Local club donates lap quilts for hospital

By Ian Croft

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

news@tabertimes.com

As part of giving back to the community, Val Leahy, president of the Cotton Pickers Quilt Club and other members recently quilted and donated 14 quilts to the Taber Hospital.

“The Taber Quilt Club has 22 members, and every year we try to do one community project. This year we made lap quilts for the Taber Hospital. I believe they are using them both in the active side and the extended care. Ladies went into their quilting stashes, and they donated the material, they came up with a pattern for the quilts that are kind of long and narrow so they can fit on a bed, but they can also fit over their legs on a wheelchair. Of our 22 members, everybody donated material, everybody donated time to make the quilts. One of our members quilted all the quilts and then the ladies bound all the quilts, and we donated them to the hospital. There’s 14 of them, every one is different, they’re absolutely beautiful, every one is unique.”

Following this, Hilary Holt, coordinator for volunteer resources at the Taber Health Centre, shared the hospital’s perspective on this donation.

“The staff decides who gets the blankets from the most needed,” said Holt. “It’s their prerogative to choose who gets a blanket and who doesn’t. I think that is a beautiful thing for staff to be able to have the option to offer something that is handcrafted (for) your patients that are in need.”

Leahy also added the recipient of the quilt gets to keep it.

“One of the things that our quilt guild says is if you get a quilt, it’s yours,” said Leahy. “It’s not like it stays with the hospital, or they use it for another patient. If you get a quilt, the quilt goes home with you or to your family. It’s yours to keep.”

Leahy followed this up by discussing how long it took them to make all these quilts.

“We started this back in September – October. At the beginning of every year at our initial meeting, we come up with an idea for what we want to do for community activity. The hospital was suggested, then when the ladies got together, and went through their stashes, and they start sewing they ended up with 14 (quilts).”

Finally Leahy shared their potential plans for some of their future projects.

“We kind of have a partnership with the hospital. We’ve done the quilt this year. Next year we will do stockings for the hospital which we’ve done in the past. We made so many two years ago that they didn’t need them this year, but they need them again next year. For our next project the ladies will have to decide.”