Between the liquor store and the pie shop in Phillip sits Addicted to Fabric, where inside there is an explosion of colour and out the back the chat is spirited.
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Each fortnight, the Thursday Friendship Group meets at the Dundas Court sewing shop to relax, natter and, most importantly, hand-craft beautiful quilts destined for people who probably never expected to get one but are unlikely to ever forget the gesture.
Member Anne McKernan said the group had given away more than 300 quilts to recipients from sick children to grandparents raising their grandchildren.
She remembers being told that one young boy looked in wonder at the quilt he received and declared, ''Look, somebody loves me.''
''We never meet the people who receive the quilts but we've had some lovely thank you letters and some very teary Thursday mornings when we read them,'' Mrs McKernan said.
The group started six years ago when women who had been learning how to make quilts under the tutelage of Canberra Quilters life member Wendy Saclier were invited to form a friendship group by Addicted to Fabric owner Jenny Adams. It has continued through her generosity and that of fabric suppliers who donate materials.
''It's progressed in its friendship and its warmth and its great jokes - thanks Pam,'' Mrs Saclier told the group, with a laugh. (Pam is obviously the joker of the group.)
But the generosity of Canberra Quilters goes beyond these women.
Quilting groups across the city rose to the occasion in the aftermath of the January 2003 bushfires and made quilts for those who had lost their homes. Jane Smyth, whose home was destroyed in Chapman, said the quilts were cherished. They not only reflected that someone cared enough to make them, but became a ''symbol of hope''.
''I had this beautiful object but I didn't have a house. It reminded me 'one day I will have a home','' she said.
Mrs Smyth is also the president of the Canberra Mothercraft Society which manages the Queen Elizabeth II Family Centre, which has benefited from donated quilts.
She and her husband Rick also lived for three years at Coonabarabran in north-west NSW. Mrs Smyth suggested to the quilters they could donate quilts to the victims of the fires which devastated the Warrumbungle National Park and destroyed homes in January. So, early on Friday morning, Canberra Quilters member Anne Arnold bundled up 52 quilts in her car to drive to Coonabarabran for the handover.
The quilts were made or donated by the Thursday Friendship Group, Quilts for Others, The Queanbeyan Quilters, Canberra Quilters and groups from Rosedale and Newcastle.
