OLDS — Local resident Joyce Quaife has donated 21 quilts for babies to the Ronald McDonald House in Red Deer – the latest batch of about 80 in all.
Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is a place where families can stay while their children are receiving medical care.
Quaife started on this latest edition of the project last fall. She found that it was a good a way to make positive use of her time on cold winter days.
Quaife, a member of the IODE, collected nursing scrub tops that were donated to the IODE’s Second Time Around thrift store.
“The ones I get are the ones that have the Disney prints on them, so they’re really pretty when they’re done,” she said during an interview with the Albertan.
Each of the scrub tops Quaife utilized had a pocket. She’d put tiny stuff animals in those pockets as an extra little gift.
When she ran out of stuffed animals, Quaife stuffed little face clothes folded into small animals in there.
“If you’ve ever been in a fancy hotel or (on) a cruise, they roll up the face cloths and make little animals. Well, it took me about two hours, but I finally figured out how to make them,” she said with a laugh.
"I made these little tiny teddy bears that went with the quilts. They were really cute. And then of course, they can take them apart afterwards, then they can use them for a face cloth.”
Quaife was inspired to take on this project because she knew a local family that was spending a lot of time at a Ronald McDonald House in Calgary.
She figures all told, she’s probably made about 80 quilts for this project over a couple of years.
Quaife began quilting about 25 years ago.
“You just have to be precise,” she said. “You have to have certain tools when you make a quilt. You have to have a really good cutter, a really good ruler. It’s all in the measurement. You want your points to end up just perfect.”
The quilts she made for babies at the Ronald McDonald House measured about 30 inches by 36 inches. She has also created much larger quilts, including queen-sized ones.
“You do your top first and then you put your padding in and then you have a really nice backing. I usually try to use flannelette for the backing,” she said.
“And then I hand-bind all those because it looks better than doing it on the machine.”
Quaife admitted that hand sewing is not so easy for her anymore because she suffers from arthritis.
“It’s not special," she said. “But I do like working on the little projects because they go quickly and they’re easier to work on.”
Quilting is just one of many crafts Quaife enjoys doing.
“I love crafting. I do all sorts of crafts,” she said. “I’m a huge scrapbooker and I’ve scrap-booked for probably 30 years. And I just got into card making last year and I used to do a lot of kind of cross stitch and all that kind of thing.”
“I just always really enjoyed doing crafts.
“You know, when it’s a cold and ugly day and you think, ‘oh, I just so don’t know what I’m going to do with myself today.’ I just go down. I’ve got the most amazing craft room downstairs.”
During those winter months, Quaife says she does her crafting for two to three hours in the afternoon, three days a week or so.
Suzanne Pescod, director of marketing and communications for Ronald McDonald House Alberta says they were happy to receive the quilts Quaife dropped off.
“At RMHC Alberta, families have the opportunity to choose a handmade quilt for their children,” she said in an emailed statement.
“All of the quilts available to families are generously donated to the House by very incredible people, including Joyce.
“These quilts represent the support and compassion of countless community members and provide a comforting keepsake of a family's time at their home away from home.
“Many years after their stay at a Ronald McDonald House in Alberta, families still have their quilts as treasured items in their homes.”
