Mask making new focus for local quilting group

By TAYLOR BROWN

tbrown@yourmvi.com

Mon Valley quilters have a plan to get through the COVID-19 pandemic: keep sewing.

The Mon Valley Quilt Club, chartered in 1988, has been helping charitable causes for decades.

Along with sewing blankets for women’s shelters, pillowcases and lap robes for patients at area veterans’ facilities, to dignity robes for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, Linus quilts for ailing children and knitted wool helmet liners for troops, the group has been hard at work on its latest project.

The club has more than 50 members, men and women, who have been sewing masks for residents and essential workers across the region.

“I wanted to make sure people were covered, we knew home health agencies were having a hard time finding them, so we first donated to three different home health agencies in the area, and it just took off from there,” said club member Jackie Ingram, who has sewn 304 masks.

The group has been filling requests from organizations and individuals.

“So far we have made 1,329 masks, and we’re still sewing,” she said. “All of the masks made have been donated to just about everywhere, or anyone, you could think of.”

The group has sent masks to personal care homes, food banks, hospitals, pharmacies, group homes, restaurants and gas stations.

“We just want to get as many out to the places and the people who need them,” Ingram said. “Using our talents to give back is the core of what we do. We love it.”

Some members in the group have put their creations on their porches with signs telling people to “please take a mask.”

The masks vary in type, fabric and pattern.

“Some of the material was given to us, but a lot of it is material that we bought or had in our stash,” she said. “As quilters, we have a lot of fabric.”

With fabric in abundance, the group doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon.

“We just keep sewing,” Ingram said. “Everyone is working on their own and when they finish a batch they drop them off to a local agency or bring them to me and I take them.

“We know how important it is for people to wear masks right now, so we will keep making them as long as we need to, for as many people as we can.”

Some members of the group are making items to make the masks more comfortable.

One woman made stretch headbands with large buttons on them for workers to use to place the elastic instead of going over their ears.

The headbands were sent to J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va.

Other donations have been sent out of state to hospitals and personal care homes in Florida.

“We all just kind of jumped right in and got to work,” she said.

Each mask takes about 40 minutes to sew, depending on the type, Ingram said.

Some have filters, while others do not; some masks have elastic to wrap around ears, while others can be tied; and some masks have pockets to put extra filters inside.

“We are doing just about everything,” she said. “And we are having fun doing it, though our fingers may be a little tired.”

The group meets monthly at the YMCA in Carroll Township, but has not met since pandemic caused a stay-at-home order.

Members, who range from teens to those in their 90s, keep in touch through e-mail, phone calls and their Facebook page, MV Quilt Club.

The group is accepting new members of all ages and experience levels.

“We are a great group,” Ingram said. “And most importantly, we have a lot of fun and help people who need it most.”

Experience is not necessary to join.

“It does not matter if you have ever sewn anything,” she said. “We’ll teach you everything we know as long as you are willing to learn.”

The group’s next big event, a showcase of personal projects, will be held September 2021.

For more information on the club, or to donate, email Ingram at ingram.jackie@comcast.net.