Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild

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community projects

The OVQG has a commitment to projects that benefit the community. Over the years, Guild members have made quilts to be gifted to organizations who support communities experiencing difficulties. These organisations are identified by our members, or they may have reached out to us for donations.

There are a number of on-going projects:

Baby Quilts donated to the Civic Hospital for premature babies
Place Mats donated to Meals on Wheels
Comfort Quilts donated to shelters and Hospice Care Ottawa
Touch Quilts donated to Alzheimers patients

In addition, members or other organizations occasionally sponsor short-term projects and ask for help from the membership.

If you are interested in participating in any of these efforts, you can work on projects at home or get together with others at a community projects sew day.

Riverside United Church Sew Days

  • Meets on the 2nd and last Tuesdays of the month, from 1 to 4 PM.
  • Meets in the nursery at the Riverside United Church (the same location as Guild meetings).
  • You can work any quilts you plan on donating to good causes.
  • Bring your sewing machine, basic tools, something to work on, and your ideas and expertise to share.
  • Meetings are free and open to everyone.

Baby Quilts

This ongoing program provides over 400 quilts each year to premature babies in the Rich Little Special Care Nursery at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.

  • The quilts protect the tiny babies from the lights and noise of the nursery.
  • The babies take the quilts with them when they finally go home.




Getting Involved

  • There are often fabric pieces and scraps available at monthly Guild meetings you can use to make little quilts. OVQG labels, pieces of flannelette, backing and batting are also available.
  • The photos above are examples of previous creations by Guild members. Click here to for more photos to inspire you if you need a pattern idea — the photos are in folders named for the pattern type.
  • If you have any questions, ask at the Baby Quilts table or email the Baby Quilts Coordinator.

Baby Quilt Requirements

Size 24” x 24”, give or take an inch.
Top Fabric 100% cotton in colours or prints suitable for babies.
Back Fabric 100% cotton flannelette.
Batting Any batting is acceptable.
Quilting By hand or machine, but do not quilt too densely to keep the project light and flexible. Do NOT use invisible thread — it can loop and catch tiny fingers or toes!
Binding Can be standard binding or envelope/pillowcase style.
Label Attach a label displaying OVQG, or write OVQG directly on the backing fabric with a permanent fabric pen.
Restrictions No polyester fabrics on the exterior, as it can cause a static reaction. For the same reason, no fabrics with metallic accents and no metallic thread.

Drop Off Locations

  • The Baby Quilts table at monthly Guild meetings.
  • At any Riverside United Church Sew Day.

Place Mats

The OVQG is continuing its longstanding support to Ottawa’s Meals on Wheels program.

Beautiful quilted place mats made by our members are delivered by volunteers to approximately 100 very frail and isolated seniors on December 25th, along with a special free meal and goodies provided by Meals on Wheels and other generous donors. Feedback from Meals on Wheels indicates that recipients are thrilled with the special December 25th visit, which is so meaningful to our local shut-ins.

Place Mat Requirements

Make a 13" x 18" place mat in seasonal or other suitable fabric choices.

Drop Off Locations

  • The Comfort Quilts table at monthly Guild meetings.
  • At any Riverside United Church Sew Day.

Note: Place mats must be delivered to the Meals on Wheels sites in early December.

Comfort Quilts

In recent years, comfort quilts have been given to:

  • shelters for women in difficulties,
  • to Hospice Care Ottawa, which provides compassionate, high quality care to people and their caregivers who are dealing with a progressive life-limiting illness, and
  • the Ronald McDonald house, which enables children and their families who live far away to be together while the children follow treatment at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario.


The team delivering a dozen quilts at the women’s shelter Maison d’hébergement pour Elles des Deux Vallées in Buckingham, Quebec, for inclusion in their 2022 Christmas baskets to program graduates.


Charity quilt coordinators at Hospice Care Ottawa in June 2023.


Charity quilt coordinators at Ronald McDonald House in December 2022.

Comfort Quilt Requirements

Size Adult: 50" x 70"; Child: 40" x 50".
Fabric, backing,
and batting		 Can be obtained from the Comfort Quilt team. You can select fabric among the many pieces that are brought at every monthly meeting by the Charity Quilt coordinator.
Hospice Care Ottawa prefers flannel backing to keep residents warm and cozy.
  (For backing and batting, it is best that you drop us a note before the meeting so we can have your pieces ready to pick up when you arrive.)
Label Attach a label displaying OVQG.

Drop Off Locations

  • The Comfort Quilts table at monthly Guild meetings.

Touch Quilts

The Guild makes touch quilts for Alzheimer patients at a number of long term institutions around town, and for loved ones. To learn about these quilts and how they are used, please read the introduction below.



If you would like to obtain such a quilt, please contact the Touch Quilt coordinator.

Touch Quilt Requirements

  • Classes are offered through the Guild, for which all supplies are provided.
  • If you want to make your own touch quilt, supply kits are available from the Touch Quilt coordinator.
    The instructions in the following PDFs will guide you.


Drop Off Locations

New Project with Hospice Care Ottawa

This year, we would like to try to start a new project for the Hospice Care Ottawa (HCO). It has been asked whether it would be possible to make blocks that would be given to the family of the resident once they pass away. HCO does not give the quilts we gift them to the family but thought it would be a nice gesture to offer them the block that would be pinned to their door while in residence. Dimensions have not been established; it can be 16 x 16 inches, up to 20 x 20 inches. Let’s see what we can come up with this coming Quilt year (2023-24).


door markers: from 16" x 16" up to 20" x 20"

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