WWQP Bulletin Board Chat

Inspiring and encouraging the art of quilting since 1975

And this is where it all began.  The Etobicoke Quilters Guild (EQG) was the second quilt guild to be formed in Canada.  Through this door walked many of my quilting students from 1974 to 1983 which was part of our home in the Borough of Etobicoke (pronounced...Etobicoe, the k not pronounced).  I suspect many of us here on the board are of a 'certain' age...an age where we are mindful of the past and what brought us to where we are today.  Waiting for the chap who was fixing my studio ceiling to be finished (it had been damaged around the skylights due to a bad roofing job before the shingles were replaced a year ago), I picked up the Toronto Star and the obituary page opened before me.  Sadie Jourard Brown, born in 1914, died on Aug. 5, 2014.  A retired social worker, it was noted in the heading of her obituary, that she was a past member of the Etobicoke Quilters Guild.  When she retired, she took a course in quiltmaking, "loved it and spent many years making beautifully hand-quilted quilts which are now in the possession of her family members, treasured items to be sure.  We are positive that it was quilting that kept her going for so many years..."  Now, I don't recall teaching Sadie Brown but I may have; I was only one of two quilt teachers in our end of the city at the time but it was the announcement of the Quilt Guild that I formed in 1975 that brought me full circle in the realization of how much pleasure the Guild has brought to people, myself included.   I am now living an hour north of the city and aside from picking me up and dusting me off every decade or so, the Guild has moved on without me at the helm.    I wonder how many quilters have found solace and comfort and enjoyment in making quilts.  I think this is what draws us to quiltmaking, the love of colour, the enjoyment and focus to sewing quilts, taking our minds away from many other concerns in our lives.  I know that when I began teaching quiltmaking, it was at a time in my life when I was recovering from the death of a young husband and that how, in teaching others and sharing my love of quiltmaking, I received far more than I gave out in whatever skills I had acquired and could share in the ten years I'd been making quilts prior to my classes at the Quilters Workshop.  To see the Guild honoured in the newspaper under an obituary and that I, who never read a newspaper, happened to open that page today makes me wonder...is it serendipity or some form of energy that brought me to reading this.
RoseyP, in Canada

posted by RoseyP @ 3:40 PM