quilts, for safety purposes. If you send a tied quilt, then we will have to take all those little ties out, and then replace them with machine-tacking.
If you're making a small size for an infant, definitely use only cottons, preferably very lightweight fabric, even flannels, tiny prints or solids. If you're making child-size quilts, still try to use cottons, but a mostly-cotton blend would be okay, in bright colors or pastels. If you're making them for adults (i.e., for nursing homes, cancer patients, etc.) we'd still prefer cottons, but blends would be okay too.
For stillborn babies, please use only white, all-cotton, preferably batiste. These are whole-cloth wraps, meaning all one piece - not pieced or quilted. If you use batiste, it would be okay to use that cotton-poly batiste, since it has a high cotton content and is lightweight. For these special wraps, it's okay to use something lightweight as an inner layer, such as lining fabric (again, white preferred.) If you find some nice very very pastel pink or blue, I would accept that. Also for these, it would be okay to put a nice cotton or rayon lace trim all around the edge - but please don't use those stiff cheap laces. Also for these
For sizes, here are some general guidelines: preemies 16"square up to 24" square, one side lightweight cotton and the reverse side could be lightweight flannel or lightweight cotton, no batting necessary, unless you want to use a layer of flannel for batting. For infants we like 36" square up to 45" square, same materials as preemies.
For other sizes, you can do what you like! a lap-quilt size is usually about 45" square, more or less, not set in stone at all. For young children, you could do 45"x55" and on up from there! Twin size is nice for anyone, especially people undergoing chemo, but it could be a little shorter than that, since they're usually in recliners.
Putting a border on the quilts is a very nice finishing touch, but it is a little extra work so again it's up to you. You can also do it an easier way and sew the layers right sides together, leaving a few inches open to turn it right side out, then whip-stitch that opening closed. If you're doing one with a layer of flannel in the middle as batting, you can still use this technique, trust me. Just be sure you have the face of the quilt and that back of the quilt with right sides together, and then have the flannel (batting) against one of those layers' wrong side - the outside.
I'm sure I've left out something important, but can't think of it - soooo, just ask!
Bless you for helping!
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