An avid Kamsack quilter and artist is encouraging fellow quilters to join the Heart and Home Quilting Club which is holding its first session of the season at the United Church basement on Monday.
Colleen Koroluk said that in addition to learning from one another and helping with quilting projects, members of the club will be continuing their work creating covers for Victoria’s Quilts, the national organization that donates quilts to cancer survivors.
Last year the club donated 14 such covers which were presented to Bobbi Wanner of Madge Lake, who completes the quilts by sewing the covers over batting and adding a backing sheet.
Club members cut the pieces from donated cotton fabric, lay everything out and sew the pieces together, Koroluk said. “We have three sewing machines that we can use.”
Members also share patterns and view one another’s completed projects, she said, adding that for someone new to sewing, the club is a great place to learn. Not only are these quilting projects good projects on which to learn to sew, but new sewers can learn from others with years of experience.
“There’s always someone there to give others advice,” she said.
Currently Koroluk is working on a three-foot by four foot piece that combines sewing with her love of art. She is creating a wall hanging of a Monument Valley scene using fabric and paint.
Members of the club are thrilled to be able to make the quilts, she said, explaining that many members of the group have already made all the quilts they need for their friends and family members but still enjoy making them.
“Making Victoria’s Quilts provides a worthwhile outlet for members’ skills,” she said. “We find we feel great making quilts while using up our stash of bits of material.”
In 2013 Victoria’s Quilts was responsible for donating a total of 280 quilts to cancer patients, Wanner said. These quilts were made by Victoria’s Quilts chapters in Moosomin and Climax, as well as groups known as “Friends of Victoria’s Quilts,” of which there are about a handful in the province, including the Kamsack group.
The members said that it takes the group about two or three evening sessions of quilting in order to complete one quilt cover.
Encouraging others to join the group, Koroluk said that the more hands that are involved, the farther the group can go.
