The Sun Shines at Yvonne’s Gone Quilting

Local quilt shop opens its doors to charity quilting group

The Sunshine Quilters have found a place to patch together magic for transplant patients at Yvonne’s Gone Quilting in St. Paul. The locally owned quilt, fabric, and more shop has opened its doors and given space to ten quilters that are busy making quilts for the 2nd Chance Trail Ride organization. The group will meet every two weeks at Yvonne’s Gone Quilting to make comfort blankets for transplant patients that are staying at the 2nd Chance Trail Ride apartments in Edmonton.

Carol Zarowny, with the Sunshine Quilters, says they spoke with transplant patients before taking on the project, “as a transplant patient, it’s very cold. We’ve been told, patients just can’t get warm.””We’re not the only ones giving to the 2nd Chance Trail Ride, the Lake Bellevue group and the Mundare group are as well,” Carol says the Sunshine quilters hope to complete ten quilts this year and continue to give to the 2nd Chance Trail Ride for years to come.

Carol explains the group has been together since the late 1980s and she’s been a part of the group since the late 1990s. “Louise Belland is the lady that started our group and it was started for the Ronald McDonald House and the Stollery Children’s Hospital. We did mostly children’s quilts at that time and eventually we got into bigger quilts,” Carol says there are various quilting guilds and groups that make blankets for young children, so Sunshine decided to start making larger quilts.

After speaking with the dialysis unit in St. Paul, the group agreed to make large quilts. Owner of Yvonne’s Gone Quilting, Yvonne St. Arnault explains the project grew fast, “we thought we were making one quilt and then they told us how many people were there. We couldn’t just make one.” The group made 38 quilts in three months, thanks in part to a big quilting retreat the group took. The group continues to make quilts for the dialysis unit, while working on the 2nd Chance project, “they’ll call and say ‘we need four more quilts’ and we’ll take them up there. We have no boundaries.”

Yvonne says the St. Paul Lions Club has been instrumental in making it all possible, “the contribute some money so that we can buy fabric (and supplies). They are very generous and have given to us in the past.” Carol explains that the quilts are given free of charge to the patients and can average $150-200 in material, “if you were to receive a quilt, we’re not asking for anything. There have been some very nice people who acknowledge what we’re doing and give a little donation to carry it forward.” The time put into the quilts is all volunteers.

In between using space at Yvonne’s Gone Quilting the Sunshine Quilters take projects home and continue working on the blankets in their space time. “Denise Christensen and Donna Bassett do a lot of our long arming,” Carol says both the ladies volunteer their services to the Sunshine Quilters. “Yvonne has helped us a lot by giving us space and allowing us to come in.”

If you would like to learn more about the Sunshine Quilters or to donate to their initiatives, stop by or contact Yvonne’s Gone Quilting,  780-645-5580. You can follow Yvonne’s Gone Quilting on Facebook for great course information, tips, news, and sales!