Community Outreach

Our community outreach program consists of making and donating “Cuddle Quilts” to the children receiving care at Rady’s Children’s Hospital and staying at the Ronald McDonald House.  In 2023 Sunshine Quilters was recognized by Ronald McDonald House Charities San Diego as a Bronze Level Community Champion.

We began our Cuddle Quilt program in February 1988, donating the quilts for children who go through the YWCA’s Battered Women’s Shelter with their moms.  In July 2000 we were named “Volunteers of the Year” by the YWCA for our contribution of quilts. We have also donated quilts to women treated at East County Transition Living Center Domestic Violence Shelter and to children at an orphanage in Tijuana.

In 2023 we decided to engage the community in our program.  Guild members sewed signature blocks, and we set up a booth at the Gaslamp Quarter Historical Foundation’s Fall Back Festival.  We invited Festival goers to decorate the blocks by writing a message or drawing a picture.  These blocks were then sewn into Cuddle Quilts and presented to the Ronald McDonald House for the children.  One of these quilts hung at the 2024 Road to California Quilter’s Conference & Showcase. We expanded the program further in 2024 by having a booth at the San Diego County Fair and again asking Fair goers to decorate blocks to be made into quilts for the children at Ronald McDonald House.

The quilts are made by members of the guild with fabric from their own stash or with donated fabric. The many donations enable us to produce beautiful quilts at minimal cost to our guild. Members meet at least once a year for a “Sew-in” to make Cuddle Quilts and we have longarm quilters in the guild who will machine-quilt tops that are turned in unquilted.

In addition to the cuddle quilt program, Sunshine Quilters have sewn bags and pillows in support of local women beginning their breast cancer treatment journey. During the pandemic members sewed masks for various charities.