With Four Venues, This Year’s Heritage Festival May Be Dubbed ‘Year of the Quilt’

Craig Bakay | Feb 22, 2017

When Rosemarie Bowick took on the task of organizing a quilt show for the Frontenac Heritage Festival this year, she wasn’t sure they’d be able meet the mandate of 150 quilts in honour of Canada’s 150th Anniversary.

“I only had to make three phone calls,” she said. “The next thing you know, we had more quilts than we knew what to do with.

“We had to limit many to three or four quilts.”

While the final count probably won’t ever be official, nobody could claim they didn’t make their goal of 150 quilts. In fact, the more accurate question might be how much they exceeded it by. There were four official venues (the Masons Hall, United and Anglican churches in Sharbot Lake and the United Church in Arden), each packed with quilts and each played host to a steady stream of visitors.

“We’ve been jam packed all day,” said Bowick at the Masons Hall. “And people just seem to be blown away.

“One thing people seem to like is the little cards on each quilt with the story of how the quilt came to be.

“That was Janet’s (Festival organizer Gutowski) idea.”

At each venue there were a mixture of heritage and modern quilts, all brought in by local residents.

Which ones were the most popular?

“I can’t say which one is the most popular,” Bowick said. “All of them?”

One quilt in particular did get its share of attention, the 150th quilt.

Debbie Embry did the quilting and Bowick did the assembly, along with husband Bill.

It’s to be raffled off over this year with the winner announced at the New Year’s Eve Dance.