What started as a hobby turned into something of a worthy societal contribution as women from Quadrille Quilters shared their experience of quilting for over 30 years.
Started by Grace Nobili, the organisation boasts over 30 years of excellence in quilting blankets, beanies, and scarves which they make as part of their charity work in the community. They deliver these to old age homes and child welfare centres across Roodepoort.
“The name Quadrille Quilters came about as the NPO started with only four ladies. ‘Quad’ means four,” Yvonne Jordan from Quadrille said.
The group, which consists of a total of 40 members, recently had the honour of quilting 75 blankets as part of Horison Methodist Church’s 500 blanket drive initiative under the leadership of Reverend Kim Alexander and said that this was an important milestone as the process of quilting is tedious and intricate.
What started as a hobby over the years – where the committee would meet once a month to quilt and enjoy each other’s company – is now something that the women take seriously and does so for the betterment of their community.
“Quilting is beautiful. It is the most amazing and satisfactory thing to do. The excitement of getting that one block complete and then completing 20 of those blocks to make up a quilt. It is a very, very enjoyable thing to do,” Yvonne said.
Over the years, they have made scarves for children and have done many charity projects. Yvonne shared that they once made many quilts and sent them over to Japan as part of a disaster relief project.
She also shared an overview of the quilting process and said that there’s a lot of work involved to get the perfect outcome; preparing the blocks (depending on the size), stitching them together, choosing a backing and a batting, which is the front and back part, pinning it together, quilting and binding to end it off.
“That’s the kind of thing we do. And we often have guest speakers. We have teachers from other groups doing demonstrations,” she concluded.
The organisation relies on members to come forth with charity ideas and raises money themselves through functions, shows, and donations and said that they aim to draw more people in to get involved with their projects.
