News & Stories

When Winifred Thomas learned from her daughter that The Cooper Foundation was holding a quilt show to fight breast and gynecologic cancer, she knew her quilting group would want to donate.

“Somebody always knows somebody affected by cancer,” said Thomas, who leads the Willingboro Senior Center Quilters. “We are all seniors. We are all going through something.”

The group sewed and donated several quilts that will be for sale at the Foundation’s first-ever Unique Boutique and Quilt Show on Saturday, Sept. 29, including a quilt that at least 10 members of the group had a hand in making.

“When you’re quilting, you’re basically cutting up fabric and sewing it back together,” said Thomas. “But it’s how you sew it back together that makes it special.”

Thomas, whose daughter Tammara works for Cooper University Health Care, has been quilting for almost 20 years and has been teaching since 2004.

Self-taught, she started out sewing quilts as birthday and baby shower gifts for family and friends.

“There’s so much you can do in quilting,” Thomas said. “After a while though, my kids said ‘Mom, we don’t need another quilt.’”

She added:

“Quilters are a very, very, very friendly group of people. Our group loves to support a good cause.”