August 2025 ~ Members of the Community Quilts Committee with 160 quilts donated to Head Start for the beginning of the school year
Left to right: Mary Bess, Regina Bacon, Judy Chambers, Carmen O’Brien, Pam Lindquist, Bonnie Coffman, Patirica Wood. Not pictured – Eleanor Gieger, Vicki Naumann, Serena Mylcreest, Nancy Foro
Community Quilts Booth at our Quilt Show 2022
Left to right: Mary Bess, Eleanor Geiger, Pam Lindquist, Regina Bacon, Patricia Wood, Carmen O’Brien, Bonnie Cauffman, Vicki Naumann. Absent: Serena Mylchreest
Giving Back to Our Community
Many small quilts are supplied to Olympic Medical Center for their comfort care program. Each child attending Head Start has his or her own quilt for floor and nap time. Quilts are given to family members of new Habitat for Humanity and Peninsula Housing Authority homes. Serenity House and Sarge’s Place are offered quilts for their residents. Nonprofit organizations request and receive beautiful quilts for their fund raising efforts.
Quilts made by SBS members for the
Clallam County Child Advocacy Program (formerly known as CASA)
JOY QUILTS
Our long standing and successful project of Joy Quilts was initiated in 2000 by member, Loretta Bilow. Joy Quilt Bundles are distributed by Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club to a variety of organizations throughout the Olympic Peninsula bringing comfort to children during difficult times, when experiencing trauma, or an unwelcome transition in their lives. Members of our club help meet this need by creating Joy Quilts–small, handmade quilts that are then wrapped around a plush animal and tied with a ribbon. As many as 40 plush toys are needed monthly to keep the project going.
This year, KSQM 91.5 FM radio station kicked off 2026 as a Sequim location to collect donations of new or nearly new toys during the months of January and February with announcements on air about our project. They also have included announcements of businesses in the area that serve as collection sites. So far this year businesses that have assisted in donation collections are the Full Moon Candle Company and A Stitch in Time Quilt Shoppe in Sequim. And in Port Angeles, donations have been collected at J Ryan Salon & Boutique, Swain’s General Store, and Kindred Collective. A local non-profit,The Red Hat Scarletts also collected plush toys as one of their projects to donate to us. The Eastern Star Group also made a donation.
If your business or organization would like to help with our continued need for plush toys, you can contact us by email sunbonnetsuequiltclub@gmail.com. Use Joy Quilts in the Subject line.
HEADSTART QUILTS
For the beginning of the school year SBSQC, through Community Quilts, was able to continue our commitment to provide quilts to kiddos enrolled in Head Start. The Head Start program provides our area’s most vulnerable children a smooth transition to “big school” through developing the children’s skills in literacy, numeracy, language, and social and motor skills. The local Head Start Director, Tammy Lidster, received parental permission for us to see the happy faces of a sample of the 85 children who received quilts from us.
Tammy Lidster, Executive Director of olyCAP (Olympic Community Action Programs) visited us at our monthly business meeting on August 9, 2023. She gave us an informative presentation of how Head Start works, who benefits and how our quilts help kids on their journey to kindergarten. On that day, SBSQC donated 152 quilts to Head Start for these children. It was an inspiring sight to behold!
PENINSULA BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
In early September SBSQC donated 21 quilts to the Peninsula Behavioral Health Program for the residents of the Arlene Engel Home.
Peninsula Behavioral Health (PHB) is recognized as Clallam County’s primary resource for behavioral health and substance use disorder counseling. Last year their staff of 150+ provided care to over 3,000 of our local neighbors including almost 900 children. PBH is a private, nonprofit community mental health center primarily funded through a combination of state and federal dollars. PBH is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. PBH has a 19-bed assisted living facility and three other supported living homes in the Port Angeles community.
Their assisted living facility, Arlene Engel Home, is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Staff provide supervision and support for residents as well as prepare all meals, laundry assistance, and medication monitoring. People who live in their supported living homes receive care and support while maintaining their independence. The residents of these homes manage their daily activities, medication, and use of public transportation with the support of their Community Support Staff.
Residents in both settings have individual service plans with goals developed to improve their functioning skills level while managing their mental illness.
Community Quilt Patterns — Click on picture for pattern download
