Quilt

Jeff Green | Oct 23, 2008

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Barb Stewart was the featured quilter at the Trinity United Church Quilt Show in Verona last Saturday.

Trinity United Church in Verona was taken over this past Saturday by quilts, their makers, the tools involved in their creation, and their collectors and appreciators, along with others involved in related fabric arts.

The main sanctuary of the church was strewn, pew upon pew, with beautiful quilts, each one unique and labeled with a hand written card identifying its style, maker, owner, age and history. And…can you believe it?… not a single one of them for sale.

Coordinator Ann McDougall, who organized and instigated the show recalled, “I looked around our congregation one day and I thought we have some fabulous quilters in this group.”

The show committee met in November, almost a year ago, and decided to make a one Irish Chain Sampler quilt to be raffled off at the show. Materials were purchased from Wilton Creek Fabrics in Harrowsmith and each quilter made one square, which they later completed as a group in a old-fashioned quilting bee.

In total, over 2500 tickets were sold to raise money for the church, and the funds raised were specifically put towards eliminating the last $2000 of the $30,000 debt incurred by the church from the renovation of its fellowship hall.

McDougall stressed, “It’s been a real church community effort.”

Each member of the congregation was invited to bring one or two quilts to put in the show, either made by themselves or someone else. These 100 quilts included heritage quilts, baby quilts and wall hangings and were beautifully displayed in the church sanctuary. Their designs included Crazy Patch, Dresden Plate, Lone Star and Double Wedding Ring and their ages spanned more than a century.

Barb Stewart of Verona was the featured quilter. Thirty-five of her quilts decorated the choir loft in the church sanctuary. Many of her creations took a full year to complete and some she made specifically for her family members.

Barb started quilting in 2000 but had planned to make a quilt 23 years earlier in 1977 when she saw a pattern in a Women’s Day magazine. She bought the material for the quilt that year at the Walker and Gange Store in Verona, but had to put her quilting project on hold for over 2 decades while she was busy with family. When things finally settled down, Barb recalled, “I decided then to get all those pieces out and put it all together and I did.” That was the first quilt she made.

Lois Grant, who operates a museum in Bellrock, displayed some antique needlework.

Quilting demonstrations included hand appliqutechniques by Jean Clair, machine embroidery by Judy Skeggs, and bindings and labels by Gail Sabramsky.

Other local fabric artisans set up booths for the show. Dorina Friedli was selling her unique felt wall hangings and sculptures and Suzanne Clarke displayed her wearable woven works.

The afternoon ended with the draw for the quilt made by the Trinity Quilters, and Joan Paterson of Glenburnie was winner.

Quilter Jean Clair summed up the gist of the show nicely when she stated that the show “demonstrates the strong connections between quilting, love, comfort and feeling.”