Creative Hideaway donates quilts to oncology patients

A business in Dorchester helped bring comfort to the oncology department at Marshfield Clinic by donating 36 quilts to the patients on the floor.

Creative Hideaway in Dorchester sponsored a Quilting for a Cause event in which volunteers set out to turn piles of scrap fabric into quilts that could be used by the health system. Carol Sackman, owner of Creative Hideaway, said she was happy the bin of scraps in her store were put to a good use.

“I had all these scraps in bins,” Sackman said. “The bins were just full and what do you do with all these scraps? I asked the girls if I donated the fabric for the top which was those scraps, if we could cut them into strips and make them into quilts.”

The top of the quilt was just a part of what was needed for the quilts as she got the batting and backing donated as well.

Once Sackman had all the materials for the quilts, the work was just beginning. A team of 12 or so volunteers spent hours on weekends and evenings creating the 36 quilts over six months. Volunteers came from Marshfield, Spencer, Ogema and all places in-between working on the quilts in Dorchester.

“It was the many volunteer hours that made the quilts and put the binding and stuff on them,” Sackman said.

Sackman was able to find a place for the quilts to go by networking a past experience into a donation opportunity.

“We have helped the Colby Library with their Maddie Day and my stores have come up and helped with that. The contact that they have at the Marshfield hospital and the volunteer service said that they would like these lap quilts to give to people when they’re going through cancer therapy. So there was a request within the department which started it all.”

She also said a motivation for donating the quilts to the oncology department came from her volunteers, some of whom have had personal experiences with cancer in their past.

Sackman said she was thankful for the group of people that banded together to make this charitable donation a reality and gave a special shout out to Crystal Ludwig of Crystal Clear Quilting for her generosity throughout the process.

“I would like to thank the volunteers who helped make them and Crystal for the quilting and the businesses for the monetary donations for the batting and backing of the quilts,” Sackman said. “We couldn’t have done it without all of your help and support.”

Although this was the first “Quilts for a Cause” event, Sackman said she would like to put on the event in the future as well.

“It’s such a big project because like I said, we worked on it for six months. I’m not saying we’ll do this every year, but maybe every other year. But we would certainly take donations for that cause.”

Upcoming, Sackman said Creative Hideaway recently had scraps donated by a furniture store that will be turned into carry bags for medical patients at a local hospital.

If you would like to find out more about Creative Hideaway, quilting opportunities or events like “Quilt for a Cause,” stop by the store at 640 East Business County Road A in Dorchester or follow them on Facebook.