Not even done with their current project, they are already planning out the next several projects, what items they can make to donate to various area charities and organizations.

“If all else fails, we can do more children’s quilts,” Elaine Kramer notes.

Kramer and Phyllis Greenlee, 63, both of Kansas City, Kan., along with Carol Stuckwisch, 81, of rural Bonner Springs, meet for about three hours every Wednesday morning to create items at Sunflower Embroidery, which allows them the use of its sewing machines and thread for their projects. They don’t have a name for their group’s efforts; they do all that they do in the name of keeping busy and good will toward others.

Greenlee, says she is constantly amazed by her friends and what they have been able to do in the past couple of years.

Caroline Boyer

“They have taught me so much, and we’re such a good group, the three of us,” Greenlee said. “We have put out more once a week for three hours than a lot of people (ever) do. We have put out so many quilts, so many stockings, so many pillow cases and stuff in our little time together, but we enjoy each other’s company so much, too.”

Greenlee says she unintentionally got the group started about two years ago after she learned about an area church group that was making quilts for a children’s charity. She was looking for a creative outlet because her cancer treatments left her unable to do her favorite activity, decorating cakes.

Greenlee told Rita Hurt, the owner of Sunflower Embroidery, that she wanted to make some quilts to donate, and Hurt offered the use of her sewing machines and some supplies. Hurt also told two of her other good customers, Kramer and Stuckwisch, about the idea.

“They said, ‘Well, we want to do that, too,'” Greenlee said. “We just decided to meet once a week here.”

By the time the trio finished that quilt project, they decided they were having so much fun together, they would find something else to sew and donate.

Caroline Boyer

“We cleaned out our own material and then started to get donations,” Greenlee said.

When it comes to material donations, the group insists on working with 100 percent cotton materials and asks that donations be clean and larger pieces if possible. Anything that they don’t want to work with, they donate to Hidden Treasures Thrift Shop next door to Sunflower Embroidery.

Over the summer, they donated quilts to the Leavenworth County Sheriff’s Office to give to children they encounter on cases. Last month, they donated 60 Christmas stockings to Heartland Hospice, and their current project is pillowcases for the Tonganoxie Nursing Center.

“I’ll tell you, I think a pillowcase would brighten a lot of people’s thoughts,” Kramer said.

Greenlee said people also seem to appreciate the fact that the items are hand-made.

“The nurse that picked up the stockings said that you would be surprised how much the people think about that, that someone took the time to make it,” she said.

The women say they are pretty faithful about coming once a week.

“We always look forward to Wednesday,” Kramer said.

“If we didn’t have fun, then we wouldn’t do it,” Stuckwisch added. “Then it would become work.”

Greenlee credits the group’s work with helping her fight her cancer.

“If I am thinking of other people and doing for other people, then I don’t worry about me so much,” she says. “And my doctor says that my attitude is one of the reasons I’m still here. Somebody just asked me what my prognosis was, and I said ‘Dead two years ago.’ I’m here longer than I’m supposed to be, but I think trying to help other people has really been good for me.”

Donations for the sewing group can be made by contacting Sunflower Embroidery at 913-422-4501.