By ROSE ALBANO RISSO

The Bulletin

Sandra Newcomb’s grandfather and two uncles were in the military. But that’s not the only reason behind the making of her original wall-hanging quilt design in red, white and blue called “All Hearts Come Home for Christmas.”

It’s the children and families who go hungry who, for the last five years, have inspired her to create a quilt around the holidays. With the help of Ladybug’s Quilts Shop on North Main Street, her one-of-a-kind creation is raffled off with tickets at $1 apiece or six for $5 and all the proceeds go to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Manteca. Newcomb has donated one wall-hanging every year for the last five years, except last year when she was too busy babysitting her grandkids.

Tickets are now available at Ladybug’s Quilts where the roughly two-by-three feet original design is on display. The quilt shop is open for business every day, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. the rest of the week.

Drawing will be held at the shop on Saturday, Dec. 21, around noon.

Quilter LeAnn Van Lehn who teaches classes at Ladybug’s quilted the wall-hanging. Besides being the designer of the piece, Newcomb “did all the work on the top” as well as the binding.

A Newcomb family

Christmas tradition

For several years now, the extended Newcomb family in Manteca does not do the traditional practice of giving each other gifts for Christmas.

“We don’t exchange gifts with family; we get what we need all year long. And you may want something, but do you really need it? So we all pitch in money and we go out and buy toys for Toys 4 Tots,” said Newcomb, a wife and mother and the grandmother of a baby boy and girl ages 5 months and 16 months.

She found out about the Marine Corps’ Toys 4 Tots Christmas drive while listening to KAT Country radio. Her family did their own toy collecting then brought them to Kat Country radio where Marine Corps personnel picked up the toys for the holiday distribution.

Newcomb was having “so much fun” doing the Toys 4 Tots until one day five years ago when she had an epiphany. “I kept thinking about the kids when they’re hungry. It’s all a different ball game. Kids need food more than they need toys,” recalled Newcomb.

And that’s when she started making original quilts to help her raise money for the Second Harvest Food Bank in during the holiday season. She has been averaging nearly $1,000 a year from the fund-raiser with all the money donated to the Food Bank.

But the idea of holding a drawing for her quilts and selling tickets to raise money came from her late father-in-law, Walter Newcomb. Visiting him at the hospital one day while working on one of her original quilts, he made the suggestion for a raffle drawing and added that he himself would buy one ticket.

While the quilt drawing has been quite successful, the Newcombs have not completely given up helping the Toys 4 Tots drive during the Christmas season.

“We still do that one, too,” said Newcomb who teaches quilting classes at Ladybug’s Quilts when she is not busy babysitting her grandchildren.

Tickets for the wall-hanging drawing to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank are available at Ladybug’s Quilts, 1236 N. Main St., during regular business hours. The quilt shop is owned by sisters Julie Castro and Susan Caswell, and their friend, Sherry Staples. For any other questions about the drawing, call the quilt shop at (209) 824-0485.