The coolest place in 91原创 this weekend just may be the Fraser Valley Quilters鈥� Guild show, Connected Again.
The show, with more than 220 quilts hung throughout the curling rink as well as the guild鈥檚 member quilting challenge, award winning quilts by members, the program that makes quilts for premature babies, and vendors, runs Friday and wraps up at 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 13.
Many guild members are on scene so the public can match a face to a fabric, or rather many pieces of fabric needed to create the works of art.
That includes Laura Gates. Her quilt, Rock Star, won a Canadian Quilters鈥� Association award. Made for her husband, the curling-themed quilt seems right at home in a curling rink.
鈥淏oth my husband and I are curlers,鈥� she noted.
Still more of her works hang at various locations in the show.
鈥淣o two are the same,鈥� she said of her works.
That holds with the hundreds of pieces in the show.
Turn a corner and find a rabbit winking from a baby blanket. Turn another corner and there鈥檚 a memorial quilt to Carmie. There鈥檚 a big pink giraffe and a blinking Christmas tree wall hanging.
Near the entrance to the show is the fundraiser featuring the art quilts of guild member Val Smith. More than two dozen of her works are being sold during the show with the money going to the BC Cancer Foundation, the fundraising charity of the BC Cancer Agency.
Tricia Brown snapped up her piece early on.
鈥淚鈥檝e always respected her work. She鈥檚 doing incredible designs, creative,鈥� Brown said.
A long-time quilter herself, Brown plans keep it for a while but intends to gift it to family members down the road.
Iris Estabrooks was taking in the show and thanks to technology, served as a narrator for her sister, Fern, in Calgary, who was seeing the show on Estabrooks鈥� cellphone. She said many people stopped to ask her is she was doing a blog, she chuckled.
In one corner of the George Preston Recreation Centre, guild members are cutting, stitching and ironing quilt squares to assemble into preemie quilts.
鈥淚鈥檝e already finished one quilt top,鈥� Beth Laugesen said a few hours into the show on Friday.
The quilts are given to hospitals around the region for premature babies. The program began in 1990. With about 500 quilts on average given away each year, the guild has donated more than 9,000 quilts. Families take the quilts home with them, even when the smaller quilts become mementos of a baby that didn鈥檛 survive.
The art quilts and other fabric creations feed their creativity and can incorporate metallic thread, specialty fabrics, painted fabric, or decorations such as Christmas lights 鈥� a contrast to the preemie quilts which must be made based on very specific rules, including the use of certain materials suitable for the delicate skin of babies born too soon, making them a labour of love for guild members.
鈥淵eah, we do like our quilting,鈥� Laugesen commented.
