Church quilters sew caps, blankets for those in need

Published 9:52 pm Friday, June 11, 2010

EVERETT — Devee Hintze knows exactly where she wants to be every Wednesday morning.

A member of Zion Lutheran Church, she meets other women in the parish hall to spend three hours cutting, sewing and knitting quilts and caps.

The items are part of the church’s Helping Hands Project and will be donated to local medical centers, including Seattle Children’s Hospital and organizations such as Project Linus that collect blankets for children in need.

“I’ve always had too much time on my hands, and now I’ve decided that housework can wait,” Hintze said. “When I’m making one quilt I can’t wait to get on to the next one.”

Church members Lillian Bartelheimer and Rosemary Randall are also taking part in the project despite the fact neither know how to sew or quilt.

“I have fun buying the fabrics then wondering all the way home if I got stuff that went together,” Bartelheimer said.

She also cuts fabric and batting. Randall enjoys knitting the caps for cancer patients.

“It’s something I love doing because it’s easy to do,” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

The group applied for funds from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans to buy supplies such as yarn, fabric and batting. They received a $2,000 grant to fund the project. Supplies are also shared by the Zion Quilters church group.

“We trade back and forth and share because sometimes we get more than we can use,” Myrtle Chase, a member of the quilters group said. “They’re pretty well organized.”

Chase and others from the quilting group will be part of the Helping Hands Project this summer, she said.

A Nifty Knitters group, named after the loom used to knit the caps, meets one Saturday every month at the church and is also part of the Helping Hands Program. The group started after church member Paula Lauterbach’s husband died of cancer in 2003 and she decided she would attend a class to learn how to knit hats for cancer patients. Each cap takes about two hours to make, she said. The group has knitted more than 3,000 caps.

“The caps are a labor of love,” Lauterbach said. “(Volunteers) need to know the right type of yarn to use. If you buy yarn on your own, rub it against your cheek and it’s soft to your cheek it will be soft to the head.”

Bartelheimer and Randall would like more volunteers to help with the project on Wednesday mornings. There are plenty of jobs for those who don’t know how to quilt, sew or knit, Chase added.

“Everybody can tie a knot,” she said.

The Helping Hands group’s goal is to make 1,000 knitted caps. Eighteen quilts have been finished and delivered since the group started meeting earlier this month. An additional 36 quilts are nearly completed.

Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.

How to help

The Helping Hands Project group meets from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays at Zion Lutheran Church, 331 Union Ave. in Snohomish to make quilts and knitted hats to be donated to Project Linus and local medical centers. Donations of fabric and other materials can be taken to the church. For more information, call 360-568-2700.