A rainbow of colors adorned the pews of the Alba United Methodist Church last Thursday as Pastor Dee Bryant blessed the multi-color quilts headed, appropriately, to the Rainbow Rooms across Northeast Texas.

The 300 quilts were hand-pieced and quilted by the women of the church, who have had a quilt-sewing ministry for at least 20 years. Since 2009 they are responsible for 2,487 quilts that have been donated first to the Shriners and then to Scottish Rite hospital.

When the hospital stopped accepting cloth items during the pandemic and the ladies began looking for another recipient, they didn’t have to look far from home.

The Rainbow Room in Quitman, which specializes in clothing and other items for children who have been removed from their homes by Child Protective Services, gladly agreed to accept the beautiful donations.

The latest round of quilts was begun about 16 months ago. They range in various sizes to meet the needs of the smallest child up to teens.

Their variety of colors and themes covers the gamut.

As the ladies packed up the quilts for the drive to Quitman, they occasionally stopped to admire particular items one last time.

The quilters meet every Thursday morning at the church and come not just from the Methodist congregation but from other denominations and other communities.

Many piece the tops at home, in addition to the 2-3 hours they spend weekly at the church, where the fellowship hall becomes a sewing room.

A room just off the hall is dedicated to the quilters, with hundreds of bolts of cloth.

The group does not have to pay for its material – all has been donated.

Sometimes boxes show up anonymously on the church doorstep.

About the only expense is the batting, and they go through huge rolls of it, four to five per year.

In her blessing, Bryant noted that the quilts are a ministry that will go beyond the quilters in years and let the children know that they are never alone.