The long-reaching touch of Loving Hands

The Glendale Quilt Guild reaches out to people in surrounding cities as well as those across the country with its Loving Hands project.

Closer to home, members sew small quilts for newborns in intensive care units at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center and Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. Larger quilts are donated to the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study based at UC San Diego.

The group leaders provide members with material and batting, and they sew the quilts at home, said chairwoman Pat Golditch of Glendale. They bring back the finished projects to guild meetings, which are at 6:30 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month at Glendale Central Library.

“When I retired 10 years ago and looked for volunteer opportunities and hobbies, I found that Loving Hands rolls both of those into one,” she said. “I love to make quilts, and you can only use so many in your home or give them to family, so what better thing to do than to give them away.”

Of the guild’s 183 members, about 100 take part in the Loving Hands project, Golditch said.

They also send quilts to domestic violence shelters and facilities for homeless families. In Burbank, they provide quilts to the Family Service Agency and Family Promise of the East San Fernando Valley.

Farther from home, the group sent 60 quilts to the Missouri Tornado Relief in June 2011. They sent 25 quilts to Fort Collins, Colo., for the victims of the wildfires in June. They also sent five to a family in Illinois that lost its home in a fire.

“It’s extremely gratifying,” Golditch said. “People are so appreciative of new things that are made by someone else because they put a lot of love into it.”

To donate to the project, contact the guild though its website, www.glendalequiltguild.org.

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JOYCE RUDOLPH can be contacted at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.