By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
LYN Spencer said she quilts every day partly to ward off the crippling pain of her rheumatoid arthritis; the truth is there are many more beneficiaries.
The Dandenong North pensioner heads a craft group that has made and sent 90 quilts for overseas charity Missions Without Borders this year.
Up to 10 women gather and sew their works on the last Friday of each month at Endeavour Hills Uniting Church.
Ms Spencer brings her quilting frame to join each quilt’s three layers.
She helps fund the cause out of her own purse; the generous cash and fabric donations from friends being not enough alone to sustain the enterprise.
Ms Spencer is also a friend and mentor to her eight-year-old neighbour Ava Roberts, a talented craft prodigy with a penchant for recycled-material creations.
Ava’s stepfather Rob Roberts said the pair have built a strong bond.
“They are peas in a pod.”
During the last school holidays, Ava created her first quilt – a 1.5-metre entry for the Dandenong Show – under the guidance of Ms Spencer.
For some time, Ms Spencer’s group has been sending “different quilts for different disasters” including to stricken families in Fukushima, Japan, a boys’ home in Sri Lanka and to cold, poverty-stricken eastern European countries.
“There’s always someone who needs it,” she said.
Unfortunately, the quilts sent to Japan last year were laid up at a port for a year because “someone wanted to get paid”.
She arranged for them to be diverted to Chernobyl survivors.
“That’s why I’m now working for Missions Without Borders. At least I’ll know our quilts are going to get where it’s needed.”
This year’s batch of 90 quilts is headed for the Romanian village Nou – roughly one quilt for each home.
Some members of a local Romanian church and Sri Lankan community may be joining the quilt group to lend a needle-wielding hand to assist their homelands.
“I’d say I’m doing something,” Ms Spencer said.
“I’m not involved in any church or religion but we’ve all got to do something in this world.”
To join or to donate material and cash, call Ms Spencer on 0407 097 785.
