SI Fremantle – ‘Airing of Quilts’ at Fremantle Festival

Quilters around the State have responded to the call from SI Fremantle for ‘I Spy’ Quilts for Foster Children. To date we have received over 120 beautiful quilts, all made with love, for some very special children. The quilts in various sizes and designs are all colourful, bright and full of interesting things to find and talk about, sure to bring delight to their new owners. Opening up boxes of beautiful quilts we have, at times, been moved to tears by the overwhelming generosity of the quilters.

During October and November there have been a few opportunities to further promote the project and we have had quilts on display at street festivals in Melville and Fremantle. We hope that the brochures handed out at these festivals will further spread the word and more quilts will be made and donated.
On November 14th we hung some of the quilts in the ‘Airing of the Quilts’ that takes place every second year in Agnes St, Beaconsfield, as part of the Fremantle Festival. The ‘I Spy’ quilts were certainly eye catching and caught the attention of many quilters who promised to add to our supply.

After the first quilt was handed over to Foster Care Association WA, we received a call from the Media officer of the Minister for Community Development, Robyn McSweeney, offering to assist in publicising the project. So far the Department has helped by printing some of our brochures and publishing an article in the Department’s e-newsletter. They are also planning to host a public event in December to officially launch the project. A large number of quilts will be displayed and hopefully there will be good media coverage.

This project has no end date. There are over 3500 Foster Children in WA and there will always be more children entering the care of the State. We’ll be very happy when each child being taken into care receives their own quilt; a small piece of comfort at such a sad time for a child.