Joan Janzen
of The Crossroads

Making a difference one stitch at a time, is exactly what the Herschel Quilting & Recycling Group have been doing for many years.

In honour of their monumental efforts, Dorothy Seibold compiled a collection of photos documenting the history of this group and the women who make it all happen. The official opening of her photo exhibit Women Making a Difference Stitch by Stitch took place at Prairie Echoes Gallery in Ancient Echoes at Herschel, Sask. on the afternoon of Friday, July 20th.

Dorothy Seibold at the official opening of her photo exhibit Women Making a Difference Stitch by Stitch at Prairie Echoes Gallery in Ancient Echoes at Herschel, Sask.

Seibold began taking photos as a child, with her parent’s old box camera, and she hasn’t stopped. Her photographs portray everything from butterflies, birds, flowers, Saskatchewan scenery, wildlife, and now quilting. Her pictures appeared on calendar covers, in newspapers and history books.

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“I wanted to make the public aware that the women in the small community of Herschel are dedicating their time and effort to reduce, recycle and reuse material to keep it out of the landfill.” Dorothy said. “The exhibit is a collection of photos of the women at work over the past eight years, in which I have been a member of the group. Approximately 2,000 quilts have been made during this period of time.”

It takes many hands to create those quilts: sorting, cutting, arranging in rows, sewing the rows together, making the top and the backing, putting the quilt together and placing it on the frame for hand tying. All this work takes place at the Memorial Hall, every Monday and Thursday beginning in January to the first week in April where five to fifteen ladies from Herschel and surrounding area create quilts using recycled material. A grant and donations have enabled the group to purchase machines, which are permanently situated in their work area.

Incredibly, this work has been going on since the Second World War, when the Herschel United Church Ladies Aid made quilts for the Red Cross to be shipped to soldiers overseas. Since then the group has amalgamated with the Helping Hands Ladies Aid, and together make beautiful quilts out of recycled material, just like their predecessors had done.

“Heaven forbid that you throw away any worn clothing or new material,” Dorothy noted, expressing sentiments from the war years that continue on today. The efforts of the Herschel Quilting & Recycling Group are making an environmental difference as they pursue their own personalized landfill management project.

The highlight of the year is the annual quilt sale held in April, where half of the quilts are sold, the proceeds going to various charitable causes. The remaining quilts are taken to the Mennonite Central Committee Foreign Aid in Saskatoon, where they are shipped overseas to those less fortunate.

Though the population in Herschel has gone from 200 souls in 1910 to 25 residents currently residing there, volunteers have faithfully continued binding together, not only fabric, but the community, one stitch at a time.

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