Submitted by Glenna Reynolds
Saturday July 29th was looking ominous… rain in the morning, thunderstorms possibly. But as luck would have it, the afternoon was gorgeous, sunny and warm. Right on time for the Tobermory Quilters to display our quilts at the St Edmunds Bruce Peninsula Museum in Tobermory.
Quilters cleverly lined the fences along Highway 6 in front of the Museum with their beautiful creations. There were over 100 visitors in attendance to see the quality of craftsmanship from the quilters who displayed the wares.
Quilting is a skillful, mathematical art that takes vision, patience, expertise and technique. It is an art form employing modern and traditional quilting techniques to create textile art objects.
Besides the envisioning, quilters must precisely cut, assemble and sew together patterns to attach to other patterns, making an overall combination of beautiful geometry and hues. Once a quilt is assembled, with a minimum of three layers, it must go through an expensive process to become ‘quilted’, with a stitched pattern to complement the surface patterns, using a computer controlled sewing machine.
Each side of a quilt can be different- in pioneer days bits of blankets would be stitched together, sometimes using paper templates created from old letters and newspaper clippings. These were sewn right into the quilt, and acted as insulation, becoming a treasure trove of information about pioneer life when old quilts were disassembled.
First Nations women created their own versions of quilts, and many patterns in contemporary First Nations textiles are a witness to this; former enslaved African Americans, Hawaiians, Amish, Asians and Scandinavians all have their own distinct quilting traditions and patterns.
On display at the Museum were colourful and precise examples of the art, including this distinctively patterned purple arrays of triangles forming what appears to be constellations, sunburst, and revolving stars.
A quilt can capture your imagination, its balance of shapes and colours providing a spectacle to the viewer, and many, many satisfying hours of dedication by the maker.
For information about joining the local group of quilters, please call Glenna at 519-596-8332. We meet every Wednesday from 9:30am – 3:00pm at Light and Life Chapel in Tobermory and have loads of experience to share.
