The Northern Lights Quilters Guild presents 25 quilts to Melfort Salvation Army Captain Rick Robins. (Submitted photo/Kathy Gray)

By Angie Rolheiser

SEW GENEROUS

Northern Lights Quilters Guild warming community with donations of blankets

Mar 19, 2021 | 1:00 PM

The Northern Lights Quilters Guild continues to provide quilts to organizations in the northeast.

A donation of 25 quilts was made to the Melfort Salvation Army on Thursday for the family services ministries and disaster assistance.

President Betty Wallaker told northeastNOW they also make regular donations to the hospital for cancer patients and to the local women’s shelter.

“We usually take about 20 to 25 at a time to the hospital,” Wallaker said. “The shelter, we take 25 to 50 per year and we will donate to them again in the spring.”

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They are also able to donate to the hospital on demand depending on those who are receiving cancer treatments.

The group meets on the first and third Thursday of each month at the Kerry Vickar Centre (KVC) in Melfort. Along with the community donations, members enjoy being able to socialize and sharing quilting tips and techniques.

In the last year, 70 quilts have been donated to those in need, despite the group having a pause on meeting with the public health guidelines in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We were closed for a while but we started back up and make sure we are distancing and wearing masks,” Wallaker said. “While closed, we did a lot of quilting at home so we could keep going.”

Wallaker said they also recently finished a memorial quilt project for late member Dianne Duguay.

“We got a donation of $100 in her memory so we decided to do a quilt and donate it to the library,” Wallaker said. “Diane was an avid reader and an avid quilter and the library was one place we had never donated to before.”

The Northern Lights Quilters Guild stitched a quilt in memory of late member Diane Duguay. (Submitted photo/Kathy Gray)

The quilt will be on display at the Melfort Public Library in the coming weeks.

The guild of over 25 years currently has 20 members that range in age from 60’s to 96 years.

“We are just a group of devoted women that love to sew and to give,” Wallaker said. “We are always open to having new members join as well.”

A community grant helps to pay rent and to purchase backing and batting for the quilts.

“We do accept donations of quilting cottons. We do not do denims or fort trail because it is too hard to machine quilt those fabrics,” Wallaker said.

Anyone wishing to donate can do so by calling Kathy Gray at the KVC, Betty at 306-752-4908 or Vice President Grace Wilton at 306-752-3211.

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angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser