Perth Road Crafters still going strong

Craig Bakay | Sep 27, 2019

In her 90th year, Irma Bertrim is the acknowledged dean of the Perth Road Crafters. She wasn’t a charter member but when she joined in 1985, she had already been quilting and crafting her whole life.

“Mae Scullion brought me in,” Bertrim said Saturday at the club’s fourth annual tea and sale in the clubhouse at Harris Park. “She ran the store and while the club started in people’s homes, there were meetings in the store too.”

The club started sometime around 1979-80 but they soon outgrew the store and people’s homes.

“That’s when we moved to the clubhouse,” she said. “Then we outgrew that and had to put on the addition.”

She said at its height, the club had more than 30 members. It’s about 17 now.

For Bertrim, joining the club was a way to make new friends.

“We were new here (in Perth Road Village),” she said. “She (Scullion) brought me in because I knew how to do things.

Bertrim is actually a Central Frontenac girl. Her parents had a motel on Hwy 7 between Arden and Mountain Grove.

“We had bears (as an attraction),” she said. “But I grew up learning to sew and knit and crochet and quilt.

“That’s why Mae wanted me to join, because I knew how to do all those things.”

Bertrim lives in Kingston now and she’s slowed down somewhat but she still likes to get out and support club events.

“I’m not as involved as much these days,” she said. “But when I did live here, there was only one house between our house and the club house.”

The club itself is still going strong, having just recently added two new members.

They are primarily quilters but “we do knitting and crochet,” said spokesperson Peggy Newport.

“And, we would welcome new members.”

Newport said anyone who would like to become involved can give her a call at 613-353-2635.