FARMINGTON — Maine Mountain Quilters donated 11 quilts and pillowcases Tuesday to an expanding homeless shelter in Waterville. The shelter provides for people from Franklin, Somerset and upper Kennebec counties.

The Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter will move into a newly constructed two-story building on Colby Street next month — expanding their bed count from the present 20 to 40 beds, said Juanita Christian, shelter volunteer.

Christian met members of the local quilting group, Anne Wehrman and Sylvia Yeaton, Tuesday at Pins N’ Needles Quilt Shop in downtown Farmington to receive a large bag of quilts and cases made by the 40 members of the group.

Cheri Tompkins, shop owner and a charter member of the Maine Mountain Quilters, machine quilts several of the quilts made and given to families in crisis through the group’s Comfort Quilt project, Yeaton said.

Wehrman and Yeaton “make sure there’s a stash(of quilts) available” to donate in an emergency. Last winter, a family of four received quilts after fire took their home, Yeaton said.

About 80 quilts were gathered or created within a three week period to send to Japan after  the tsunami there, Tompkins said.

Individual members donate their work and the group works on quilts together.

When the homeless shelter sent out emails to area quilting groups in Franklin and Somerset counties, the Maine Mountain Quilters were happy to respond.

Christian, who previously lived in Farmington, said some donated quilts will adorn shelter beds while others are given to children who stay at the shelter to keep for themselves.

“One out of every four people staying at the shelter is a child,” she said. “The quilts will give a nice, homey feeling to the shelter.”

After three-years of fundraising, the new shelter is nearing completion, Bob Steinberger, resource director explained. The goal is to settle in and open in September at a location across from the District Court.

The shelter, developed by the Waterville area Council of Churches over 20 years ago but not a faith-based venture, has seen an increase over the last few winters. A second site, a church basement, has opened to handle the overflow of people and families needing night shelter, he said.

Steinberger and other volunteers work with shelter participants to create a plan and the resources “to put their lives back together,” he said. The plan includes housing and obtaining financial assistance for more permanency and stability in their lives.

The new space may provide day programming and classes to explore things like health issues and career development.

“We’re trying to figure out what we can do with the new building,” he said.

The shelter has served people from Farmington, Wilton and Phillips and other towns in Franklin County.

Dependent on the generosity of donations from local churches and the community, the shelter also maintains a food bank that opens one day a week.

Community volunteers and student volunteers from Colby and Thomas College help run the shelter, Christian said.

Maine Mountain Quilters share their love for quilting, each other and their communities through the quilt donating program, Yeaton said.

When a family lost their home one winter several years ago, the group decided to make a quilt donation “to help comfort and warm the family while they recovered from their loss,” she said. That was the start of more than 80 quilts donated to families in the Farmington area during difficult times.

abryant@sunjournal.com

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