Wrap A Smile Quilts

Ann recently blogged that we are now well-supplied with WAS quilts for the next year.  Part of the reason for her grateful post that is that we received a shipment of 40 gorgeous, colorful quilts from the sewists at Zion United Methodist Church in Macedon, New York just this week!   I had so much fun opening this "present" and thinking about the joy they will bring to the Rotaplast patients worldwide!   Wrap-A-Smile remains ever appreciative of your quilted in love donations.           -Paige

It’s time to celebrate a victory lap as we thank all of our wonderful, generous quilters who have helped us uphold a longtime pledge.  When our founder Terry Hodskins dreamed of the Wrap-A-Smile mission, she pledged that we would make sure that every future Rotaplast patient would be wrapped in a handmade quilt at the time of their surgery.  Twenty three years later, we are still meeting that goal. When the Covid pandemic struck, stalling overseas medical missions, we faced an uncertain future.  When would the Rotaplast doctors be able to resume providing care…..?  If we stopped collecting quilts, would our network remember WAS when we someday needed quilts again? Fortunately the medical teams are back traveling the world, and every time we worry about whether we will have enough quilts, a surprise delivery arrives.  Generosity and goodness abound! With heartfelt thanks I can report that we are now well supplied with WAS quilts well into the next year! Thank yo...

I had the pleasure of a visit from Ann D. this weekend for my Intro to Quilt Packing lesson.  I am not sure if any of you remember but I joined Wrap-A-Smile as the Northeast Coordinator right as the pandemic started.  So even though I have been working with WAS for four years now, I  have never packed quilts to send to the Rotaplast storage facility in California.  Now that their missions to families worldwide have resumed in full force, it is time to get WAS quilt inventory restocked! The night before my instructor's arrival, I laid out 108 quilts that had been accumulating at my house for the past 10 months.  I continue to be amazed by the creativity, color and variety of the quilts that you send.  Here are some photos of the quilts I have recently received from quilters in the New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  By Luann By Carmen, Paige and Cathy By Jan and Joyce Steve and Ann came to Exeter on their way to western New Hampshire and we had a delightf...

I had a delightful adventure towards the end of August.  I was invited by Cheryl Klausman from Evergreen Quilters, based in Kennebunk, Maine, to give a short presentation on Wrap-A-Smile, to introduce myself to the quilters after the pandemic break and share what we do with their newest members! Not only did I pick up 19 quilts that will soon be on their way to Rotoplast, I presented to several quilters that have been involved in this organization from the beginning!  Terry Hodskins, a member of Evergreen Quilters and the Rotary Club of Wells, Maine started Wrap-A-Smile back in 2001. To date, more than 28,000 quilts have been distributed.  Now, that is IMPRESSIVE! After my chat with the group, Carol Bressi and Joan Emerson reminisced and shared a few stories about Terry as well as mentioned that the group has a copy of the book that was published after WAS quilters completed a hundred T-quilts in memory and honor of Terry.  Many of the T-quilts were distributed this ...

Another longtime contributor to Wrap-A-Smile , and Rotaplast , is Tammy S in Texas.  Long before I ever knew about these organizations, Tammy was busy making her gifts of love to comfort these special patients.  Tammy is a member of the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild whose members support a variety of initiatives where comfort quilts serve as a warm hug and which let the recipients know that they are not forgotten. Her recent shipment for WAS contained this variety of fun colorful quilts. (Be sure to scroll to the bottom...there is a # that will astound you!) A scrappy quilt using colors of the Olympic flags A temperature quilt (Tammy has the code) Modeled after an afghan she admired A scrappy quilt made from a pattern in an antique scrap book Another modeled after a design in the antique scrapbook And the last two....just for fun I recently asked Tammy if she knew how many quilts she had made for WAS. She responded that over her quilting lifetime she had given away 1244 quilts ...

Another happy box of 42 quilts for Wrap-A-Smile just arrived from upstate New York.  The sewing group run by Kim V and Linda S has been contributing quilts to us for more than 20 years!  Kim and Linda, who lead a group of sewists at Zion United Methodist Church in Macedon, New York, have also brought many others into our network over the years.  We are so thankful both for the loyalty of our longtime contributors, and for those who continue to spread the word to increase the number of quilters who help us. Since 2001, WAS has made sure that every Rotaplast patient is wrapped in a comfort quilt at the time of their life-changing surgery….30,000 quilts and counting….a remarkable achievement!! For more of the backstory, here is Kim’s post from 6 years ago, sharing how she and her group learned about WAS.  http://wrapasmilequilts.blogspot.com/2018/11/a-quilters-story.html Enjoy the latest quilt show from NY        Thank you to all who support Wrap-...

The historian (photojournalist) for the Rotaplast team which recently returned from Uganda has written a wonderful post about Wrap-A-Smile quilts, including a mention of the “T-quilts” made in honor of Terry Hodskins.  Terry was the inspiration behind Wrap-A-Smile, believing that patients would be more  comforted by a handmade quilt than a surgical paper drape.  To date, over 28,000 WAS quilts have been shared around the world. And over 100 quilts were sewn incorporating the letter “T” in memory of Terry. The T-quilts were distributed to a variety of mission locations so it’s always a fun sighting to see them in action! Please enjoy the post from Uganda:  https://rotaplast.org/2024/06/day-6-partnership/ Thinking about Terry and her legacy, I would also like to reshare a tribute to Terry, posted on the Rotaplast site after her passing.  https://rotaplast.org/2020/07/a-tribute-to-terry-hodskins/ The Wrap-A-Smile project  would not continue without the ongoing...