Colour My World





I prefer living in color - David Hockney

Two of the prairie women I love best – one long gone, the other vividly present – spent years bent over their sewing machines making quilts for their families and lucky friends. These quilts, a hybrid of machine and hand stitching, were pieced together with an extraordinary understanding of colour and texture, repurposing old shirts and scraps to create something as beautiful as a stained glass window, but as warm and comforting as a mother’s hug.

Every two years the Moose Jaw Prairie Hearts Quilters’ Guild gives needlewomen (and a few gifted men) an opportunity to display their work in a judged competition. There are craft raffles, quilting demonstrations and vendors with everything from half-moon needles to long-arm quilting machines that can run up to $1,000. The theme of this year’s show is Everything Old is New Again and the featured artists are Moose Jaw’s Qurazy Quilters, a dozen hand-quilters who meet once a month for an entire day of “quilting without wilting,” lunch and illuminating conversation.


The typical quilter takes up the craft after retirement when long winters compel useful people to keep their hands busy. When Betty Bellegarde was six a forest fire threatened the small Quebec village where her family was living.  Her father buried the washing machine, treadle sewing machine and important books before they evacuated.  Their house was burned to the ground but they rebuilt and Betty learned to sew on that treadle Singer. Her advice to quilters is to always give your finger a lick to keep the thimble on your finger.


Tranquility, Tannis Fahlman

Today’s quilts are formidable – you approach them with gloved hands. These textile artifacts combine rare fabrics, wire mesh, found objects, appliques, embroidery, batik and other dyed cloth, buttons, beads and digital prints. They are also heartfelt. When her mother died, my cousin Barb turned out her closet and used blocks of fabric from my aunt’s beautiful wardrobe to make quilts for all the grandchildren and great-grandkids.  The memories you would have, sleeping under a cloud of colour with patches of granny’s favourite blouse.


Sunray, Shelley Kloczko

Quilting was a practical way to give clothing a second life and the old-time crazy quilts show how dirt-poor women refashioned their material scraps.  Today, the granddaughters of those cunning women may spend hundreds of dollars acquiring cotton pieces in the perfect hue to match or contrast their design.

Every quilt documents the improvements in the quilter's technique and fabric choices. But each quilt also reveals what was going through the creator's mind while she worked on her piece. Sometimes it takes years for the quilter to assemble the materials she needs or to find the right template to realize her vision. Traditional patterns such as Log Cabin and Locked Rings may be the jumping-off point for radical reinterpretation.


The Best in Show quilt (above) was created by Cari Kooger-Vixamar as a wedding gift for her brother and his partner.  She calls it Twining Interdigitation using entwined ribbons in Pride rainbow colours to light up the black and grey backdrop.

Major props to the Prairie Hearts Quilters’ Guild for this dazzling show.  


A bed without a quilt is like a sky without stars.

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