Orpington Quilters
In March 2024 Bonnie Foster from Beckenham Quilters came along, with her able assistant Janet, to talk about the various charity quilts and projects that her quilting group produces.
Beckenham Quilters has a large membership, with about 70 members, and are able to create a variety of items for many local charities, which actually started with Project Linus. They are involved with Kings College Hospital, Princess Royal University Hospital, Evelina Children's Hospital, Bromley Brighter Beginnings, Age UK Befriending Service, Demelza Children's Hospice, to name but a few. The group is very generous with their time, skills and stash, making all items mostly out of their own pocket. All items are embellished with a "Made With Love...." stitched label.
Here are a few examples of how Beckenham Quilters support these charities.
These are little stockings (unfilled) to hang on the incubators of the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at the PRUH at Christmas.
Here are a couple of sweet premature baby quilts. They are deliberately simple in design and make up so they can be washed at 60 degrees. The group makes hundreds of these.
This a beautifully hand-stitched whole cloth memory quilt. These are made for the parents of babies who are stillborn and are to be taken home as a treasured memory.
Just as we do at Orpington quilters, the Beckenham group make these fantastic incubator quilts for Kings College Hospital.
For Bromley Brighter Beginnings (BBB), a fantastic local charity that supports families in need living in the borough, Beckenham Quilters make playmats such as this one. Also, if a Facebook request is placed by BBB for bedding, then Bonnie contacts them to see if they would like a quilt.
On the right are drain bags produced by the group for the PRUH, for patients with drains still attached post surgery. Lots of these were sold at the group's November exhibition with funds going to St. Christopher;s Hospice.
Age UK operate a befriending service, which aims to combat loneliness in later life. To support this initiative, Beckenham Quilters makes befriending quilts, like the ones below, which can be donated to the elderly as Christmas gifts.
In addition to all of the above, for the PRUH, Beckenham Quilters also produces hundreds of heart cushions for breast cancer patients after surgery. They are designed to fit under the arm to protect the wound site, and make life a little more comfortable. Bonnie brought along to our meeting some templates and our group set about making some of the cushions.
Here are some as a work-in-progress.
..........and here are a couple that were completed during the session for Bonnie to take away with her, with many more promised to be delivered later.
We thoroughly enjoyed Bonnie's talk, and mini workshop, so many thanks to her and Janet for visiting us. It is worth checking out the Beckenham Quilters website as they do so much more than Bonnie could cover in her talk beckenhamquilters.co.uk