“We collect fabric from people. And you know these scraps could turn into a quilt, and welcome a Habitat family into their home.”
Marti Fruend was first inspired to create quilts for Habitat families when she attended a Habitat home dedication, a celebration where a hardworking family receives the keys to their new home.
At Habitat Tucson home dedications, community members donate in-kind gifts to new homeowners. Along with home toolkits that include paper towels and tools, books for young children to stack in bookshelves of their new rooms, a quilt made by Voyage RV Quilters 2 or other community members has become a staple of the dedications.
Marti has been quilting for 7 years and noticed the quilt at the dedication right away. “I was touched,” she says. “And there were four kids, and I thought, I wish they could each have their own quilt.”
She decided to join the Voyager RV Quilters Guild, which has over 100 members.
“We fill a room to absolute capacity,” Marti emphasized. The group of quilters is made up largely of snowbirds who wanted to join a charitable quilting community where their quilts would be donated to various organizations. The quilters share their handmade treasures with somewhere between 20-30 nonprofit organizations across Tucson. Together, they create over 100 quilts a year.
“I really committed to it,” Marti says. “I pledged 12 quilts and made a quilt a month. I wanted all of mine to go to Habitat.”
“We collect fabric from people,” says Marti. “Sometimes people start quilts they aren’t interested in finishing, and we’ll finish it for them. Some people donate scraps when their grandparents pass. And you know these scraps could turn into a quilt, and welcome a Habitat family into their home.”
Marti was inspired to create quilts based on the families she was quilting for.
“I made one for a vet specifically—and I made a Quilt of Valor with a patriotic theme.” Marti even remembers receiving a note from him thanking her, and that gesture has been incredibly meaningful to her over the years.
She knew the love and care she poured into her quilt had transformed his house into his home. Marti shows that at Habitat Tucson, you don’t have to lift a hammer to help!