Marla Welch works on hand-stitching a quilt Saturday morning at her home in Lawrence. When finished, the quilt, along with the dozens of others that surround Marla, will be donated to children at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Marla Welch keeps a folder filled with about two dozen handwritten thank-you notes from people she’s never met.

Some — with large, round print — are written by children.

Others are penned by their parents.

But all thank her for the same thing: a hand-knit quilt given to them when they were sick.

Welch is the founder of Pieces, a group that makes quilts for donation to the pediatric department at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Because of her multiple sclerosis, Welch said, she had to stop working but started Pieces in 2010 to give herself something to focus on.

“I think that everybody has something to give, and this is my chance to give to someone else,” she said. “In return, it’s also giving to myself.”

Any child admitted overnight at LMH is given one of the quilts. Four-year-old Leah D’Alfonso received a quilt when she was recently hospitalized with the flu. Ann D’Alfonso, Leah’s mother, said the quilt helped her daughter feel more comfortable.

“We were unable to go home to get any of Leah’s night things,” she said. “It gave her something to hold onto.”

The Kaw Valley Quilters Guild donates several quilts per month, but Pieces volunteers make the majority, Welch explained. The group usually has about a dozen quilters participating at any time, and each quilt takes at least 20 hours, depending on the size, Welch said.

“If it were not for the help of the generous people that jump in and are willing to give their time and their talent, I certainly couldn’t do it,” she said.

In the five years it’s been in operation, the group has donated more than 800 quilts to LMH. Welch said an important aspect of the group is that volunteers spend as little or as much time as they want and can do an entire quilt or one step in the process.

Shelly Hornbaker, who has been a Pieces volunteer since the group started, credits that flexible structure with the project’s success.

“I think the fact that people are still participating is a tribute to Marla, of keeping people involved to the level that they want to be,” Hornbaker said.

Welch named the group in reference to all the pieces of fabric that go into making a single quilt, but over time the name has gained additional meaning for her, Welch said.

“I’ve found out as I’ve gone along in the process that not only was I putting pieces together to make a quilt, but I was kind of putting the pieces of my life back together and finding who I used to be before my MS,” she said.

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