Stitched with Care and Gratitude

Veterans receiving care from Hospice are enjoying an extra gift of warmth and kindness, courtesy of the Clustered Spires Quilt Guild. Every year, the Guild’s 50 or so members choose community projects to support with handmade quilts. “We always do a children’s project, but one of our members knew that Hospice has a veterans program and suggested we make that our second project,” recalled Kay Rice, the 2022 chair of the Guild’s community service committee.

As a retired pastor, Kay has seen firsthand the care and support that Hospice provides to patients and their families. “Hospice is close to my heart,” she said. And because several of the Guild’s members have family who also served in the military, it became a project that spoke to the entire group.

Over the course of the year, the Guild created 38 quilts (with some members creating more than one) and presented them to Hospice in November. The quilts, which were carefully designed to avoid colors that might trigger PTSD in some veterans, were finished with a custommade label featuring the American flag and the word “Veteran.” “We wanted them to know the quilts were made especially for them because they were veterans,” Kay said