Resident’s quilts help keep in the heat
Life-long hobby helps warm residents at Manitoulin Lodge
Friday April 11, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
A life-long love of quilting has not only been beneficial to one resident of a northern Ontario long-term care home, it has also helped out some of her fellow residents.

Kaye Campbell has been quilting since she started the hobby with her mother as a 14-year-old, growing up on Manitoulin Island. Today, some of the quilts she makes help keep residents warm at Manitoulin Lodge in Gore Bay, Manitoulin Island.

Recently, Campbell sewed several quilt tops which she donated to the Island Quilters Guild, a local organization for quilters. Members of the Quilters Guild then stuffed the quilt tops and returned them to the home. Some of the quilts are for residents’ beds while others are lap quilts.

“They are very glad to have them,” Campbell tells The Morning Report. “Night can get cold and (residents) like to wear them over their feet and throw them over their shoulders or over their legs.”

When Campbell began making quilts they were sewn from sample patches from a tailor. The patches were made of a heavy material and tied together with yarn. These are the same types of quilts she makes today.

When Campbell first moved into Manitoulin Lodge a few years back she didn’t have her sewing machine and without being able to enjoy her favourite hobby things just weren’t the same.

However, when her sewing machine was delivered to her room, Campbell says she got right back into quilting, adding that if she can’t sleep at night she gets up and starts sewing.

Campbell notes that it has been helpful to have her sewing machine in her room.

“I can get up and sew any time of the day or night,” she says, adding she has lost count of how many she has sewn in her life.

Gloria Hall, the home’s activity director, says Campbell’s quilts have attracted a following.

“Her quilts are all over Canada,” she says. “Some people have been on vacation and come to her house and bought quilts and taken them out west and all over the place.”

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