SOUTH Lakeland’s outpouring of support for grief-stricken Japan shows no sign of wavering.

As community groups and businesses continue to hold collections and fundraising events, local quilters are sewing ‘comfort quilts’ to send to the thousands of people displaced by the earthquake and tsunami.

The Mere Quilters, made up of members from the Windermere area, have responded after an appeal in Japanese magazine Patchwork Tsushi for children and adult’s quilts.

And The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction in Bowness has supplied the group with £600 worth of fabric with images of the characters made famous by the author’s tales.

Beatrix Potter’s stories are hugely popular in Japan and around 20,000 tourists from the country visit the Lake District – the inspiration behind the books – every year.

Skipton-based Ebor Fabrics, which provides the attraction with the specialist themed material, has pledged more fabric so members can sew as many quilts as possible.

Greg Stephenson, from The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction, said: “Both businesses are keen to provide whatever they can to help Mere Quilters, especially as the Attraction, and the area, has tremendously-strong links with Japan.”

The first quilting session will take place on Monday (March 28) at Underbarrow Community Hall between 2pm and 4pm.

Further sessions are planned in the coming weeks.

The quilts will be delivered to those made homeless by the disaster which killed 10,000 people when it struck on March 11.

More than 17,000 are still unaccounted for.