D Buck, Member, Maldon Village Quilters, Tarrangower Times
The Maldon Village Quilters group has a history spanning decades and as people have moved on or retired from the group, others have joined and the group continues to thrive.
Meeting for many years each Tuesday in the Folk Festival Office, COVID forced relocation to a larger space to enable social distancing. Fortunately our once a month Saturday group, formerly known as the Muckleford Sew and Sews, had been meeting at the old Muckleford Hall since 2015 and we were able to shift to this location where we now meet every Wednesday as well as monthly on the third Saturday. The group has approximately 18 current members.
Our biannual Quilt Show as part of the Maldon Easter Fair was started some 12 years ago by Janet Williamson of the Blue Light Camp and local patch worker and current member Debbie McDonald. Over time the Show has continued to grow, attracting visitors from across the State and gaining a solid reputation in the patchwork community for the standard of quilts and the quality of the display. Unfortunately, as with so many things due to COVID, the Show did not go ahead in 2020 and is still questionable in 2022.
The Quilt Show was our major fund raiser for local community organisations and all takings from our Quilt Raffle and door takings were donated. The group is proud to have been able to donate a total of $6,500 since 2016 with beneficiaries including the Maldon Hospital, Easter Fair Committee, Maldon Neighbourhood Centre, Mount Alexander Shire Accommodation and Respite Group, Maldon Athenaeum Library, Maldon Swimming Pool and the Maldon Archives and Museum. A pretty good effort we believe for a relatively small group.
In addition, at the request of Maldon Hospital, we made and donated two quilts to be used for palliative care patients, and have made three Healing Quilts for members facing serious illness as well as one for another much loved member of the Maldon community. Some of our members also make Hero Quilts for Australian service personnel, especially those serving abroad, and others make caring quilts for neonatal units and other worthy causes.
During the COVID lockdowns the sewing machines worked overtime as we all dug into our cupboards to finally complete all those unfinished projects, and counted our blessings each day that we had such a beautiful yet functional hobby to occupy our time and minds – and a healthy stash of fabric we knew would come in handy one day!
We were very happy to have been able to help with the recent quilts for a family whose young mother is facing a serious health battle. We feel privileged to be able to contribute to and support our local community while pursuing a hobby (perhaps better described as an obsession) that brings us so much pleasure, as well as enjoying the friendship and support of such a wonderful group of women.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 24 December 2021.
