Roaring Fork Quilt Guild sews ‘Cozy Quilts’ for cancer patients 

Chattering voices, the hum of sewing machines and the soft cadence of laughter filtered down the hallway leading to one of Valley View Hospital’s conference rooms on Friday.

Armed with scissors, miniature irons, bundles of cloth, and sewing machines, a dozen members of the Roaring Fork Quilt Guild were busy working on their new community project, Cozy Quilts for Cancer. 

Formed from a convergence of former quilting clubs the Needle and I in Carbondale and the Quilters of the Rockies in Glenwood Springs more than a decade ago, the Roaring Fork Quilt Guild brings quilters — and those who would like to learn — together in the name of charity projects. The arrangement is a win-win for all the members: They quilt to benefit the community.

“For me, because I work full time, I don’t have a lot of outside friends, so this has just really become a friendship. We all talk to each other and figure (quilting techniques) out,” guild member and Community Coordinator Nancy Eide said. 

“It’s cool just to get together and … try to make something beautiful, and they always are beautiful,” she later added. 

Guild members craft one-of-a-kind quilts by cutting fabric squares and piecing them together using a variety of quilting patterns. Some, like Joni Goodwin, guild president, joined as complete beginners, while others have decades of experience.

“It’s a lot trickier than regular sewing,” Goodwin said. “I’ve sewn for designers and all that stuff, and this is different. It’s very exact, and it’s fun. I also totally enjoy the aspect of charity giving — we have a charity project every year that we do.”

For the past few weeks, the guild’s 25 active members have been hard at work piecing together lap quilts with fleece or flannel backings for newly-diagnosed cancer patients who receive care at Valley View’s Medical Oncology Center of the Calaway-Young Cancer Center.

 It’s so the new patients “know that there are people out there who care about them, and you’re not alone in this,” Eide, the guild’s community outreach coordinator, said. 

This year’s project was inspired by her, who is also the valet manager at Valley View.

“I see cancer patients coming in all the time, and a lot of the ones, they’re going through chemo, and they say, ‘it’s freezing,'” she said. “But it’s not that the hospital is freezing — it’s the medication of the chemotherapy that affects their body, so they’re freezing. So that’s why we decided to do the Cozy Quilts.”

The quilts each cost around $125 in materials alone. The 50-quilt project, sponsored in part by Valley View, which donated $2,000 for materials, will cost around $6,250 in materials. The rest of the funds come from guild members’ pockets.

So far, 22 quilts are finished, and eight have been given out. 

“They’re just so touched by it and that somebody cares enough about them to do this on their own time; it’s a really cool thing,” Eide, who was present for two handouts, said. 

She hopes that Cozy Quilts for Cancer will turn into a long-term project for the Roaring Fork Quilt Guild. 

In the meantime, the guild always needs new members — especially those who can add batting — as well materials to offset costs. 

Needed materials include:

• One yard each of three coordinating 100% cotton fabrics to make “Three Yard Quilts.”
• One yard or more of 100% cotton fabric in bright colors
• Two yards or more of flannel and fleece fabric for backing. 
• 45 mm rotary blades
• Quilt basting spray 
• Heat erasable pens for fabric 

All donations can be dropped off at Valley View Hospital’s valet. Contact Eide at 970-618-3740 or nanoeide@hotmail.com for more information.