It started out as something simple.
Wendy Toye with the Haus of Stitches in Humboldt wanted to make quilts for the 29 people that were on the Humboldt Broncos bus on April 6.
Now, the number of quilts made for those who have been impacted by the bus crash is over 600.
“When you look at the number of people who have been traumatised by the whole thing, it just grows and grows,” says Toye.
Word got out to quilters across the country, and even into the United States, thanks to a woman with the Modern Quilt Guild in Saskatoon. She asked how she could help, says Toye, and she put out the call on her blog.
The next day, Toye had 200 emails, she says, and help from places like Las Vegas, California, Illinois, New York, as well as the Yukon, Ontario, and British Columbia.
Everything started pouring in, from quilt blocks, to backing, to batting, to fully completed quilts for those who have been impacted by the accident.
“They’re sewing really fast,” she laughs.
Within Humboldt, Toye has plenty of help, she says with Sherry Hogemann and Glenda Pidlisny being permanent fixtures at the Haus of Stitches and many others coming and going to lend a hand and another five to ten people sewing away, usually at the Westminster United Church. A group in Melfort is also helping out with the sewing portion.
Also playing a huge role in completing quilts is the long-arm quilters who are taking six or eight incompleted quilts home to finish on their quilting machines.
“People are coming in all the time,” says Toye.
Many people are helping across the country with Toye sending out unfinished quilts to Alberta and Ontario to be quilted.
Over 600 quilts also means trying to figure out how to distribute them with Toye saying they are getting numbers of family members, billet families, first responders, and people working at the hospitals that night to see how many they need.
Toye is hoping to have all the quilts distributed by the end of June but that also means having all the quilts completed by that time.
