Lennoxville quilts heading to Kawawachikamach
The Lennoxville Quilters annual show will take place today and Saturday at St. Georges Church in Lennoxville.
In addition to the show and sale, the group will also showcase their special project. This year, the quilters decided to make baby quilts for the Naskapi First Nation community near Schefferville, Qc.
“The next challenge will be to get
them up there,” said quilting group member Cathy Salt, who suggested the idea.
Each year, the Lennoxville Quilters chose a special project to work on as a group in addition to their individual quilts and projects.
Last year, the group made 11 ‘Quilts of Valour’, which were donated to Canadian Armed Forces veterans.
Shortly after last year’s quilt show, the group convened to decide on a special project for this year.
Salt explained that she was in communication with Silas Nabinicaboo, an Anglican Deacon and Naskapi translator from the Schefferville area.
Considering the long cold winters in the northern part of the province, Salt thought sending baby quilts to the Naskapi First Nation community would be a nice gesture. The group agreed, and they immediately got to work.
Salt said the first estimation was that they would complete around 12 quilts to send north.
The count on Thursday afternoon as the quilters set up the exhibit at St. George’s was 42 baby quilts, with a few more still to come in.
“We just wanted to keep kids warm in a cheerful kind of way,” Salt said, adding that the project was an opportunity to learn about a different community in the province.
The baby quilts are on display in the upstairs of St. George’s today and Saturday. After that, Salt said she will make arrangements to get them to the Kawawachikamach reservation.
According to Salt, the community just welcomed the first set of triplets ever born in the area.
Salt said the group would be delighted if their work were to end up cuddling the newborn trio.
On the main floor of St. George’s, the rest of the group’s quilting will be on display, some of which is for sale.
On Thursday afternoon, judges were making their way through the collection to evaluate the quality of stitching, piecing, imagination, and harmonization of colours of the Lennoxville quilters.
Ribbons will be hung on the pieces that best meet the criteria of the judges.
In addition to the quilt show, there is also a massive store of quilting fabric on sale in the same room as the ‘Quilts for Kawawachikamach’ exhibit.
The fabric belonged to a group member who is no longer able to quilt. The group organized the fabric according to size, and is selling it on her behalf.
The quilt show will take place at St. George’s Church, 84 Queen Street today from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m.
There will be refreshments, door prizes and even quilting workshops for beginner and advanced quilters.