Pequannock sewing group makes hundreds of quilts to keep the homeless warm

Rose Phalon spotted the homeless woman wrapped in plastic garbage bags to keep warm on 9th Avenue in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood a few days after Christmas when sub-freezing temperatures suddenly hit the region.

Phalon, of Pequannock, sprang from her car and offered help. The woman didn't want to go to a shelter. And so Phalon and her husband Joe gave her a newly-made quilt to help battle the elements.

"I had this sickening feeling watching this woman out on the street in that weather," Phalon said. "All I could do was help keep her warm."

The quilt was one of 702 that Phalon and members of her burgeoning group, Quilting For A Cause, had made in 2017 and given to someone in need.

Phalon's group has grown to dozens of volunteers after starting off with just 11 family members sewing quilts in her living room last year on the weekend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

On Saturday they were back at it with a 24-hour "sew-a-thon" to mark their anniversary by making as many quilts as possible from 10 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday at Pequannock's Senior House on Newark-Pompton Turnpike. This time dozens of volunteers from North Jersey showed up after the group's work spread through social media.

Dozens of sewing machines - from a 1939 Singer Featherweight to newer model with an LCD screen - whirred non-stop Saturday afternoon as 50 volunteers sewed, ironed and cut fabric.

It's become a true community effort. Local restaurants provided free food and drink. Girl Scout troop 81679 was set to sew well into the night. And the local Boy Scouts troop was due to come by Sunday morning to help clean up and put the tables and chairs away.

"We're always looking for ways to serve others and this made perfect sense," said Karin Pilaar, a Girls Scout troop leader who came up with the idea of a 24-hour quilting session.

Eileen Deming-McNabb, Phalon's niece, was at the first quilt making session a year ago. Looking out over the dozen volunteers working Saturday, she said she was amazed at how quickly the effort had grown.

"We made 17 that first weekend and then we ended up making 702 for the year," said Deming-McNabb, who traveled from Albany with her 12-year-old daughter Nora. "It was only 11 of us at the beginning and now look at this."

The group's quilts have been sent to shelters in New Jersey, to Texas after Hurricane Harvey, and as far away as Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. But most will be taken into New York by Joe Phalon during his commute to his second-shift journalism job in midtown. He passes the quilts out to the homeless during his 15-block walk from the office to Penn Station late at night.

Making a quilt is labor intensive. One quilt can take seven to 10 hours. Organizers hoped to make at least 25 twin-sized quilts in the 24-hour period.

Saturday's crew, which included everyone from grade-school students to senior citizens, operated like an assembly line with cutters, sewers and those manning the iron all doing their job. They set out to make their quilts for the homeless with the same quality as if it were a gift to a loved one. "Everyone in this world deserves to be treated with dignity especially those who are out on the street," Joe Phalon said.

The group works throughout the year and hands out quilts even in summer. "They can lie on them when the ground is hot or roll them up and use them as a pillow," Rose Phalon said.

Rose Phalon said she recently received a comment on her group's Facebook page that maybe she wasn't really making a difference in the lives of the homeless. She scoffed at the remark.

"I'm a quilter. I've been doing this since I was a young girl," she said. "Maybe I can't change the world, but I can make someone a little more comfortable. Outside of getting married and having children, I have never done anything that has made me feel better."

Anyone wishing to donate fabric or to volunteer with Quilting For A Cause can contact Rose Phalon at 973-534-7936 or rosephalon@aol.com.