Wrap A Smile Quilts

When I agreed to take over leadership of Wrap-A-Smile several years ago, our founder (and my mentor) Terry said the first thing I must do is join the Sunshine Online Quilt Guild .   So I did, and I have been forever grateful! This group of generous, creative, supportive quilters have been sharing quilts with us for over 20 years. Many of the quilts are collaborative efforts…individual blocks made by some, tops completed by others, and then the final finishing or long arming completed by others. As they say, “it takes a village”….and what a wonderful village we have! Today’s gallery of quilts arrived in a surprise package last evening.  I know some of the quilts came from Sunshine’s monthly “block lotto”.  Quilters from around the country send in blocks bimonthly, with themes that vary from year to year. Blocks are distributed to lotto “winners”, and then others jump in to help turn these fun blocks into quilts.     ENJOY THE QUILT SHOW      ...

An explosion of color! I was thrilled to receive and open three, huge boxes, full of colorful, happy, joyful quilts!  Thank you to our friends at Zion United Methodist Church in New York for their beautiful handmade quilts.  They will be on their way to California and off to children around the world soon with upcoming Rotoplast missions.  We appreciate all of you who donate to Wrap-A-Smile!   -Paige    Spring! Rainbows! Smiles!  

I just received word that Rotaplast has more upcoming missions than I had realized….but now they are running low on quilts! 😳   Yikes, we can’t let that happen!  When Terry founded Wrap-A-Smile , she pledged that every Rotaplast patient going forward would be wrapped in a hand-made quilt at the time of their life-changing surgery. And for over 20 years we have met her challenge! Let’s keep it going!! It’s time to rev up your machines and spread the word among your friends.  This is also a great opportunity to bring more quilters into our network. Let’s share the joy! As many of you know, when the pandemic struck and medical missions were put on hold, we had a generous supply of quilts put into storage.  But missions have resumed, and are increasing in number each year.  Almost all of those stored quilts are now providing love in their forever homes…and we need to resupply! A favorite size for smaller patients is 40 x 48-ish, with quilts up to 60 in length for ...

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 ...