Shelter Animal Quilts

Aug 18, 2003 7 Replies

Hello Everyone, I guess, I'm the homeless dog and cat quilt maker. I have given nearly



300 "snuggle" quilts to our local Humane Society this year and hope to continue to provide these blankets to them and other rescues for the animals to enjoy. I guess this is also a recycling project. I use old jeans, clothes and sheets as well as fabric scraps and unwanted fabrics that would otherwise have been disguarded. If you'd like to look at a couple of these quilts, go to
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It all started last fall. I had nearly 20 years of scraps from craftprojects, (I make my family's Christmas gifts each year) and needed todo something with them. I was on the internet and ran across the"Snuggles Project" on the Hugs for Homeless Animals site,
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listed shelters and rescues that are in need of quilts and blanketsfor their animals waiting to be adopted to sleep on in the cages. Ithought that would be perfect for me. Although I enjoy sewing, I'm notvery good at it and I have loved animals all my life. I certainly don'tconsider myself a quilter, that takes a certain talent which I don'tbelieve I have. So I decided to do what I could to help these wonderful places that help these animals. For medical reasons I only work outside my home for about 12 hours each week, so I have plenty of time to spend making these small quilts, which range in size from 14x14 to 35x40. My goal at some point is to be able to have the shelters and rescues to send each dog and cat to their new home with one of these quilts. I live outside of Detroit where the need is huge. We have 4 large shelters which help nearly 85,000 animals each year and many, many rescues which house even more. I know this will be impossible but I can dream can't I? I have stopped by this forum for a little while and sometime back someone offered their scraps, so I thought that people might have scraps or unwanted fabrics that I could use for this project. I have had many kind and thoughtful people share their fabric with me and it's fun each time a box arrives. When I receive a box, I start sorting it by color, then size. I use all washable fabrics like cottons, knits, fleece, flannels, old sheets and etc. As far as size, I use any size from small scraps which get sewn together into larger blocks, medium pieces get cut into squares and larger pieces 14x14 and up are used for backing. We try to drop them off about once each month and the volunteers are always very excited to recieve them. They tell me that not only do they add color to the cages but seem to make the animals feel a little more secure in what is a scary place for many of them. We, my husband and I also try to drop off supplies along with the quilts. Many of you have wanted to know more about this project. If anyone has any questions, please post it here or email me. Thanks for your interest and support.

Jill,

Thanks for posting the website and information...turns out that there are several participating organizations in my area.....guess what I'll be doing...

Larisa

Hello Jill,

Now I have seen your quilts and I am here to tell you that you do wonderful quilting! For some reason you do not consider your ability to make these lovely little quilts as quilting. What you showed me were absolutely beautiful!!!! What you do with fabric scraps of different kinds of fabrics is wonderful. BTW I do have some other fabrics for you. Hope you still have the phone number. Or just e-mail me. With you living so close by it makes it easy to get things to you. I have some shirting and other non cotton fabrics that would be perfect for your projects.

And you ARE a quilter, do doubt about it!!!! juliasb

Tim & Jill Pochik wrote:

Larisa, Glad to hear that you too will be making these quilts for the animals in need. The wonderful thing is that the animals love them no matter the color, design or fabric. Have fun! Jill

Well, I generally work poly batting, but will use whatever has the best price. I use my Joann's 50% off coupon each time it comes. Unfortunately, that's generally only 2 per month. On the jean quilts, I use a inexpensive blanket for backing and no batting because it's heavy enough. Also I don't use batting when I use polar fleece for backing either. Most the shelters want the quilts to be able to dry fairly fast. Thanks for the interest.

Those look like perfectly wonderful quilts to me!! What do you mean you're not a quilter!!!

Questi>

Hullo Jill It is so good to meet you. Thank you for coming back to let us say hullo properly. Unfortunately, being so very far away would make it rather impractical to join in your project. However, there are plenty of shelters and rescue homes over here. I will get hold of a few, ask them what they want, and put the dogs and cats with the Project Linus ones (not that I make many; but every little helps I guess). Thanks for pointing out the need. . In article , Tim & Jill Pochik writes

Hi Terri Lee, Thanks for wanting to help. Yes, knits work great especially for backing. It wears well and washes up great. I'll be sending you an email. Thanks, Jill

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