Members of the West Nipissing Quilt Club (WNQC) have been busy bees, making handmade quilts to give away and bring comfort and warmth to others. On December 2025, the group donated 9 quilts to the Horizon Women’s Shelter and in January, they gave another 12 quilts to the West Nipissing General Hospital’s Long Term Care, Complex Continuing Care and Medical Units.
The club currently has 28 members who meet the first Tuesday of every month from September to June at the Comfort Inn in Sturgeon Falls. Chair Betty Sutherland says “We have meeting days, where we learn or review a quilting technique, and sew days, where we help each other with quilting projects, charity quilts, etc.” While some members do an entire quilt on their own to donate, several quilts are the result of combined handiwork, with each member pitching in time and talent. “Members help assemble the fabrics and patterns (…), others assemble the quilt blocks into quilt tops, other will quilt (…) on a domestic sewing machine or on a longarm sewing machine (…), and others help with the final steps of binding of the quilt and adding a label,” Sutherland explains.
The group has been making and donation quilts since its inception in 2017. “It gives us great pleasure to see the happy faces of those who collect the quilts during their presentations,” says Sutherland.
