Incredible short doc---"Quilters"

[Jilly_in_VA]

Last edited Thu May 22, 2025, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

This is one of the best, most heartwarming documentaries I've seen in a long time. It's about a group of long-term prisoners, some lifers, who make quilts for foster kids in the Missouri foster care system. I about cried watching these men and the care they took with their projects and with helping each other. It's amazing, and only 33 minutes long. If you want to see what "caritas" in action looks like, don't miss it.

[CrispyQ]

1. Thank you! I'm gonna check this out!

My grandmother was part of a quilting ring & more than once the ladies set their quilting apparatus up in her living room. They would sit & sew with their thimbles on & chat & laugh. One woman was in charge of changing the music on the record player. Good memories. My mother got a baby-sized quilt when my sister was born, with yellow ducks on it. I'll have to ask my sister if she still has it.

[Jilly_in_VA]

4. There was a woman in a church I once attended

who made baby quilts and gave one to every new baby in the church. I still have my Sam's baby quilt, and he will be 55 in July! Thank you, Grandma Rose Sprecher!

[CrispyQ]

6. Wow, lucky you! That's a sweet tradition!

Every year my library has a quilt exhibit & it is fabulous! It's one of my favorites of all their exhibits.
Someone judges them, a committee I suppose. Not sure I could pick a favorite there are always so many stunning & creative ones!

[Srkdqltr]

2. There are hundreds of quilters who every day sew quilts for charity.

Our guild donates hundreds of quilts a year to folks in our area.
There is a group around Toledo Ohio who make and distribute thousands of homemade quilts to hospitals and charities.
Some are taken to distribute in disaster areas for comfort and cheer.
This has been going on for years all done by women together.
Some together and most on their own time at home.
Most make them with their own purchased fabric. At their own expense.

[bif]

3. A friend of my wife's friend directed it.

I need to see it. Her film "Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops" is also supposed to be excellent.

[KarenS]

5. I just watched this yesterday,,,,

Quilting and doing for others brings good feelings

[Jilly_in_VA]

7. It does indeed

It made me think of the series about the prisoners who trained dogs to become service dogs. I think prisoners should all be involved in this type of thing rather than being used as slave labor. It would certainly enhance rehabilitation, and isn't that what prison is supposed to be about?

On another similar topic, there is, somewhere, a documentary on the hospice program at Angola prison in Louisiana, where prisoners care for other prisoners with terminal conditions. I watched that some years back and this old nurse was moved to tears. With the population of the elderly increasing in many prisons due to life sentences, I would think this program should be in all prisons.

[SharonClark]

8. I enjoyed it.

Some of the quilts were damn ugly, simple, and poorly designed. Others were good enough to win prizes at the state fair.