During a stormy week in mid-March, the Murray Senior Center hosted their annual Murray Fire and Police Appreciation lunches, but something new was stitched into this year’s event. 

The Thursday Quilters, a new group at the Murray Senior Center, presented handmade quilts to the police department for use in their jobs and especially in cases involving children. 

“Before we even started quilting, we contacted Kristin Reardon [Murray Police Public Information Officer] and asked, ‘Would Murray Police like quilts? And she told us, ‘Absolutely, we’ll put them in officers’ cars, so we’ll have them when they’re needed,’” Karen Summerhays, one of the founders of the Thursday Quilters, said about the donation.

So, after many months of stitching, and over a delicious lunch of skirt steak tacos, the Thursday Quilters presented Murray Chief of Police Craig Burnett and Reardon with 15 handmade quilts. 

A quick aside, each year the members of the senior center donate funds to feed the police and fire departments. This year they expected to host 13 individuals from Murray Police and 20 from Murray Fire over three different dates, to encompass differing shifts.

“I was a registered nurse, retired at age 72, and I used to work in the emergency room,” Barbara Reynolds, another dedicated quilter said. “People would come in after a fire or after a domestic abuse situation, or even more heartbreaking, from foster care, and often they’d have no clothes.”

Reynolds lived and nursed in Albuquerque and has lived in Murray for three years. She indicated the quilts they were able to donate to people in need [in Albuquerque] were sometimes the only comforting thing they owned after leaving the hospital. “The need is great.”

Summerhays and Reynolds started the group in October 2023 and are slowly picking up members, but they would welcome more.

The group gathers on the second Thursday of every month at 12:30 p.m., to sort through fabrics, plan patterns and trade tips. No experience is necessary, and all are welcome.

The actual quilting is done at home, as most people have their own sewing machines, but the group plans to start teaching classes soon.

“We’ll continue to quilt because the members of the senior center have donated so much beautiful fabric,” Summerhays told the group assembled for the luncheon. “The quilters have donated their time and expertise, but all the fabric has come from you.” 

The quilters put out the word in the monthly senior center newsletter calling for supplies, and the fabric came rolling in.

For the quilts to be most useful for donation, the fabrics should be all cotton and washed before stitching. The ideal size for a quilt is about 45 inches by 45 inches, or lap-quilt size. 

The recipient of the quilt gets to take it home in a special fabric bag made to protect the quilt or to use for carrying clothing and personal items. “For the kids’ quilts we’ve embroidered the bags with a little patch that matches the quilt fabric,” Summerhays said, holding up a bag stitched with a cartoon dinosaur. “It will belong to them, and they can use it to carry anything they wish.” λ