Volunteers in Cape make 210 quilts for homeless over weekend

FRED LYNCH ~ flynch@semissourian.com

The finished "ugly quilts" are wrapped with men's neckties.

Cindy Spaeth, left, and Jeanette Buchheit connect the layers of a quilt Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011 at the DePaul Center in Cape Girardeau. Volunteers made the 84-inch-square quilts pieced together from mismatched donated fabric during the annual Ugly Quilt Weekend sponsored by St. Vincent DePaul Christian Service group and the Council of Catholic Women. The quilts are stitched on three sides to make a bedroll with 150 of them going to St. Louis for use by the homeless. The Salvation Army will receive some and the Cape Girardeau Police Department will get one for each patrol car. The quilts are intended to last one season. The concept of emergency sleeping bags was originated by My Brothers' Keeper Quilt Group "to help the homeless be warm until they can be helped or healed by others in our society." Over two days, 210 quilts were made, a record number, by 115 volunteers on Saturday and 80 workers on Sunday.