2026 Charity Sewing Days
Sewing Days will be on Westminster Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 2155 University Ave, Dubuque, IA from 10:30 am - 4:00 pm. Unless noted below.
Upcoming Dates:
January - None
February-TBD
March-TBD
April-TBD
May-TBD
June-TBD
July-TBD
August-TBD
September-TBD
October-TBD
November-TBD
December-TBD
2025 Stitches of Love — End of Year Report Jane Petersen, Dubuque/Tri-State Coordinator
The Dubuque Stitches of Love project, which began in 2004, is proud to have completed its 22nd year of service to the Dubuque/Tri-State community. The mission of Stitches of Love is to make adult-sized headwear, free of charge, for local cancer patients and to distribute them through two treatment centers: MercyOne Dubuque Cancer Center, 150 Mercy Drive, Dubuque IA 52001, and Grand River Medical Group, Oncology Department, 350 N Grandview Ave, Dubuque IA 52001. From 2004 through 2025, we’ve made and donated a total of 5929 hats. In 2025, we donated 262 hats with the time and talent of 5 volunteers. These 262 items were lovingly made with over 786 hours of volunteer time. The total hats donated include: 34 hand knit, 215 hand crochet, 0 pillbox hats (knit, T-shirt, fleece, sweatshirt, slouch hats), and 13 kerchiefs/scrub hats. We used the following volunteer number of hours to make the hats: hand knit (3), hand crochet (3), pillbox (1.5), and kerchief (3). These times include any laundering, ironing, transportation, etc. Our donated hats were made by individuals that worked in the comfort of their own homes and/or as part of a group. Groups that participated in 2025 included the Cable Car Quilters Guild (Dubuque). Two of our 2025 volunteers are members of CCQG and they made 111 of the 262 hats that included 333 volunteer hours. We accept finished adult-sized hats and donated supplies such as yarn and fabric that meet comfort criteria. Sometimes crochet scarves and neckwear are donated to us and these items are passed on to the oncology treatment centers. We received several preemie/baby/child-size hats and baby afghans and they were donated to Mercy’s neonatal & pediatric units (Dubuque) and local elementary schools. Also, several donated crochet afghans found homes at Shalom, MercyOne Dubuque Cancer Center, and the Tri-State Dialysis (Dubuque). Stitches of Love revenue primarily comes from personal donations. In the past, the American Cancer Society has donated leftover Relay for Life t-shirts. These t-shirts continue to be recycled into kerchiefs, slouch hats, and pillbox hats. We received no monetary donations in 2025, but did receive several miscellaneous individual donations of fabric, yarn, and batting from current and former CCQG members and community volunteers. One former CCQG member donated a huge bag of miscellaneous yarn which is being used to make knit/crochet hats. One community member donated several bags of hand-spun & hand-dyed wool/wool blend yarn. So far, thirty-three knit & crochet were made out of this sock/DK yarn. These hats will be given to the ACS Navigator to pass out to selected chemo patients to see if they can (hopefully) tolerate wearing hats made out of this wool/wool blend sock yarn. Also, the owner of Dubuque Sewing & Vacuum (Dubuque IA) donated a used serger in 2022 and she helps keep it in working order for us. We use the serger to help construct the kerchief hats.
Finally, a big THANK YOU goes out to everyone that supports Stitches of Love in some way.
