Moira Place’s annual quilt show brings the community together


For the last three years, Moira Place has organized and hosted a quilt show in their 128-bed long-term care home. The show is meant to bring together residents, staff and the community in appreciation of the quilted handiwork.

“The idea to have a quilt show was first developed a few years ago by Kelly Duncan, our Life Enrichment Aide,” explains Tracey McKichan, Director of Resident & Family Services at Moira Place. “She had attended a quilt show in South Western Ontario and was inspired to bring a display of colourful quilts to the home for the residents to admire.”

Moira Place is located in Tweed, a rural area of Eastern Ontario, where several of the residents were members of quilting guilds, lending to the event’s continued success. And each year the event gets more popular.

This year, on April 25, more than 150 interested guests – including 40 residents – gathered at Moira Place to admire 120 quilts on display.  What’s more, 13 of the quilts on display were made by residents of the home. 

Many of the quilts are cherished family heirlooms that have been passed down for generations while some are newer, machine-quilted pieces, boasting bright colours and patterns.  

“One of my favourite things about the event is that accompanying each quilt is a note sharing the name of the item, who created the piece and the family history contained in each stitch,” adds McKichan. “It creates a perfect day of admiring excellent craftsmanship while also reminiscing about our community’s history.” 


In photo, courtesy of Tweed News: From right, Trillium resident Margret Whalen holds her family heirloom quilt with Moira Place Life Enrichment Aide Kelly Duncan and PSW Lorie Parks. The triple stitched, hand sewn flour sack quilt was passed down to Margaret in 1946 when she was just 10 years old, a gift from her namesake and grandmother, Margaret Hinch. Margaret believes the quilt may have been made by her great-grandmother and has since passed it along to her daughter, Charlene Whalen.