Anna, My grandmother had 8 children, all married, and tons of grand and great grandchildren. She had a tiny house by the time I knew her and in her living room she sat on the couch, with a card table in front of her, with piles of scraps on it making crazy quilt blocks. Even with all that family, the little quilts she made, stitched by hand, were for orphans, not us. My sisters and I would crawl under the table and sometimes she 'dropped' scraps and we picked them up and gave them back to her. When I was a young adult, I made quilts for birthdays, for weddings, for baby showers-- for family and friends. Recently, I took up the hobby again after a long time away from it. I'm a grandma now and I want to walk in my grandmother's footsteps. :-) I would like to start sewing quilts for orphans, but I haven't done it yet. Hope to one of these days though! So far I chose to give to a local pregnancy services group that helps un-wed mothers who have chosen not to abort their babies. We get a dresser and fill it with diapers, baby clothes, quilts!, etc. We give car seats, cribs, bottles and formula, etc. (If this type of thing interests you, I would imagine, there is a Catholic church in most areas that can direct a donor to where they can help in this manner, because Catholics strongly hope that babies don't get aborted and they want to help women who need help in this way.) Another thing I do is I save all my fabric trimmings, selvedges, threads, and scraps too small to be sewn. When I have enough, I use them to fill a doll body or animal body. I know polyester fiber fill would be softer, but I had the idea to use my clippings, so that's what I do. When I have a little pile of toys, I bring them to the local hospital. By the time my son was 4-years-old he had had 5 operations. He was given a toy one time-- I could bring some things from home for him to play with or do as he lay quietly in the hospital bed-- but he did like the little stuffed toy he got. Some people knit hats for the newborns at the hospital, but I make toys for the children ward... Here's a link for making quilts for kids in hospitals:
http://quiltsforkids.danemcoweb.com/about/ I'm glad you have children and it's fun to hear about where your quilts go! :-)