Station Stitchers

Goal: $2,000.00

Specific Need

We are a 100% volunteer organization. The fabric we use in the quilts comes almost entirely from donations. However, we have core operational costs that require cash. We are asking for donations to support these core operational costs: rent and utilites for our small studio, batting to provide warmth, and thread to quilt the quilts.

We are careful stewards of the funds donated to us. in past years, our heritage-quality quilts cost only about $35 dollars each to make with the primary costs being those listed above.

We are always looking for new volunteers. We welcome inquiries from expert sewists and those with no sewing experience at all. We also welcome donations of 100% cotton quilting fabric, quilt tops, and sewing machines. We service these machines and then sell them to raise funds for operating costs.

Mission

Station Stitchers makes quilts to provide people in need in Loudoun County with a sense of comfort and care. Working with local organizations, we give quilts to uninsured and underinsured mothers and their new babies, children in foster care, seniors in nursing homes and low-income housing, those in hospice, the homeless shelter, those in emergency situations, and others.

Profile

Since its founding in 2011, Station Stitchers has donated more than 4,200 quilts to human service organizations in our community. In these volatile times, needs for comfort throughout the community are higher and our quilts are wanted, needed, and cherished more than ever. Our volunteers have responded to these need. In 2023, alone, we created over 700 quilts for donation. Recipients of our quilts in 2023 included Blue Ridge Hospice, Good Shepherd NOVA Homeless Shelter, Inova Ewing Forensic Assessment and Consultation Teams (FACT), Inova Loudoun Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Inova Medical House Calls, Inova Cares Clinic for Women, Loudoun Child Advocacy Center (LAWS), Loudoun Foster Care (Upside Down Moments), Loudoun Homeless Shelter, and Tree of Life

Beyond the quilts that we create and donate, we also work to provide the following things:

1) Encourage ongoing volunteerism: Our volunteers range from ages 14 to 99. Some of the youth in our area are having their first volunteer opportunities working with Station Stitchers. Station Stitchers is a 100% volunteer led organization with no paid employees. There are many different opportunities for volunteers at Station Stitchers.

2) Foster the spirit of giving in our community: All materials and equipment used to make our quilts are funded through generous monetary and in-kind donations from the community. Others are sold to raise funds to buy needed supplies like batting and special thread for our long-arm quilting maching and to pay for our ongoing operating expenses.

3) Provide educational opportunities in the heritage art of quilting to our volunteers and members of the community.

4) Provide a safe haven for our participating volunteers: The Station Stitchers’ studio provides a place of friendship, mentorship, creativity, and inspiration for everyone who enters its doors. Our long-arm quilters work daily at the studio and many sewists also work there making backs for the quilts and doing finishing work. Our largest group of volunteers support our mission doing home-based sewing. We support our volunteers with fabric, quilt kits, and sewing supplies for their home activities.