The sisterhood of the travelling quilt

Rosaline (Roz) Krahn, a member of the United Church Women (UCW) in Niverville, has dedicated the past few years to completing an incredible project.

In 2022, she had the idea to send a quilt to Ukraine for President Zelenskyy in hopes of helping him feel some comfort during the difficult times in Ukraine.

“I thought it would be nice to put the quilt over himself and have a little nap and refresh himself,” says Krahn.

As a Ukrainian, she says it feels like something she could do for Ukraine.

Krahn found a panel of a wolf and felt like it was a great representation of President Zelenkskyy.

“He is an alfa leader. He is representing strength, intelligence, faithfulness.”

Krahn shared the idea with her quilting group and handed off the project to Joan Rempel.

“Joan had the summer off, so she gladly volunteered to quilt it,” Krahn explains. “It’s beautifully hand quilted, especially the fur on the wolf.”

The UCW meet once a week to quilt and have many “life members” who have been in the group for over 50 years.

A pocket was added on the back of the quilt and labeled “for the children,” in Ukrainian for President Zelenskyy’s kids, and added a Canada and Manitoba flag.

Krahn says that she sent a letter explaining the story behind the quilt and says that they were the President’s “Canadian Baba’s,” which translates to grandmothers.

Once it had been quilted, Krahn needed to figure out how to get it to the Ukraine and to the President.

She figured the best way would be to go through government channels and after several attempts, she approached Ted Falk, Provencher MP, and he agreed to help.

Falk brought the quilt to Ottawa where the package was handed off to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly on June 5, 2023.

Joly arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine with the quilt on February 6, 2024.