Spreading the love

Published 5:19 pm Wednesday, March 12, 2014

MIKE VOSS | DAILY NEWS GENEROUS QUILTERS: Judy Cole (left) and Joan Erie display two of the many quilts members of the Pamlico River Quilters Guild made and donated for distribution to charitable groups in the region.

MIKE VOSS | DAILY NEWS
GENEROUS QUILTERS: Judy Cole (left) and Joan Erie display two of the many quilts members of the Pamlico River Quilters Guild made and donated for distribution to charitable groups in the region.

Stacks of colorful quilts of myriad designs and sizes covered table after table at the Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center in Washington on Wednesday.

The quilts would not stay there long. They’re on their way to places like the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center in Washington, the Ronald McDonald House in Greenville, the Coastal Pregnancy Center, River Trace nursing home, Ridgewood Manor nursing home, Vidant Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Willow Meadow rest home.

“We donate them to seven different charitable organizations,” said Judy Cole, one of the co-chairwomen of the guild’s annual charity event.

Cole was assisted with the event by Sue Wingard, the other co-chairwoman, and other guild members.

Representatives of some of the charitable organizations observed as guild members accepted donated quilts, sorted them, folded them and placed them at each charity’s designated space on tables. Even guild members accustomed to seeing excellent quilting work took time every now and then to admire and comment on specific quilts they deemed to be extraordinarily beautiful.

Some quilts exhibited traditional quilt patterns hundreds of years old. Other quilts provided more-modern designs that incorporate brilliant colors (think DayGlo paints), strange geometric configurations and designs that feature fish.

Guild members donated 110 quilts. They also donated adult bibs, walker bags (for people who use walkers) and crocheted hats for babies born prematurely.

The event is a way for guild members to give back to the community that supports them, Cole said. The guild regularly raffles donated quilts to raise money for projects, including one that raised funds for the Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center. The guild also presents regular quilt shows that are open to the public and where guild members have their work judged. Those shows over the years have produced numerous award-winning quilts.

 

 

 

 

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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