April 23, 1942

Detroit News Quilt History Project; Michigan State University Museum; Susan Salser

Detroit, Michigan, United States

A portion of a Needles for Defense column featuring a large donation for refugees.

Brings Gifts for Refugees

Mrs. Richard Seitner brought to the Needles for Defense office yesterday 13 lap robes for convalescing service men and 66 Layette articles-all made by the Ladies Aid societies of Hurlbut Baptist Church and Luther Memorial Church

Needles for Defense

By Edith B. Crumb

Shortly after the Needles for Defense Club was started, Mrs. A Klein 5328 Bewick Avenue said, you just wait, Miss Crumb, you are going to have a big surprise. Mrs. Klein had been one of our most faithful Quilt Club workers.

The big surprise came yesterday morning when Mrs. Richard Seitner stepped into my office carrying two heavy suitcases and a huge bundle.

She came as representative of the women's group of two churches- Hurlbult Baptist Church and Luther Memorial Church. The Ladies Aid of these two combined and met at the latter church and our Mrs. Klein was one of these workers.

The women of this group have delivered to Needles for Defense 12 beautifully made lap robes, the materials for 11 of which were donated by them. The other two were made of materials which we had in our own Needles for Defense office, but they were so thick and bulky that we were stumped for a method of putting them together.

Mrs. Seitner had imagination that told her something very nice in the way of lap robes could be made from these, and she was certainly right.

Mrs. Fred MacHatton of the Luther group arranged the pieces to form a geometrical... (clipping cut-off)

So much for what was in the big bundle. Next came the contents of a suitcase which contained 68 articles for baby's layettes. They were made of the finest quality of flannel and all of the little bibs, jackets and nighties were trimmed with pink briar stitching.

All the materials for these were purchased by the women and they gave all day every Thursday to work on the garments. There is a little collection each week and then a coffee collection. Each brings her own sandwiches and Mrs. Seitner appoints a different coffee maker each week, the choice being made from an alphabetical list of the members.

Quilt Club Birthdays
May 1 - Mrs. Dean Richardson, Route 2, New Kensington, Pa.; Mrs. C. A. Brake, 4714 Sheridan avenue; Mrs. Pearle Beyer, 5529 Cranshaw avenue; Mrs. Lola C. Long, 315 Glendale avenue, Highland Park; Shirley Long, 12293 Hartwell avenue.

May 2 - Mrs. Emma Sayre, 2229 Grand boulevard west; Mrs. N. J. Wagner, 2945 Baldwub avenue.

May 3 - Mrs. Violet Pray, 130 Main street East, Hudson; Mrs. Anna Hill, 4920 Maple avenue, East Dearborn.

May 4 - Mrs. Joseph Loftus, 185 Chamberlain avenue, Pontiac.

May 5 - Mrs. M. E. Allen, Route No. 2, Box 244-H, Pensacola, Florida; Mrs. W. W. Kearns, 2934 Bladwin avenue; Mrs. Marie Schultz, 115 Hildale avenue; Mrs. Elizabeth Hubbard 1304 Stewart street, Lincoln Park.

May 6 - Mrs. Paul H. Albani, 16804 Rockdale avenue; Mrs. Henry Kulick, 432 Bayside street.

May 7 - Mrs. Lucile Fournier, 6027 Grandy avenue; Mrs. Daniel Underdown, 2274 Tuxedo avenue; Mrs. Elsie Sage, 4483 Baldwin avenue; Mrs. H. Symonds 3930 Schiller place, St. Louis, Mo.​

​Courtesy of The Detroit News Archives.