Stitched Together: 45 Years of Quilting, Friendship, and Art

After 45 years of stitching, seaming, and patchwork, the St. Albert Quilters’ Guild has crafted an incredible legacy for itself. They’ve donated countless blankets to hospitals, charities, and fundraisers; celebrated St. Albert’s 150th anniversary with The Rendezvous 2011 Signature Quilt; and even quilted for Canada’s former Governor General, Madame Jeanne Sauvé.

To even guess at how many works the Guild’s members have made over the years is a staggering task, though longtime member Maureen Russell is willing to give it a try.

“It would be in the thousands,” she says.

But if there’s a single thread that runs through all those years of quilting, it might be the sense of community the Guild has fostered over its four-and-a-half decades.

“It's terrific to come together in our studio,” Russell says. “We have the equipment we need, and it's wonderful to be able to be there and access those pieces of equipment and to be together, talking, laughing, working away.”

That camaraderie is a big part of what they do: it’s not a teaching-focused place with structured lessons, but more of a gathering place, where the fabric-inclined can bring their projects and work side by side. The Guild meets twice a week throughout the year, and any interested quilters can join at any time.

“We support each other,” Russell says. “We have show-and-tell kind of coffee parties, where people bring something they've completed or are currently working on and show each other. On days like that, we might have 35 or 40 members in our guild [present] and just beautiful quilts to be showing.”

Speaking of showing: To celebrate the Guild’s 45th anniversary, they are putting on Window in Time, a quilting show that will feature quilts from across the decades, with some that pre-date the Guild itself. 

“We will be having a quilt on display that is a hundred years old,” Russell says. “Some other quilts from over the years, possibly back to 1950s, 1940s … there will be a story about every quilt on display.”

There will also be a raffle, and some, though not all, quilts will be for sale.

The Guild only does shows like this once every five years, Russell notes—just like a quilt takes time and effort, so does a showcase!—so it’s a rare opportunity to see a wide range of incredible works that have been made by Guild members over the years.

Russell herself first joined the Guild in the 90s, drawn by her love of sewing. And while much has changed in that time, she notes that quilting remains as timeless as ever.

“It's still very, very current,” she says. “People are creating just beautiful works of art, as has been done over time.”

Article Written by: Paul Blinov

Window In Time, the Quilting Guild’s 45th anniversary show, will run on September 12th and 13th from 10am to 4pm and on September 14th from 11am to 3pm, at the Quilting Studio in St. Albert Place. Admission is free.

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