Paris, Tennessee Quilt Guild at LeBonheur Children's Hospital

On December 8, 2010 members of our guild went to LeBonheur Children's Hospital to deliver the 105 cuddle quilts that was made by fellow members.  We want to thank Pat, Jean, and Gayle for delivering the quilts and writing this informative report about their trip.

We were given a tour of the public areas of new hospital and unfortunately weren't able to go to patient areas as we had in the past.  The new facility is beautiful and they have really taken and put in place the needs of the families as well as the patients. 162 patients were moved  from the old hospital over the weekend.  The new hospital has been increased in size in all areas and now has the capability for 268 with each child having a private room with a window.  Each room now has space for a family member to sleep in the room and also has shower facilities.  The emergency room has been increased to handle twice as many as before and has been split.... Many Memphis area families use LeBonheur as their "regular doctor" for their children's minor issues like colds, flues, etc.  So now the emergency room is set up to handle those separately from the critical care arrivals.  Last year the emergency room handled  over 75,000 patients, an increase of 5,000 due to H1N1.  She gave us figures on Ambulance runs as well as helicopter too, but those figures escape me right now.  St. Jude's made a 7 million dollar MRI/surgical room donation to LeBonhuer.  LeBonheur does 95% of St. Jude's surgeries.

Security is a big concern and that has been addressed within the new hospital in several ways, but yet doesn't feel jail like at all. 

LeBonheur now has a facility for out of town family members - much like Ronald McDonald and Target House which are for St. Jude patients only.   FEDEX Corp has sponsored the building of FEDEX House which is right across Poplar and initially will have the space to house 24 families.  Eventually it will be increased to 48.  The Corp as well as the employees have donated to outfit the house,  Williams Sonoma donated all Kitchen equipment.  Fred Smith and his wife Diane (CEO of FEDEX) and Alan Graf and his wife  (Executive VP of FEDEX) were major contributors.  Each floor has a kitchen facility and each set of rooms has a small kitchenette.

Art plays an important role in the healing process and many artists have donated their time and art to both facilities.  We were very impressed with the entirety. 

Our quilts were graciously accepted and we were told would be given out soon - not necessarily given out at Christmas.  The gal that met us and took us around was not with the Child Life Services department, but rather more of the "Public Relations area."  When asked if there were any specific needs we could meet with the quilts she indicated she would get with Thomas' group and let us know.  She said that with the 162 current patients being of all ages, any and all quilts would are needed.  Asked specifically about the fleece pieces, she wasn't aware that those were or had been used, but would check on the need and let us know.

We were reminded that LeBonheur was started by a group much like our guild, a  ladies sewing group.  To honor that, the LeBonheur logo has been changed to incorporate a large red heart with the look of stitches around the edge.

Again this year, we felt that our efforts were very much appreciated and needed.  We would hope to see this project continue.

An area of one of the waiting rooms - the wall was a mosaic of "things" and along the top of the wall it would say "10 fish, 11 cars, 3 bugs, etc"  so it was like an I spy wall and the kids spent time trying to find the number of things written.

This is the view of Pat's trunk with 105 cuddle quilts loaded in it - there was not room for anything else!

This is the wind garden outside one of the windows - very neat, beautiful metal artwork.
They did a study to see which area would get the most wind and be most useful for this.

 

Eye Full Of Paris (Eiffel of Paris) Arts Around The Square

Well here we are in October already, and it has been a great and wonderful year for our guild.  So much has happen, many projects completed. 
In September, we showed our stuff at the "Eye-Full-of-Paris" Arts Around The Square that was held on the last Saturday in September.  That was also the day that we had our drawing for our donation quilt.  We all wanted to win this quilt but the lucky winner was. Rick Albin, who is the husband of one of our members Kimmy Albin.  What a surprise for them.  I think she will enjoy having the quilt as much as he.

See the big grin on their faces?

We has so many beautiful quilts at the fair that day, everyone worked very hard to make it a success.

Cuddle quilts some that will be donated to the Le Bonhuer Children's Hospital

Denise was so kind to let us display this beautiful quilt. 

Mildred Puckett and husband. Where's your hat?

We are a very good looking group. And this is not all of us.

We had fun at our meeting in October and lot's of show and tells, do you wonder where we find the time to do all this creating? Here are some of the items.  I did not get a chance to take a picture of all the items because my camera's batteries were low. But I was able to get most of them. If I did not get to take a picture
of your quilt, please bring it to the January meeting so that I can take a picture of it and post it on our January blog post.

Judith modeled a jacket and vest made by Stormee

I think she is a good model

Kathy shared four of 16 quilts she made this month.

Kathy has been busy

Kathy purchased this beautiful Japanese Obi

Kathy said that she bought it for the fabric.  I wonder what she is going to make

Denise shared this beautiful appliqued quilt she just finished.

Oh my all hand done.

Our hostesses for the day was Helen and Jean. Thank you for that wonderful Strawberry Lasagna. 

The Q.U.I.LT Guild At Le Bonheur

This year the guild took 91 cuddle quilts to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, in Memphis, Tennessee. It was a very nice trip, although this year we was not able to present any of the quilts directly to the children because of the new precautionary rules, but it still turned out to be a very nice trip. We got a very nice and informational tour of the center and was able to ask many questions. This was my first time going but I could see that this center has really grown.
We learned that the center started in 1950 and that it was started by a sewing (or quilting group) of ladies that would make clothes for needy children and they would also make sure that the children were seen by doctors and they would transport them to doctors appointments. I thought that was amazing thinking how big an operation it is now. They even have a motel where the families can stay that have children in hospital they do all that they can to keep families together. I will tell you this, it is really a beautiful place, with lots of artwork and playrooms for the children. I was able to take some photos and you can see what I mean when I say, "the artwork on the walls was beautiful"
Next year I hope that we can take more of our members. They really made us feel welcome and the gratitude that they showed for the quilts was overwhelming. I came away excited about another year of quilting.

I hope you can read this, it is a short story of how the Le Bonhuer came to be. If you click on the photo you will get a larger view.







I am looking forward to this next year being a member of the guild. We have a lot of exciting projects going on. Don't forget to subscribe to this blog because you are not going to want to miss out on any of our exciting meetings and projects.

About The Guild and This Blog

"Quilters United In Lasting Tradition" (Q.U.I.L.T) Guild, is a group of folks that love the art of quilting. We have all levels of quilters from beginners to advanced and we all love to quilt. Well some of us just love sewing and fabric. We get together on the 1st Thursday of each month, at 10 in the morning and we have discussions, show and tell,guest quilters,workshops each month it is a different program. Since joining the Quilt Guild, I have fallen in love with quilting and quilts. There is so much work involved but it is so satisfying when you finish a quilt.

We also make quilts that we donate to charity. We make "cuddle" quilts,which are small quilts, for children that are sick or have gone through a traumatic experience.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information about our guild. There will be photos of the quilts, exciting happenings from each of our meetings. I am sure that other quilters will find this an exciting group. Especially other quilters.
Here is a teaser of some of the quilts you will see. Some of the women in our group had a Round Robin (check out this website to get a brief definition of a round robin) and I will talk more about them in later posts. But I would like to share some of the quilts from the last Round Robin.







Enjoy our quilts and enjoy our blog.