EVANSVILLE—While she is shy about the work itself, a local lady’s 1967 Canada Centennial Celebration quilt is going to be displayed locally.
The marvelous heirloom and tribute to Canada should be acknowledged.
For Canada’s Centennial Celebration back in 1967 Reta Pearson made a marvelous heirloom and tribute quilt showing the Canadian coat of arms in the centre, and each of the provinces arms around the outside, and also the year the provinces joined confederation.
The crests are appliquéd fabric on a white background, and all outlined in satin stitch embroidery, with more embroidery details.
“It looks pretty good from a distance,” Ms. Pearson told the Recorder. “I never considered myself a good seamstress, it’s always been trial and error; and doing the best I can.”
Ms. Pearson explained, “I did the quilt for the Centennial Year in 1967––which is almost 50 years ago now. I lot of people (in the area) made Centennial quilts, and they were displayed in the Gore Bay arena, including mind. There were a lot of quilts.”
“My daughter Christie (Pearson Anderson) helped me design the quilt, she drew the designs for it, and I did the rest of the sewing,” said Ms. Pearson. She did the sewing on an old treadle sewing machine, “which much have come over on the Ark,” she quipped.
Christie explained, “I was 12 years old at the time (that her mother made the quilt) and I helped her by drawing all the crests for her, so this was one of my first major art projects. She took it from the sketch mode and created this magnificent heirloom.”
Basically, Ms. Pearson has kept the Centennial quilt in her cedar chest for the past 50 years and indicated she will be giving it to her daughter Christie at some point. “The quilt has been in the cedar chest for the last couple of years, but before that it was put on the guest bed in our house.”
“This year, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada, (Reta) is starting another quilt, this one with each provinces flowers,” said Christie. “This September my mother will be 82 years-old and she has been embroidering and creating quilts for probably over 60 years.” In honour of this she is working on a location in Gore Bay where the special quilt will be displayed.
