Over the past two years, the Bowen Island Fibre Arts Guild has been working on 20 small (12"by 12") squares that have been painstakingly sewn together in windowbox frames to form a queen-size quilt. The theme for the quilt was the "View from our Windows." Every month, someone would come to a meeting with a completed square that we would ooh and ahh over until there was a total of 20 squares created by 15 textile artists. Executed in a considerable range of techniques, the squares show fabulous Bowen views. The talented quilters are Pat Elliott, Anna-Marie Atherton, Heather Stevens, Sheila Webster, Sheila Hunter, Helen Brown, Louise Painter, Karen Watson, Judith Dale, Magi Amma, Evy Bruneski, Marolyn Anderson and Nan Massender, and Jessica Tichenor, Helen Brown and Louise Painter did the hand stitching and quilt binding. The long arm quilting was done off-island by Lauren Tolhurst with the equipment for such a task, who was carefully chosen to maintain the high quality of work that has gone into this piece.
The quilt is a donation to the Bowen Island Arts Council (www.biac.ca) as a fund-raising project. The arts council will sell raffle tickets so that over the next several months and for a small sum you can hope to win this glorious, detailed, amazing panorama of Bowen. The odds will be good so buy early and buy often. If you become the lucky owner, this quilt could hang on a wall or be draped over a bed, but should never suffer the scratching and tugging of Fido or Fifi (shudder).
For now, the quilt takes pride of place at the new show at the Gallery at Artisan Square that opens on January 25 and runs until February 24. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, January 27, from 1 to 3 p.m. The exhibition also includes a range of pieces created by local textile artists, among them Sarah Haxby. The Bowen Island Fibre Arts Guild has met monthly since June, 1995, starting mostly with weavers and spinners and including quilters from time to time, but still with a solid representation of knitters and crocheters, doll-makers, basket-weavers, embroiderers, dyers, surface designers and other fibre arts interests. This is our fourth group show at the gallery. Our monthly meetings are open to anyone with a love of textiles - creating or collecting - and fine desserts and camaraderie.
Bowen Island Fibre Arts Guild
