For the past six years, Jenni has been quietly creating something extraordinary for patients and families across Wide Bay Hospital and Health Service – handmade quilts that offer warmth, dignity and comfort during some of life’s most vulnerable moments.
From intensive care to Indigenous health, paediatrics to palliative care, Jenni’s quilts have wrapped hundreds of Wide Bay patients in care that goes far beyond clinical treatment.
“The joy to me is in the giving. The nurses tell me the stories of the older patients who cry because they've been given a quilt - something for themselves for the first time. They always bring tears to my eyes. I can't sit and do nothing, and I just love doing it.”
Each quilt is thoughtfully designed for its recipient. Elderly patients supported through the GEDI program receive heart-stitched quilts – often the only warm blanket they own – which travel home with them.
Donate Life quilts, featuring the Donate Life logo appliquéd into the design, are made for transplant recipients and include space for messages of hope, gratitude and remembrance from loved ones and staff.
For paediatric patients, Jenni creates colourful quilts featuring much-loved themes like Spider-Man, Harry Potter and ponies, offering comfort and familiarity in a hospital setting.
Some of the most meaningful pieces are Jenni’s Indigenous blessing quilts. Made with Indigenous patterned fabrics, they are used to gently wrap stillborn or miscarried babies. Families can choose to keep the quilt as a precious memory, or allow it to stay with their child as a deeply respectful and culturally significant gesture.
“And that's what I put on the back of the quilts that I give to families – that there's ‘love in every stitch.’”
Jenni’s quilting journey began during a period of profound personal change. Following a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and the loss of her husband, she searched for a way to give back that was meaningful and manageable.
“It's my way of coping," she said.
“I go to my quilting group on Monday mornings and there's half a dozen of us. I had to do something. I just love sewing, and it's not physically demanding on me. And that's what I do and love every minute of it.”
Jenni doesn’t follow traditional quilting patterns. Instead, she relies on instinct, creativity and a strong eye for colour.
“I don’t really follow a pattern for my quilts. I get a piece of material, look at it, and sleep on it and then next morning I get up and I know how I'm going to cut it and how I'm going to do it.”
While several generous volunteers help piece together the quilt tops, Jenni completes every quilt herself, adding the wadding, backing and edging to ensure each one is finished with care and respect.
Until recently, she was funding much of this work herself.
“I get a lot of the fabric from a lot of deceased estates, or from people who are shifting from aged care into higher care and need to clean out their cupboards,” she said.
But the cost of wadding, the material that gives quilts their soft, padded feel, has been steadily increasing.
“I buy a few rolls whenever it’s on special but it’s only me, and it’s getting harder.”
A heartfelt thank you to Hervey Bay RSL
With the support of the Hervey Bay Hospital Auxiliary, an application was made to Hervey Bay RSL for funding assistance, and the impact has been significant.
Hervey Bay RSL’s generous donation will enable Jenni to purchase wadding and continue making quilts for patients and families across Wide Bay, easing the financial burden and ensuring this deeply valued program can continue.
This support means more patients will experience comfort, warmth and compassion at some of the most challenging times in their lives.
Through patience, creativity and compassion, Jenni continues to stitch comfort into every quilt, ensuring patients and families across Wide Bay feel seen, supported and cared for, one stitch at a time.