Craft groups keep Good Neighbor Center residents warm

Summerfield Craft Club, Estates group keep making quilts, afghans

By Barbara Sherman

The Regal Courier, Jun 24, 2010, Updated Jun 24, 2010

Barbara Sherman / Regal Courier

GETTING CRAFTY — Members of the Summerfield Craft Club, including Evelyn Yardley (left front) and Karen Bachofner (right front), meet every Tuesday to work on projects and enjoy time together. One of their projects is making quilts and afghans for families staying at the Good Neighbor Center in Tigard.

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The Good Neighbor Center in Tigard is the beneficiary of not just one but three Summerfield groups working to help the families who pass through there.

The center provides emergency shelter to families who develop a plan for success and then work to complete it to get themselves on track toward self-sufficiency

Volunteers are the backbone of the Good Neighbor Center and as they are the equivalent of three full-time staff members, they allow it to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.

In addition to the Summerfield Women's Golf Club raising money for the Good Neighbor Center, two craft groups help center residents by donating handmade afghans and quilts.

"I think it's safe to say we have made and donated approximately 100 in the past five years," said Sharon Hughes, a member of the Summerfield Craft Club.

Members of that group as well as a group at Summerfield Retirement Estates make squares and turn them over to Marian Skorupa, an Estates resident who turns them into finished quilts and afghans.

"They said they needed someone to put the squares together, and I said I'd do it," said Skorupa, who also makes crib quilts and has been putting together regular-sized quilts and afghans for about 2 ½ years. "I thought it would only be a few, but they keep coming. The ladies here like making the squares because it gives them something to do.

"Bedding is always needed, and it's a good thing to donate. I was originally told to make the afghans six squares across, but I found it works better to use seven for the twin-bed size. I have a twin bed, and I always lay them on it when I'm done to make sure they fit."

According to Skorupa, twin-size quilts take 63 7-inch-by-7-inch squares, and she arranges them in colorful and coordinated patterns.

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