Helping those in need

Chair, Comfort Quilt Committee, 

Dalemead Quilt Guild

 

The Dalemead Quilt Guild, that meets at the Indus Arena east of Calgary, has been unusually busy this summer. When the devastating flood took place in late June it didn’t take us long at all to decide we wanted to help, and making comfort quilts is one of the things we do best!

Having depleted our stash of fabric and cash making comfort quilts for the Wheatland Crisis Shelter, Victims Assistance (RCMP) and the graduates of the Storefront School and Long Distance Learning programs in Strathmore, we approached a couple of local organizations for support with this project and managed to secure some very generous financial donations from the Langdon Oddfellows and Rebekahs, the Indus Live Wires Seniors Group and several caring community folk, and used these funds to buy fabric and batting. A huge vote of thanks is sent to those who supported this initiative with cash and to the kind folk at N. Jefferson Ltd. in Vancouver for giving us a most generous discount on the batting.

Our members have donated many quilts from their own private collections to flood victims in both Calgary and High River. They have worked tirelessly, along with many members of the recently formed Strathmore Guild, to produce several dozen beautiful quilts, ranging from baby and toddler size to those that fit a twin or double bed. Some of our members quilted their own work while others paid to have some tops long-armed. We have tied a few of the quilts and many have been long-armed by three of our own Guild members, Arlene of Cairnhill Quilting, Karen and JoAnne who deserve a huge bouquet of thanks for donating hours and hours of their time and talent! Thanks also go out to Donna of DJ-S Quilting in Strathmore, Bonnie Stainbrook of Bonnie’s Longarm Quilting in Calgary and to Fran of Longarm Quilting by Fran in Calgary. Then we had some ladies who took charge of getting all the bindings stitched down by hand and our Guild label attached.

Our quilts are being given to 13 Calgary EMS personnel and their children whose lives were devastated by the flood in High River and to others who resided in that community that have been identified to us by Guild members and friends. There are also a number of families down by Carseland who suffered damage almost beyond comprehension along the valley east of Wyndham Park that we will be providing comfort quilts to.

This project will have produced close to 70 quilts by the time we finish binding the last few.

Thank you to everyone who helped in any way to make this project such a success and we send our thoughts and prayers to all those whose lives were affected so drastically by the flood in June!