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Home is where the quilt hangs

Local quilters guild wraps seniors up in blankets at the Langley Lodge.
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Violet Mackie was obviously thrilled with winning a quilt in the raffle at Langley Lodge.

Agnes Brown has a second custom, handmade quilt since winning one during the visit of the Langley Quilters Guild to her home, the Langley Lodge on Tuesday Nov. 17.

“I wondered where it came from,” she said of her first quilt. “Now I found out today.”

The local guild makes it a practice to have a quilt ready at the lodge for every new resident. Brown got her quilt when she moved in – she thinks it was summertime.

Patrick Matiowski, the lodge’s director of fundraising estimates the guild has donated about 20 quilts to new residents. The group drops the quilts off year-round to ensure availability.

“It puts a real human element to things,” Matiowski said. “This is home.”

When visiting the lodge, the quilters spoke about quilting, showcased some of their work, donated a special quilt to the lodge, and offered three quilts up in a raffle to residents.

President of the Langley Quilters Guild, Lana Kettley noted the group has done a visit like this in other locations in Langley.

“We know people like to see them [the quilts],” she said. “We have 200 members and we do a show every second year.”

Agnes Brown won a second quilt to add to the gift she recieved when she moved into Langley Lodge.The group gave out more than 250 quilts last year alone and 95 per cent of them were given out to Langley residents.

“Lots of people’s families are ‘quilted out’ and don’t want anymore,” joked Kettley of why there are so many quilts being donated.

The truth is that members of the group enjoy quilting and enjoy doing something for others in the community. In addition to gifting quilts, the group also gave 100 quilted place mats to Meals on Wheels.

The guild also brought their slice quilt for display at the lodge. The group-created quilt called A Slice of Langley was based on a photo taken locally and won the guild first place in the Canadian Quilters’ Association Excellence for a Group Quilt award.

“It’s entertaining for them [the residents], to see them [the quilts],” said Kettley. “And we like the show and tell.”

Winners of the three quilts in the raffle were: Jessie Nicholl, Violet Mackie, and Brown.

Look for the Langley Quilters Guild to host their biannual show in May 2016.