AS FAR as old school goes, you don’t get more old school than handmade quilts.
While it’s a talent that was not so long ago relegated to older folk with more time on their hands, the trend has changed and it is recognised as an artform.
On Friday and Saturday, more than 600 people visited the Rosewood Craft and Quilting Show at the Rosewood Showground hall.
All age groups were among the crowd with all keen to see and admire the quilts on display.
“Quilts come in different sizes and each one tells a story,” Rosewood Craft and Quilters President Eunice Austin said.
“We raised $5,000 that will be divided between the Ipswich Hospice and the Rosewood Community Centre.”
Eunice is 80-years-old and leads the group that meets every Wednesday at the showgrounds hall and every second year holds a quilt show, there.
“We make quilts for various places,” she said.
“We give them to residents at Cabanda Care, and to people undergoing dialysis in hospital and little ones for stillborn babies,” she said.
“We also supply quilts to children’s wards for the ones who are terminally ill.”
The group also have mystery quilt challenges.
“The first one has written instructions of how to cut it and every month you are told how to do a little more,” Eunice explained.
“I love doing them and it’s fun seeing it all come together.”
It’s an expensive hobby but enthusiasts do it because it brings them pleasure.
“Everything to do with quilting is expensive and when you get a pattern you try to find where material is on sale,” she said.
“Cost doesn’t deter us because there’s always a story within a quilt and making them is something we love doing.
“If someone visits and likes a quilt I’ve made, I’m likely to gift it to them because the joy that brings is payment enough.”
