Quilters help mental-health patients — and themselves in the process
Blankets of Love has shipped more than 2,500 quilts to hospitals across Canada
Edmonton area quilters are drawing on their own experiences with mental health to provide comfort for others by donating handmade quilts to hospital psychiatric patients. In the process, they found making and donating the quilts helped them, too.
Sheila Ethier of St. Albert started the Blankets of Love Foundation for Mental Health in 1996.
Ethier was suffering from a particularly bad bout of depression after her son was diagnosed with cancer.
“I was the sickest I have ever been, barely functioning,” said Ethier.
Either, who has stayed in hospital as an in-patient herself, was also always cold. One day she pulled out a quilt that her grandmother made for her. “The minute I put it on I had this feeling of comfort and love. I had the memory of when she gave it to me, a memory of when I was happy and not so sick.”
The following day, she started the foundation to help other mental-health patients feel cared for, loved and accepted.
“It’s a tangible way of providing support,” said Ethier. “The feedback has been incredible.”
Helping others and working on the foundation also helps Ethier with her own depression.
“I find I’m more inclined to promote Blankets of Love on Twitter or Facebook when my mood is low,” said Ethier. “It lifts my mood. Even if it’s just one quilt.”
Since its creation, the foundation has provided more than 2,500 quilts to patients in hospitals across Canada. A few years ago, the foundation was also able to provide quilted artwork for the walls of the University of Alberta Hospital’s psychiatric ward, thanks to donations from the Sherwood Park Quilt Guild.
Christine Wiggett, a member of the Sherwood Park guild, first connected with Blankets of Love in 2013 after she volunteered to organize the guild’s charity donation that year.
Wiggett was looking for a lesser-known charity when she found Blankets of Love online.
“I suffer from depression and when I read the description it hit home,” Wiggett said. “I know how lonely it can be. It’s not something you can see, it’s not something people talk about.”
Wiggett hopes her donated quilts help those suffering know that people are thinking about them and that they are not alone.
Through the guild and its charity work, Wiggett has been able to make friends and learn and practice her quilting skills.
“For me, it’s something I enjoy doing and I’ve only got so many people in my family (to make quilts for),” Wiggett said.