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Operation Spread the Warmth

How Helping Others Through Sewing Kept Me Happy in 2020

By KIMBERLY R LAYERPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Me with my first quilt.

In January of 2020 I had finally decided to face a challenge that I had been avoiding for years – I was going to learn to use the sewing machine! I had tried in earnest once before, ten years earlier when I was first married. It seemed very “wifely” an activity, so I set my mind to it. I cut out a pattern for a 1950s housewife style dress, and I picked a gorgeous fabric: whimsical yellow daisies on a white background which matched our kitchen curtains perfectly. My husband threaded the machine and the bobbins for me and he was off to work. Hours later of tangled thread and loose bobbins, online tutorials and tears I was left with the worlds most unflattering… shirt? It was too large to be a crop top, but too shapeless to be a tent. Don’t get me wrong – I wore it everywhere and with pride! But I packed the machine away to its new residence, the dark hovel under the window sill.

Ten years later, I was ready to face my fears. My ever-supportive husband had spent many years gently hinting at how much fun it was as I would enviously watch him sew the occasional camping supply or tote bag. For Christmas 2019 he gifted me a set of pre-cut quilting squares. I decided that it was now or never – my New Year’s Resolution was set in stone. I’m going to learn how to use that machine!

I retrieved the machine and dusted it off. My husband showed me how to thread the machine and it didn’t seem right to me – up here, down there, loop-de-loop here and through the needle. I was sure that he was making it up. I clumsily thrusted a freshly filled bobbin into the compartment below the needle and closed the little door cautiously. I laid two squares together, peaked through skeptically squinted eyes and warily pressed the foot. The machine whirred as the teeth below the needle gently moved my fabric through to the other side. I was doing it! I was sewing.

There was something soothing about the sound that the machine made. A gentle clacking from parts-unseen and how each stitch was perfectly uniform. I eagerly attached a third piece of a fabric, and a fourth, and a fifth… before I knew it, I had completed my first row. I was starting to understand how the machine worked. The loop-de-loop was needed for tension and the bobbin helped seal the stitch!

Within 24 hours I had completed my first quilt. It was so cute and colorful and warm and wrinkle-free. I was very proud of my work. Ready to start on my next quilt, I purchased fabric and cut it into pieces on the hard tile floor enjoying how the metal legs of the scissors glinted and glided through the fabric. Within the week I had finished another two quilts! The house itself seemed to buzz, both from my excitement and the non-stop hum of the machine. I sewed until I ran out of fabric then I took scissors to our old sheets!

The question arose in my heart, and from social media onlookers – what was I going to do with all of these quilts?! I didn’t want to sell them and obviously throwing them out was out of the question. Then it hit me, our local nursing home. My grandmother had recently passed away and I had spent every other weekend with her in her nursing home. Although one of the best nursing homes in the state, two things were seriously lacking – color and warmth. I placed a call to our local nursing home to inquire as to how many residents they had staying there and they answered 56.

I never told the nursing home directors my objective, it was January and there was still a chance that I would run out of steam and flake on this idea, so I did the only thing that would move me forward, I got to sewing. The sound of the machine and the constant stream of fabric coming through the other side calmed me. I couldn’t worry about the troubles of 2020, I had quilts to sew! I sewed colorful blankets to bring levity, I sewed muted blankets to bring calm – always with the quilt’s future owner in mind.

Neighbors donated sheets and fabric and support and finally in November, just as the Florida weather was finally starting to cool, I loaded up 56 quilts in my car and I drove to town. I tentatively rang the bell to the nursing home. I had convinced myself that the pandemic and lock down had taken away my ability to donate these quilts that I spent most of the year on. I explained what I was there for, and the director met me outside with a hug. We excitedly unloaded the boxes from my car and I left, happy that I had accomplished my goal.

Months later I received a heartfelt letter from the director. She told me that they decided to hold onto the quilts and wrap them for Christmas presents for the residents at the facility. She explained that it had been a hard year, with no visitation allowed and the world in disarray, the nursing home residents felt forgotten. On Christmas morning the residents opened their quilts and brightened up right away! A male resident got a floral quilt and a female residents received a quilt with little tractors on it and they laughed as exchanged their presents.

The planning, cutting, sewing and binding made me calm and happy in the moment, but I grew exponentially happier when I saw the good that my new hobby could do. I’m currently working on another set of quilts for a nursing home the next town over. I’ve decided to call this “Operation Spread the Warmth.” In a world that can seem so cold, we can all use a little more warmth!

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