Woodland Quilters start process of months-long stocking preparation for holiday season
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — The Woodland Quilters got their name from a pretty literal interpretation — it’s a group of women who make quilts at a cabin in the woods off Dick Road — but despite the name, for the next few months, the quilters will focus their attention on producing another fabric-based craft.
Although summer is just winding down, the quilters met Tuesday, Aug. 19, to begin assembling Christmas stockings. They plan to make a few hundred of them to be distributed to cancer patients in the days leading up to Christmas.
Sue Carothers, a member of the Woodland Quilters, started the day on the ironing board. She said the group plans to work every Tuesday through the end of September to make about 250 stockings. Usually 10 to 15 people attend the weekly stocking-making sessions, so the group has to work fast to ensure they will have enough to give to Hang Tough, the nonprofit that distributes the big socks.
“Last year, we gave them 250 stockings,” Carothers said. “We average seven in one day from beginning to end.”
The Woodland Quilters normally make quilts for Camp Lutherlyn, a summer camp for youths, as a way to raise money for the camp and “camperships” that help people afford to attend on their own. The quilt show is the group’s biggest project, with the quilters making about 70 quilts a year to display and sell at the show. For the past few years, the stocking project has become another big undertaking.
Although the Woodland Quilters aim to make about 250 stockings per year in sessions where they could be working on quilts, Carothers said Hang Tough’s project is also close to her and other members’ hearts.
“It’s the love of it,” Carothers said.
Hang Tough became a certified nonprofit two years ago, but its founder, Sharon Schneider, has been giving stockings full of treats to cancer patients in Butler County hospitals for about 14 years. Schneider said her daughter is also integral to the nonprofit and its mission.
Schneider got in touch with the Woodland Quilters through Carothers. She said Carothers offered to have the Woodland Quilters start making stockings for Hang Tough a few years back, because cancer has also affected Carothers’ life.
The contribution from the quilters has been a boon for Hang Tough.
“They are beautiful, handmade stockings, and yes, it does help us,” Schneider said. “We're very blessed to have them in our lives.”
The stockings go to patients in hospitals like Butler Memorial Hospital, the Benbrook Medical Center, Allegheny Health Network’s Butler Cancer Institute and UPMC Passavant in Cranberry Township.
Schneider, who moonlights playing Mrs. Claus in December, delivers the stockings to the hospitals around the Christmas season. They each contain “$25 to $50 worth of supplies,” according to Schneider, to help boost patients’ morale and mood during the holiday.
“We give out anywhere between 1,500 to 2,000 stockings per year,” Schneider said. “You don’t realize there are that many people being treated in Butler County.”
The Woodland Quilters have a long road ahead of them, but Carothers said the group is up to the challenge. The group has enough equipment that everyone can be working on a different part of the stocking making process at once, so the assembly line is almost always moving.
The group also has plenty of materials to make the stockings which, like quilt materials, mostly come from donations.
“It’s donated — 90% of the materials we use,” Carothers said. “We buy the batting, but people bring us old fabric from their mom or their aunt’s closet.”
Gloria Yount, a member of the Woodland Quilters, said the group started decades ago, when Camp Lutherlyn was looking for a way to mitigate noise in its cafeteria so the voices of dozens of children didn’t echo so much. People involved with the camp made quilts to hang around the cafeteria, some of which still hang there today.
“It all started from that, to make the echo go away,” Yount said.
Now, the Woodland Quilters make quilts every year for Lutheran World Relief. Each quilt is 60 by 80 inches, and they are distributed around the world to people in need. For the last three years, the group has made 70 quilts annually, which are taken to a collection point in early October to begin their distribution journey, according to Joy Bray, a member of the Woodland Quilters.
The Woodland Quilters will have its annual quilt show Oct. 18 and 19 at 500 Lutherlyn Lane, which Carothers said normally raises about $5,000 to $10,000 for the Lutherlyn campership fund.
Yount added that the quilters have always been dedicated to doing their work fully even though they are volunteers.
“Everything we do, we do for others,” Yount said.
Carothers said she is happy to be part of the group helping to fund camperships, and letting children get to camp who otherwise may not be able to go.
“Lutherlyn never turns a child away,” Carothers said.
