Quilts are not just to keep people warm, at least not anymore.
“Obviously quilts are still quilts, they are always going to be functional, but now many quilters make a quilt with the purpose of aesthetics and that it is going to be first and foremost a work of art,” said Barrhead Country Quilters president Tamara Hubscher.
However, people will get a chance to see that for themselves when they visit the guild’s 20th biennial quilt show on Friday and Saturday, April 26 and 27 at the Barrhead Seniors Drop-in Centre.
The show runs from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. on April 26 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. the following day.
Tickets are $5 and are available at the door.
This year, organizers expect to see about 200 entries from guild members on a wide variety of subjects.
Because this is the club’s 20th anniversary, Hubscher said they will be celebrating by having a special “heritage” section showcasing some of the quilts that they made in their inaugural year.
Fitting the heritage theme, one of the guild’s founding members, 91-year-old Ingrid Nanninga also created the show’s showcase quilt using 90 squares of quilting material that guild members gave her to celebrate her 90th birthday.
Besides the show itself, the organizers have arranged for a vendors’ market and boutique where attendees will get a chance to purchase not only completed quilts but materials to create their next masterpiece.
To add to the fun and raise funds for the guild, there will be a raffle. First prize is a queen-sized quilt, second prize is a wallhanging quilt featuring the symbol of Barrhead — the blue heron — and third prize is a table runner.
Raffle tickets can be purchased at the show and from club members beforehand for $2 until just before the draw at 3 p.m. on April 27. Although the proceeds of the raffle go towards the club’s expenses, the majority of the money raised go to local charities.
In past years, the club has donated to Barrhead and District FCSS, Barrhead Community Cancer Care Centre, Quilting From the Heart, Lutheran Stitchers, among others.
The club was formed in December 1997 when one of its would-be members placed an advertisement in the Barrhead Leader, with about 20 people attended that.
Since then the club has more than doubled to more than 40 members, the majority of which will be featured in the show.
Although its members are doing most of the work, Hubscher said they wouldn’t be able to host the event if it weren’t for the help of this year’s Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) grad class an affiliation that started at their last show.
“The Fort McMurray fire was happening and the grad class was supposed to do highway cleanup, but because those crews were up helping in the fire effort, they couldn’t do it,” she said. “So we came up with the idea that they could help us hang quilts because a lot of our older members find it difficult to climb ladders.”
