Mystery Quilt donated to Conservation Auction
Colourful Mystery Quilt one of many unique items donated to 35th Conservation Auction
Former Conservation Dinner Committee Chair Janet Clarke incorporates fascinating donated fabric of unknown origin into quilt donated to auction in 2025
One of the highlights for guests of the Conservation Auction (online for 2025) is seeing and bidding on beautiful, one-of-a-kind items that are donated to this popular charitable community event.
Janet Clarke is a former Conservation Dinner Auction Chair, community volunteer, and member of the Board of Directors of Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation (ABCF). She is also a donor to the auction. This year, she is donating a colourful and eye-catching piece she calls the Mystery Quilt. The quilt is a mystery, she said, because it incorporates some donated fabric that arrived at her home as a mysterious donation with an unknown history.
Janet and her friends sew quilts and capes and fidget aprons and other items for local charitable causes. She doesn’t know the source of the colourful fabric pieces that arrived at her door but she had an inspiration to use them in her design for the Mystery Quilt she is donating this year. She calls the fabric “funky,” and “neat.”
Some of the squares were sewn and she pieced the others in her design which she then had machine-quilted. The fact she doesn’t know who dropped off the fabric or where it came from gives the donation a fun and special quality. “I was happy to get it,” she said. It was enjoyable seeing the visually impactful piece come together. “It was my happy summer project,” she said. “It made me happy doing it.”
The 35th Conservation Auction supports needed projects, in local communities, such as outdoor recreation, trails and parks and conservation areas, habitat for local species, and programs for local youth.
The Mystery Quilt is one of the unique items at the charity auction, online for this year. Find out more at conservationdinner.com and the Ausable Bayfield Conservation Foundation’s Conservation Dinner web page.
Exeter Lions Club has been co-partner, with ABCF and the watershed community, on the Auction, since 1991. Net profits are split 50-50 between community conservation projects of the Conservation Foundation and community conservation projects of the Exeter Lions Club.