I realized recently that this "history" is not quite enough and I've been asked for more details as to how we got started and why so I will attempt to explain the who, what, where, when and why of Quilts for Comfort.

We'll start with Heidi Hart, my daughter, who became a quilt fanatic within the past 5 years and once she discovered the joy of quilting she asked me if I was interested in making some sort of "charity quilts". I said yes and after a quick search on the internet we did find a group who was distributing their quilts in our area. Before long I was the Delaware coordinator for that group and we were both making quilts.

I was also teaching basic traditional quilting skills on a regular basis and I was looking for a project for my students so they could stay involved with quilting and get together on a regular basis. I decided to have an old fashioned quilting bee and invite the students and any one else in the community who might want to help us make the "charity quilts".

The first bee was in June, 1999 and I held it at Cecil Community College in Elkton, MD. It was a huge success. We had a big crowd and had a great time working together on the quilts. It was also pretty obvious that if we kept our patterns simple then women who had never quilted before could make a quilt and that was great news to them and to us. I have to admit that once I had that first bee I was hooked! The bee was fairly simple to arrange, it was very gratifying to bring a variety of women together to work for a common project and we had great fun together, met some new people, and made some new friends.

I think we went on to hold 4 or 5 quilt bees in 1999 and delivered 33 quilts.

My older daughter, Eve English was equally involved with the quilt bee project by this time so it became a family affair. My son Isaac wound up loading the truck for me every week so it really is a family affair.

In January, 2000 I was forced to quit work because of a very debilitating arthritic condition and rather than sit home and let depression run wild I took advantage of my time at home to further develop Quilts for Comfort. I was not able to work outside the house because of my pain so working with the quilts was a real life saver for me.

The quilt group that I was working for as the Delaware coordinator was not comfortable with the quilt bee concept so it became evident that we would have to form our own non profit organization if we wanted to continue. We also wanted to insure that all of the quilts that were made at the quilt bees stayed in our area. I have worked for years with homeless and low income people and I can say first hand that there is a great need right here in our own community. I was also not comfortable with the contacts that the other group had given me for deliveries. Most of the quilts went to administrators and my experience has shown me that delivering to someone who works directly with the recipients is much more satisfactory.

I set out to find delivery contacts and we have been very successful in finding caring "hands on" people who work with the children on a daily basis. We deliver to social workers, nurses, sometimes a caring secretary, and Beth Carlough, a Child Life Therapist at A.I. DuPont has been a wonderful help in delivering the quilts to the children at her hospital.

Early in 2000 my daughters and I and my grand daughter, Sophie, had a bee in Maryland that was less than successful. On the way home we stopped to eat and over dinner we made the decision to get serious and form our own group. I think I still have the napkin where we wrote down our proposed new name, "Quilts for Comfort".

As we got closer to registering as a non profit, (no easy feat!) and we decided to add income as an at-risk factor. We started out delivering to babies who were affected by AIDS/HIV, alcohol, drugs, and serious medical problems and then added low income as an at-risk factor. We also wanted to be able to deliver to elderly persons in our area and added that in our mission statement.
And most recently we have added person's with cancer to our list of people receiving Quilts for Comfort.

In December, 2000, after at least 3 trips to Dover, Heidi and I finally had all of our paper work correct and we were registered as a 501-C-3 non profit organization. This means that donations are tax deductible, and we can purchase fabrics in Lancaster without paying sales tax

. Since we started having quilt bees over 4000 women, men and children have come together to help make the quilts. Many have never quilted before but they recognize the merit of the project, providing some measure of comfort to a child, and they want to help. We have held children's quilt bees and we have had bees at senior centers and retirement homes. Our participants vary from the very young to the elderly and all ages in between. And thanks to St. Andrew's and their wonderful on-going support, we do have men who participate on a regular basis.

I know I'm biased, but this is a truly wonderful program in that it helps the children who receive the quilts, it is wonderful for the women who get together to help, it's a great support group for those attending, and it's a wonderful way to meet new friends.

I love Quilts for Comfort and people often erroneously give me credit for the group and nothing could be further from the truth. It is not "my" group. It belongs to the many people who have come together to offer their help with the quilting, their advice and expertise and their love and caring for those less fortunate. My daughters and I conceptualized the group in the beginning and 4000 caring people have built it into a successful organization. I am always uncomfortable when I get to a bee and the people there assume that I did it all. I certainly did not. I do a lot of the organizing for the bees because I'm the one stuck at home and I have the time for that part of it. But it wouldn't be much of a bee if no one came.

Eve recently ran a 26 mile marathon in Florida to raise money for us.

Heidi Hart,
my youngest daughter has recently become a stay at home Mom. Heidi and her husband Bryan have two beautiful little daughters from China. Sarah came home in 2001 and Maggie joined the family in 2004. Sarah is a bit young to be quilting, but she does enjoy playing with my scraps when I'm cutting the kits for the bees. I have lots of photos of my grand children on the grand children page.
Heidi has a marvelous eye for color and has made the most beautiful and colorful Quilts for Comfort.

Edna Kotrola,
I am single. I have 6 children, all grown with children of their own. As I said, I enjoy putting their photos up on my Grand Children page so you can see how lovely they all are. I have 16 Grand Children and 2 great grand children. I have been enjoying quilting for almost 50 years now and never get tired of it. And never get tired of giving my quilts away. I share this behavior with most quilters I know.
Page created, February 11, 2003
updates, June 21, 2005