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Love of quilting shared among friends, family

Fun, friendship and fabric all came together for the joyous annual Ponoka Quilting Retreat, which ran from Aug. 11 to 14.
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Dorothy Copeland intently feeds her cloth through her sewing machine during the annual Ponoka Quilting Retreat.

Fun, friendship and fabric all came together for the joyous annual Ponoka Quilting Retreat, which ran from Aug. 11 to 14.

“We’re having a great time,” said host Kathleen Mennell.

She added that it was the comradeship of the event that makes it so worthwhile. “We all have something in common that we love to do.”

Marilyn MacCleod attended the event for her third year and brought along a quilt she is making for her grandson’s wedding. “I like to give them as baby gifts, I like to give them as wedding gifts.”

The cloth for the navy and grey quilt, christened Night and Day, was purchased in Saskatchewan and Macleod says it was her husband who chose it.

Normally a quilt will take her a little more than a week to complete but she knows this one will take longer. “It’s fairly big, it’s a queen. It’s intricate.”

MacCleod used to quilt when she was younger but did not enjoy the activity. It was not until the strip quilting style became popular that she got back into it.

“I like to see the finished product . . . but I also enjoy the fellowship of the people,” said MacCleod.

It is the people that have kept her coming back; “the love and the kindness and the overwhelming fellowship you get from the ladies here,” as she describes it.

MacCleod loved the retreat so much that she convinced her daughter to come along. “I wanted to spread the love around,” she said.

Lana MacCleod visited the retreat last year and resolved to come for this year, as her first time.

Even before the retreat was over she had signed on for next year. “I just love the whole atmosphere,” Lana explained.

I was her mother-in-law that got her interested in quilting. ”It’s something that we share together.”