Every quilt has a story: quilters show work and raise money for charity

There is meaning and significance behind any work of art, and quilts are no different.

Moose Jaw’s Qurazy Quilters hosted a quilt show at West Park Crossing Retirement Community Friday afternoon. There was a pie and coffee sale with all of the proceeds going to the Alzheimer’s Society.

There were more than 20 quilts on display of all shapes and sizes, from large quilts to a small circular quilt made out of old ties. The one that stood out as unique, however, was a cowboy boot quilted in pinks, reds and a lot of hearts.

Marj Nicolle’s cowboy book quilt had a heck of a story to it too. When her husband Chub Nicolle passed away in June 11, 2016, one of his old cowboy boots was used as an urn for his remains. “It took a month and a week after he went into the hospital and he went to sleep and forgot to wake up. He was 89. He said, ‘I don’t want a funeral Marj,’” said Marj Nicolle, who also had a quilt with 99 hearts on the front of it on display. “I was talking to his brother who was helping me make arrangements and he said, ‘what are you going to do with that other boot in the closet?’ and I said, ‘damned if I know!’ He said, ‘well what good is one boot?’ So, three months later... I’m thinking in the middle of the night and I thought: I used that boot for him and I’ll get this one. I’ll have my quilted hearts material and put in on that boot.”

Chub’s boot is at Saint Columbia Anglican Church on Hwy. 202 near Buffalo Pound where Marj will one day join him in her boot. “That’s where all of his relations are,” Nicolle said. “That’s where he is, my daughter-in-law and son are there and that’s where I’m going. I had two quilters help me and I told them, ‘don’t forget, I’m supposed to be in that boot, out there. Not out there with the boot in the closet.’”

The Qurazy Quilters (pronounced ‘crazy’) are hand-quilters who are also members of the Moose Jaw Prairie Hearts Quilters Guild. The 12-person group began in 2002. Some other local quilters from outside the Qurazy Quilters also had works on display. “One of the girls in our group (Elsie Carrick) lives here and she has had a couple of quilts set up, upstairs where we’ve come and quilted on them. I’m not sure if she approached them, but West Park Crossing asked if we would bring some of our quilts in and do a show, and we would with the proceeds for the Alzheimer’s Society,” said Linda Owens from the Qurazy Quilters. “We came and set up this morning and we hope some people will come and enjoy them.”

At times during the afternoon there was more than a dozen people looking at the quilts, while others enjoyed pie and coffee in an adjacent room. Quilts were displayed on staircases, hung from railings and set up on easels provided by local quilt shop Quilters Haven.