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Heritage House creates Sesquicentennial Quilt
to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday

June 14th, 2017

Residents, care partners and volunteers at Points West Living Heritage House in Vegreville have worked together to create a beautiful quilt to commemorate Canada’s 150th birthday. The idea to do something sesquicentenary came from the Town of Vegreville, but it was Office Administrator Roxane Bordyniuk’s idea to make a group quilt. 

A Heritage House quilting bee

Roxane discovered quilting a couple of years ago and loves it so much she’s taken a part time job at the local quilt shop to feed her habit. So she was aware of some great Canada themed quilt kits that would make a beautiful Heritage House project.

The Heritage House Resident Council covered the cost of the materials, and Roxane chose the pattern and purchased all of the materials needed. Then, she set the date to have a Heritage House quilting bee at the end of April.

"Bring irons and ironing boards..."

“We talked with interested residents,” says Roxane, “and asked them to bring their irons and ironing boards, and volunteers were recruited to bring their sewing machines.” Resident Betty Brimacombe’s daughter Pat helped Roxane cut the fabric, and residents stepped up to do their bit. “Merv Ganie helped us by keeping track of how many pieces we had cut,” says Roxane. “Then it went to the ironing board, which is where Betty came into play. She did such a wonderful job.”

Roxane’s Quilt Rack boss Gerri Ziegler was on hand to fetch extra material from her shop, and help with the ironing. “Orest was a force to be reckoned with!” Roxane continues, “He was all over the place helping with what we needed.” A visitor, Nicole, who was waiting to pick up her son from the expansion construction site next door happened upon the work bee and offered her help laying out the pieces in the order shown on the pattern.

They pressed on...

At lunch time they ordered pizza and took a breather, then they pressed on until about 4 o’clock when the group work was done. Roxane finished off the sewing needed to fit the blocks together, then took the quilt to the Quilt Rack to have it ‘go onto the long arm’. “That means it had the backing and batting sandwiched with the front of the quilt and stitched together.” Roxane adds, “That part usually costs a lot of money, but Gerri did it for us for free.”

As you can see from the photo, the results of all that time and effort are stunning. This beautiful quilt will be raffled off on Canada Day, July 1st, with the money raised going to the Heritage House Resident Council.

Proud work

The three resident Heritage House quilters are pleased and proud of their role in this patriotic project: Merv Ganie says he is proud to be Canadian and proud he helped put the quilt together. He’s bought his raffle ticket already; Betty Brimacombe says it’s a very lovely quilt, she’s proud to be part of the quilting group, and she’s glad Heritage House did something to commemorate the Canada-150 celebrations; and Orest Fodchuk says it was a great idea to make the quilt to recognize the people of Heritage House and also to recognize Canada Day.

Photo: Proud to be Canadian and proud of their contribution to the Heritage House sesquicentennial quilt, are (Front Left) Betty, Orest and Merv, (Back left) Pat and Roxane.

More photos at Flickr: Heritage House creates Sesquicentennial Quilt to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday

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