The Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay provides all the inspiration a quilter might need — at least the Olde Kent Quilters think so! Founded in 1995 and based in Chestertown, MD, the guild has 70+ members whose quilting styles range from very traditional to modern and skill levels from beginner to expert. Guild activities include a monthly program and workshop, two annual retreats, road trips and shop hops. Some members also meet monthly in one or more of the guild’s four bees to pursue interests in applique, reproduction quilting, hand-stitching and creative design. The guild’s charity quilting program, Deborah’s Angels, has donated more than 2500 baby quilts to various children’s hospitals, social service organizations and disaster relief efforts since its inception in 2004. The guild hosts a quilt show and market every other year as well as an exhibit of small quilts every year at Heron Point.
Guild meetings are held on the third Tuesday of the month (January – November) at the Presbyterian Church of Chestertown, 905 Gateway Drive, Chestertown, MD, at 3:00 p.m., January through March, and 6:30 p.m., April through November. Annual dues is $35. Visitors are welcome. There is a guest fee of $5 ($10 for selected speakers). Non-members may attend the guild’s workshops on a space-available basis for a fee $10 above the member fee.
Community Outreach
The Story of Deborah’s Angels
Information gathered by Charlyn Fisher in January ‘23 from Nancy Caldwell, Sue Coleman, Susan Lester, Elisabeth Tully, Kate Brown, Gail Newman, Lisa Fields, Bobbi Pippin, and Bobby Sutton.
Deborah’s Angels is one of the Outreach projects of the Olde Kent Quilters, Chestertown, MD. Its purpose is to provide baby quilts to the community. That community included every child born at the then Kent and Queen Anne’s Hospital. With the demise of obstetrics at that hospital upon it becoming part of the University of Maryland system, the quilts were then distributed through the local pediatric office. It has also included quilts sent to locations of disaster, as far away as Japan. Another local benefactor has been Compass Hospice’s Camp New Dawn, a camp for bereaved children. More benefactors are listed below.
The guild budgets for fabric and/or batting purchases but the program also incorporates donated fabrics into the mix which has led to adult fabric being used to make lap throws for residents in the local senior care facilities. The finished quilt size is approximately 40” x 40” for two reasons: it is a baby (or lap) quilt and with that size the backing does not have to be pieced!
A charter member of the guild, Shirley Lesko Baldwin (1925-2010), a teacher in Kent County, started the Deborah’s Angels program in 1999 as a memorial for her daughter, Deborah Baldwin Walls (1954-1998). According to a memorial written in the 2010 guild directory upon Shirley’s death Deborah was “a teacher who devoted years of help and service to her students and people in need. Deborah was ‘a true angel on earth.’” Cancer took her life in 1998 and the next year Shirley recruited 8 “friends to continue Deborah’s work. Many hours were spent making quilts for terminally and chronically ill children and young adults.”
Past Recipients:
Kent and Queen Anne’s EMTs
Maryland State Police, Centreville
Social Services, Kent County
Autumn Lake Nursing Home, Chestertown
Compass Regional Hospice, Centerville
Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital, Baltimore
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
Ronald McDonald House
2011 – St. Martin’s Ministries, Ridgely, MD
2011 – Christiana Hospital, Wilmington, DE
2011 – Newborns in Need, Saltillo, MS
2011 – Bear Hugs for Babies, Rehoboth Beach, DE
2011 – Japanese Earthquake Relief
2011 – Tornado Relief, Joplin, MO
2011 – Chester River Hospital Center, Chestertown
2013 – Flood Relief, High River, Canada
2016 – Dr Freddy O. Araujo, Chestertown Pediatrics
2016 – Cecil Head Start
2016 – Dr. Boria’s Office
2018 – Healthy Families
2018 – Queen Anne’s County CARE
2018 – Kent Family Center
2011, 2018 – A.I. Dupont Children’s Hospital, Wilmington, DE
2020 (?) – Animal Care Shelter of Kent County
2021 – Kent County Health Department
2021 – Camp Fairlee
2019, 2021, 2022 – Compass Regional Hospice, Camp New Dawn
2022 – Chester River Manor, Chestertown
2018, 2022- CASA
2022 – Children who Sue Coleman supports
2023- CASA, Queen Anne’s County Family Center, Kent County Family Center