Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 6, 1994 TAG: 9401060287
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: E-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY BELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But it's for a good cause, so she perseveres.
Taylor leads a group of Roanoke women participating in the nationwide Warm-Up America program. Using scrap yarn in a variety of colors and patterns, the women knit and crochet squares that will become blankets for the needy.
In the old-fashioned quilting bee tradition, they gather occasionally to attach the squares, creating cozy blankets.
"It takes some of us back to war days," said the Penn Forest grandmother. "Women working in groups, knitting, sewing, working for the cause."
Always on the lookout for community service programs for her cronies at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church, Taylor walked into a needlework shop at a beach resort last summer and found what she was looking for.
A flyer outlining the Warm-Up America program caught her attention. She brought the information home and shared it with her church friends and others who volunteer with her at Meals on Wheels. Nearly everyone she spoke to liked the idea, and a group was formed to make the blankets.
Taylor's group has no quotas or deadlines. They see the project as an ongoing community service to serve a variety of people: babies, shut-ins, the homeless.
"Some of the members are really going to town," Taylor said. "It is great that people are giving wool, making squares."
Warm-Up America was born a few years ago when Evie Rosen, owner of a needlework shop in Wisconsin, was searching for a use for scrap yarn. Rosen also wanted to help the homeless.
With the help of The National Needlework Association, which publicized the program in trade publication, thousands of squares were made all over the country.
Warm-Up America blankets have been distributed to victims of Hurricane Andrew and to countless others, said Elaine McAron, southeast director of the program.
"People have embraced this all over the country," she said.
Thousands of squares are produced each year through her North Carolina needlework shop, which is the southeast clearinghouse for Warm-Up America. At one point, pallets were required for storing all the squares of one group, and volunteers were called on to sew the blankets together.
"I think this program is symbolic of how each of us, working together, can contribute to a worthwhile effort," McAron said.
"Some people make one or two squares, and others do much more. Most of the work is really beautiful. And it's all done with the same caring attitude."
Taylor said the Roanoke group doesn't expect to receive thousands of squares from the community. Instead, she would like to see other local groups organize their own blanket-making efforts and find people who need the blankets.
"Let the spirit move you," she said. "There is no end to what you can do."
To learn more about Warm-Up America, write: The National Needlework Association, 650 Danbury Road, Ridgefield, CT. Also, McAron's needlework shop accepts squares, which can be mailed to: The Needlecraft Center, P.O. Box 1652, Davidson, N.C., 28036.
by CNB