Nephi resident Margaret Peterson and her sisters Brenda Hoskin and Nelda Morrison know the value of serving others. They get together regularly to work on various projects—most involving sewing or quilting. Their latest project involves sewing blankets for a blind orphanage in the Philippines and another orphanage in Samoa. An anonymous sponsor has agreed to cover the cost of shipping to get the blankets to their destinations.
While each of them live several freeway miles from each other, Margaret and her sisters don’t let physical distance keep them from getting together regularly and using their talents to improve the lives of others. Margaret calls Nephi home, but Brenda lives in South Jordan and Nelda lives in Chubbock, ID.
Their sister-in-law, Carlene Hardy, also enjoys helping with family projects whenever she can. She lives in Reno, Nevada, and donated a lot of fabric to the current orphanage blanket project. Carlene was even able to complete 11 blankets before the other sisters even had a chance to begin. This, she did even with a detached retina and no vision in one eye.
“(Carlene) just loves to sit and serge the edges of these little quilts because she can do them quickly,” Nelda remarked.
The sisters got involved in their current service opportunity after hearing about it from Nephi resident Clint Robertson. Robertson, who is also a business owner, helped build a children’s counseling center on the Campus of Hope in Samoa with his son, Blake, in August of 2024. When told about the project from Robertson, the sisters learned that orphans in Samoa and the Philippines often don’t have a warm, soft place to sleep.
That’s all they needed to hear to know they wanted to make a difference in those young kids’ lives.
“I think one of the biggest rewards is just the thought of some child cuddling up with a warm blanket, Margaret explained. “I mean, I can’t imagine. A lot of times, they just lay the babies on the ground, and I think those little babies need something to hold.”
The larger blankets Margaret and her sisters complete will be shipped to elementary-aged kids in the blind orphanage in the Philippines, while the smaller ones will go to the babies and toddlers in the Samoan orphanage.
The “quilting sisters” have a goal to complete 30 blankets by April or May, when they plan to have the blankets shipped to Samoa and the Philippines. They’re already very close to meeting or exceeding their goal.
When asked how they got started with their service-oriented lifestyles, all three sisters agreed that it was simply passed down to them.
“Because our mother did it, we just thought it was what you did,” Brenda said. “The aunts and Grandma always had a quilt on somewhere. Our great-grandmother broke her hip and was in bed, and she kept my aunts cutting fabric for her. She sat in bed and would sing and hand-piece the quilts.”
“I can remember threading a whole pincushion full of needles so that she had needles and thread when she needed them,” Nelda added.
“Our great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, aunts, everybody quilted,” Margaret chimed in. “So, we’ve always quilted. It’s just always been something our family has done.”
Though Margaret and her sisters are exceptional seamstresses, they want others to know you don’t have to be good at sewing to make a difference in someone else’s life.
“Everybody has a talent, and you can find someplace to use it,” Nelda stated. “There’s all kinds of projects you can do. My husband started building birdhouses because Clint had scraps of wood. And I can’t tell you how many birdhouses he’s built and given away, and people are just thrilled with them.”
To some, it might seem like exhausting work to constantly make quilts and blankets for others, but to Margaret and her sisters, it’s very fulfilling.
“To us, it’s not work,” Margaret said. “It’s just something we enjoy doing.”
While there is no official plan to take on another project following this one, the sisters said that if they hear about a service organization that needs blanket donations, they try to help. They have sewed quilts for veterans, donated quilt tops to women’s shelters, and sent blankets to Project Linus.
