Baby Lock Celebrates 10 Years of Building Quilts for Love: Over 500 Quilts Donated to Local Hospital

PADUCAH, Ky. - April 2, 2015 - PRLog -- PADUCAH, KY—April 2015: Every year, thousands of quilters from around the country flock to Paducah, Kentucky for the annual AQS Quilt Week. This year, those who stop at the Baby Lock booth hosted by Calico Country Sew & Vac, will take part in the 10-year anniversary of the Building Quilts for Love program.

Building Quilts for Love is a program that was started in 2005 to encourage people to donate their finished quilts to a good cause. Baby Lock retailers have picked up the program to host quilt block classes and encourage customers to donate. Chuck Clark of Calico Country Sew & Vac has used Building Quilts for Love to focus on one main cause: “Friends of Anna”.

Clark’s niece, Anna Lamczyk, inspired “Friends of Anna”. In 2010, Lamczyk was diagnosed with T-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoblastic Leukemia. When Clark visited her at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, he noticed many children sitting alone in their rooms. Understanding the comfort that a quilt can bring, Clark asked his customers to create quilts that they could donate to the children’s hospital.

Since its inception, Clark has provided some room for Building Quilts for Love at each AQS Quilt Show. To date, there have been over 500 quilts made through the program by Calico Country Sew & Vac quilters alone. Clark encourages customers each year at shows as well as at each of Calico Country Sew & Vac’s locations. “The quilts have gone to Cardinal Glennon patients, children’s homes, and local children with cancer or other life threatening disease,” Kristen Lamczyk, Anna’s mom, said.

The quilts always excite the children, and perhaps they have a bit of healing power, too. According to Ms. Lamczyk, Anna is doing extremely well. “We are very blessed,” Lamczyk said. “She began treatment in September 2010 and has just been released from her doctor to visits every six months (which is a really big deal).”  Anna never let the cancer slow her down either. She has straight A grades, and she keeps busy with piano lessons, dance, gymnastics, and the responsibilities of being a big sister.

“Cardinal Glennon is an amazing hospital and they truly have given Anna the best possible care. We are very grateful for Cardinal Glennon. They take wonderful care of their kids, and their parents, too.” Because Calico Country Sew & Vac has a connection with Cardinal Glennon, they continue to support its programs through Building Quilts for Love. However, the Building Quilts for Love program can be adapted for any charitable efforts. Baby Lock retailers across the country have the opportunity to cater the program to their own needs. Whether they encourage quilting for local or national organizations or simply a neighborhood quilt giveaway, the message remains the same. Quilts warm us on the inside and out.

Attendees of the 2015 AQS Quilt Show and Contest in Paducah, Kentucky can join in the Building Quilts for Love fun. The festival takes place at multiple venues, but the Baby Lock Building Quilts for Love station will be in booth 1124. The show is April 22-25 with single day admission at $11 for American Quilter’s Society members and $14 for non-members. Two-day and multi-day passes are also available.

About Baby Lock:

Baby Lock has been a leader in the sewing industry for nearly 50 years. The company brought the first home serger to the market in 1964, and since then has introduced patented features to the world of serging. Baby Lock also offers a full line of other products that enhance the love of sewing, including easy to use sewing and quilting machines, embroidery products, exclusive software and industry-leading education, service and support programs.

Numerous celebrities in the sewing industry prefer Baby Lock machines, like Nancy Zieman, host of the PBS television show “Sewing With Nancy”. Similarly, Quilters Hall of Fame inductee, Eleanor Burns, represents Baby Lock’s quilting line of machines. Additionally, Baby Lock machines are on set of Fons & Porter’s “Love of Quilting” hosted by Marianne and Mary Fons. Other “sewlebrities” such as Jenny Doan of the Missouri Quilt Star Company, blogger Lindsay Wilkes, and more are all proud Baby Lock users.

For more information, visit www.babylock.com.