By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Children who go to St. Luke Hospital’s emergency room get wrapped in loving warmth, thanks to an anonymous quilter.

The Marion woman, who gives quilts anonymously, started the project five years ago.

Her inspiration came from a Wichita friend who also loves quilting.

“I have a friend who makes them and donates them to an orphanage in Wichita,” she said. “She’s in a club, and that’s what they did.”

She liked that idea, but instead of sending quilts to an out-of-town orphanage, she wanted her quilts to go to a local project. After considering the possibilities, she contacted St. Luke CEO Jeremy Ensey, who liked her idea of providing quilts for children who are treated in the emergency room.

She took up quilting as a hobby in her 50s, at a stage of life when there is more time for a pleasurable hobby. At first, she made quilts for family members and started giving them as gifts for births, weddings, birthdays, graduations and such mile marker life events.

The quilts she makes for the hospital, usually 50- or 60-inch squares, are made from fabric scraps left over from quilts she makes for family members.

“It’s just a hobby that keeps me busy and gives me something to do,” she said. “I quilt a while, I read a while, and I nap a while.”

Despite the fact that she stays quiet about donating quilts to the hospital, she sometimes hears about them as she’s out and about in the community and someone mentions that a child in their family was given a quilt.

Her all-time favorite quilt is one her grandmother started but didn’t finish before she died. She took the partially made quilt and finished it years later.

She said many other quilters she knows choose a pattern, then buy the fabric they believe will work best for that pattern. She does it the other way around.

“I do it the other way — I see beautiful material and decide what to do with it,” she said.