Ronald McDonald House Charities
Sibling Closet
Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) supports families during medical crises by keeping them close to their children’s care. Recently, that support expanded to siblings through a new Sibling Closet, offering handmade quilts and pillowcases to bring comfort during difficult hospital stays.
The Sibling Quilt project was launched by Marty and Brandy Warthman, a mother-daughter team and active members of the Heart of Ohio Quilters Guild and the Wish II Quilt Guild, with support from fellow quilters. Beginning in August 2025, children staying at RMHC while a sibling receives treatment at Nationwide Children’s Hospital can choose a quilt or pillowcase to keep—each one handmade, colorful, and designed for a variety of ages and interests.
The Sibling Closet is intended to be an ongoing effort, and the Warthmans hope more quilt guilds will join in creating items that provide warmth, comfort, and a sense of belonging for children during a challenging time. Quilts and pillowcase donations are welcome from anyone who enjoys sewing or crafting.
Click here to see the Sibling Closet Quilt Requirements
Learn more about the Closet story here.
Honor Flight Quilts
for Honor Flight Columbus
Honor Flight Columbus is an official hub of the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to honoring America’s senior veterans. Its mission is to provide veterans with a free trip to Washington, D.C. to visit the memorials dedicated to their service and sacrifice. Beyond the trip itself, Honor Flight Columbus helps veterans share their stories, celebrates their service, and gives them the meaningful homecoming many never experienced when they first returned home.
At the conclusion of the 2025 flight season, Honor Flight Columbus had completed 148 missions, serving more than 10,900 veterans. The organization is fully funded by donations from businesses, foundations, schools, and individual supporters. Learn more about Honor Flights here.
The Heart of Guild supports Honor Flight by providing quilts to keep the veterans warm on their flights and to provide comfort and reminders of the day long after they arrive back home. For Honor Quilt size and other requirements contact Diane M at honorflights@heartofohioquilters.com
Community Cares Quilts
Open Sew Day 2nd Friday
Community Cares Quilts are made for individuals and families experiencing adversity and are in need of the warmth and comfort of a quilt. This is just one of the ways our guild shares our love of quilting with our community. The recommended size is a minimum of 60″ x 72″, however, we will also accept lap quilts.
Community Cares is an open friendship group for members and friends to meet and sew. Please bring your traveling sewing supplies, sewing machine, and a project to work on.
We meet in the fellowship hall of the Newark Baptist Church at 1000 Granville Road, Newark from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. Please enter through the west rear door. Come join us!
For more information, contact Community Cares.
Hugs from the Heart
Our Hugs from the Heart quilts are adorned with hand-sewn appliqued hearts to remind the recipient they are cared about and loved. Members applique hearts to blocks during guild meetings or on their own. The completed blocks are then given to the Hugs from the Heart chairperson. These appliqued blocks are combined with pieced blocks to form the guild’s special Hugs from the Heart quilts. Members can request a quilt for anyone who is experiencing a life-altering circumstance. If you have a specific time frame, the chairperson will gladly supply the materials and/or pattern for your use.
Most of the fabric is donated, and volunteers do the assembly. Hearts, needles, and thread are usually on the tables during guild meetings. The guild provides for the cost of the backing, batting, and the cost of quilting. Quilts are approximately 54” x 66”. Kits are available at most meetings. Request forms are available in the member’s section or contact the chairperson.
For more information about the Hugs from the Heart service project contact Hugs.
Dear Wonderful Ladies, The quilt you made me is so beautiful. I can feel the warm hugs from each one of you and feel the warm love in each stitch you took. Thank you
Thank you so very much for the beautiful handmade quilt you made for our family in honor of our daughter. It’s beautiful and a very special blessing knowing your hard work and long hours of love went into making this quilt! May God bless the work that you do. Thank you so very much!
Dear Renie and the Heart of Ohio Quilters Guild, We just wanted to say thank you for the beautiful quilts you donated to emancipating youth. For teens who have very little to call their own, these are an incredibly special gift. Please know that the quilts will be treasured and put to good use. Thanks for all of your hard work. What an amazing gift!
Quilts for Kids
Quilts for Kids is dedicated to transforming fabrics into patchwork quilts to comfort children facing serious illness, injury, trauma, or loss. Children come in all sizes, so quilts of all sizes are needed. Whole cloth, panel, simple strips, or any pattern works great. Quilts for Kids accepts donations of fabric, batting, backing, and quilting. Quilts are generally the width of fabric by 40” in length as a general size for starters and you can make quilts up to twin size 65”x 93”. Finish the quilt your favorite way. Members can designate where they would like the quilt to go and the committee will make certain it reaches their chosen destination. For more information please contact Quilts for Kids.
Quilts of Valor
The Quilts of Valor Foundation’s Mission is to cover Service Members and Veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.
QOV is a national quilting effort that has distributed more than 430,000 quilts since 2003, the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Quilts are awarded to all branches of the military. Heart of Ohio Quilters Guild is a QOV Member Group. Click here learn more about Quilts of Valor.
Quilts of Valor reflect the best possible workmanship and use of quality materials. This is consistent with the Foundation’s core value of promoting excellence. As a result, Quilts of Valor have some specific requirements:
- A Quilt of Valor is to be large enough to cover an average-sized adult, with an ideal size approximately 60” x 80.” Finished size can be no smaller than 55” x 65” and no larger than 72” x 90.”
- The Quilt consists of a top, batting, and backing. It must be machine or hand quilted. A tied quilt is not acceptable for a Quilt of Valor.
- QOVF Members in good standing may request quilting of their tops by a LongArmy Volunteer, free of charge.
- Backings provided to The LongArmy Volunteer must be 8″ wider in width and 8″ longer in length.
- Use quality, low loft batting such as cotton, cotton blends, polyester or polyester blends. Quilting should be appropriate for the quilt and not overly dense, which can reduce the loft of the quilt.
- Double fold, also known as French Fold, binding is recommended for durability. Hand stitch or neatly machine stitch binding.
- A Quilt of Valor must be labeled as such, and include the name of the veteran or service member. See QOVF Policies and Procedures for additional information.
- Most QOV are some combination of red, white, and blue although this is not a requirement.
Heart of Ohio Quilters’ Guild Support of Quilts of Valor
Heart of Ohio Quilters’ Guild became involved Quilts of Valor in 2005 and members stitch about 30 quilts each year for this effort. The QOV chairpersons receive fabric for this project donated by the guild’s members and our community. Quilt top kits are available at meetings for members who wish to stitch a top while some guild members create their own quilt tops and provide their own fabric. Any tops not quilted by the members are sent by the chairpersons to the QOV Longarmy, a group of volunteer longarm quilters who will quilt the tops to the backing and return the quilts to the Guild. Once returned, members bind the quilts, launder them, provide a label, and a presentation case. A letter from the guild accompanies each quilt. The QOV Foundation provides a list of nominated local recipients and the quilts are awarded by QOV chairpersons.
For more information about this national effort, see the QOV website at www.qovf.org
For more information about the guild’s involvement, contact Quilts of Valor.
Pattern suggestions for QOV can be found in the rotating boxes below. Please respect the pattern designers and do not use any pattern for your own personal gain. There are additional block and quilt patterns on the QOV site.
