MANITOULIN—Seven Manitoulin Island youths had their quilts hang in an Edmonton, Alberta gallery recently as part of a Quilt Canada show.
“The event is the national quilt conference, called Quilt Canada, hosted by the Canadian Quilters Association/association canadienne de la courtepointe,” said Jackie White, who provides social media promotion for the organization. She has also run the Threads Club for the past number of years based in Manitowaning.
“This is the third year a few of the young Island quilters have taken part in the JN Harper Youth Challenge,” said Ms. White. “JN Harper Fabric is the sponsor of the event and every year they send out a piece of fabric that has to be incorporated into a quilt the size of a wall hanging.”
The theme for entries for the youth challenge was ‘Explore’. Online voting takes place in three age categories, 5-9, 10-14 and 15-19 for prizes in each.
There was a total of 45 youth quilt entries from all over Canada. “All of these kids’ quilts will hang in a gallery beside those that are part of a (adult) national juried show where quilters can receive a cheque for as much as $8,000 for winning,” said Ms. White.
“There were 1,500 people in attendance on the first day of the (three day) show,” said Ms. White. Six youth in Ms. White’s Threads class (including Cora Griffin, Violet Bell, Chloe Moggy, Allie Jamieson, Aveline Jamieson and Julius Trudeau) had their entries hung in the gallery in Edmonton. Rachel Quackenbush of Little Current, who works with her grandmother Holly Scott who is an avid quilter herself, also worked on this project.
