Girgarre quilters stitch together 35-year milestone

In August this year the Girgarre quilters group will celebrate its 35-year anniversary, presenting the 25-strong membership with an opportunity to celebrate its work from the Girgarre Town Hall.

The group prides itself on its charitable work, having hosted many fundraisers and made quilts for organisations such as the Salvation Army, the Drought Appeal and the SES.

The group members have made quilts for people that are suffering from the current floods, fleeing war in Kosovo and “Quilts of Love” for the Women’s Hospital for mothers who may have had stillborn babies.

They have a “Quilt-in”, which is one big fundraiser, and the money raised goes back into the

community. They invite patchwork groups from across the country, with their most recent event having 165 attendees.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, they haven’t had a quilt-in for the

past three years, which Shirley Pyke, one of the founding members, said had “been a bit of a shame”.

She said the group started small but grew quite substantially.

“A friend and I was asked if we

could teach patchwork,” Ms Pyke said.

“So, after six weeks of lessons, we said yes. We had a few ladies that we were teaching then it just grew from there.”

They started their meetings at the Girgarre Community Cottage, which they still have links to, but Ms Pyke said the space they had to work in was small.

“We started in a tin garage,” she said.

“Then when we got a grant, we were able to put a kitchen in. The window that was put in there was from our place because we got new windows at the time.”

The numbers grew to a point that the quilters had to move out of the cottage to the Girgarre Town Hall in 2007.

One of their biggest and most beautiful pieces of work is on display at the Girgarre Town Hall.

It depicts Girgarre’s past and looks into the future. As a group the quilters put it together, with a group of five working on each panel.

The group members will look to reduce their workload and are looking to do smaller quilts as well as other projects such as bags.

All together: Girgarre Quilters at their regular Friday meeting, working on their latest project.

Colourful creations: The quilts on display at Girgarre Town Hall representing how the town has evolved over the years.