By Callum Ludwig
A community fundraising event for the Upper Yarra women and children’s refuge Benwerren is also set to showcase the craft of talented local quilter Joy Lewellin.
‘The Airing of the Quilts’ will be held at Crestwood Place in Yarra Junction at the start of next month with each $5 entry fee going to Benwerren.
Volunteer at the Benwerren Boutique op shop Bee Rawlinson helped organise the event and said people come in crisis and Benwerren gives them a really safe place to just relax and get their life back in order.
“It’s a really good cause and a lot of really good people involved in it, many parts make the whole of it work and I’m really grateful for the efforts of people like Joy because they make a huge difference,” she said.
“Joy is someone whose quilts take hundreds of hours to do, she never sells her quilts, she gives them away and she does things like give them to people in need,”
“She’s a tireless worker and it would be nice if she got some credit for it.”
The exhibition will feature over 70 handmade quilts made by Ms Lewellin for people to see, with attendees welcomed to the light refreshments available, an array of patchwork material to buy and a $5 lucky dip and a raffle with all proceeds going to Benwerren.
Ms Rawlinson recently visited Ms Lewellin whol told her that she has been doing patchwork and quilting for more than 30 years.
“She started doing it because she enjoys the creativity of it and you can do it anywhere, Joy worked teaching patchwork and quilting for more than seven years at The Patchwork Tea House in Warburton until she retired,” she said.
“In the past five years Joy has only hand stitched her projects, she has donated quilts to the nursing home in Yarra Junction and many to hospitals for fundraising raffles amongst other places,”
“It would be hard to put a price on them [the quilts] and the many hours they take to design and craft, she prefers to give them away.”
The Airing of the Quilts is a North American tradition of groups exhibiting their quilting and not common in Australia, but the idea was put forward by Yarra Junction resident Margaret Coulter as a fundraising idea for Benwerren.
Ms Rawlinson said making and donating quilts means everything to Joy.
“The smile it puts on someone’s face is priceless, especially if it’s someone who has never owned something handmade and to give people something you have made is special,” she said.
“Joy really wants to help Benwerren to get a generator and have it wired into the switchboard so that they can keep running, even when there are blackouts, in the past some of the longer blackouts we have experienced have meant that people staying at Benwerren have had to go home,”
“Joy is happy to lend her work to the cause [because] ‘it’s something unusual, something I’ve wanted to do for a while so it’s great that Benwerren can get something out of it too’ and it marries two of Joy’s passions, patchwork quilting and helping her community.”
Fundraisers were quoted $19,000 to install a wired-in generator at Benwerren.
Benwerren CEO Nichole Kelly said they’re just amazed by Joy and the residents of Crestwood Place.
“Their generosity is just amazing, they approached us and said that they wanted to do this and to donate the money to Benwerran and we were blown away by that and just really grateful,” she said.
“We’re wanting to get them [the generator] wired in so in periods when the power goes out, we’re still able to prepare meals for our families whereas in the past, we’ve had to send people home over winter and things like that,”
“I’m a keen quilter myself so I’m really excited to see Joy’s quilts as well.”
