Marilyn Cade, on left, and Wende Arnett of the Double O Quilters Guild in Oliver stand in front of the quilt which was raffled during the gathering of the Thompson Okanagan Guilds, held last weekend at the Sonora Community Centre in Osoyoos. Dale Cory Photo

Marilyn Cade, on left, and Wende Arnett of the Double O Quilters Guild in Oliver stand in front of the quilt which was raffled during the gathering of the Thompson Okanagan Guilds, held last weekend at the Sonora Community Centre in Osoyoos.
Dale Cory Photo

The Osoyoos Quilters Guild welcomed quilters from across the province and beyond last weekend for a gathering of the Thompson Okanagan Guild. Double O Quilters from Oliver were part of the event

Getting a better understanding of the work of a quilter is certainly no black and white affair.

Walk into a room full of quilters, and your senses quickly pick up on the vibrant colours of the many quilts on display – and the chatter of quilters discussing their many creations.

That was the scene this past Saturday at the Sonora Community Centre in Osoyoos, where the Osoyoos Quilters Guild hosted 21 guilds.

“It’s a gathering of the guilds from the Thompson Okanagan to enjoy the prospect of quilting. It’s only put on once and year, and it takes a lot of effort by the club that’s putting it on to organize and set everything up,” explained Maureen Wood, who helped prepare the event on behalf of the Osoyoos Guild. “The first thing you do is have a theme. This year we chose a Black and White Affair. Our bow tie represents our Guild – so that the ladies who are visiting know we are the hostesses. We chose a black and white bow tie block because we’re quilters and we encouraged them to bring their blocks for our community quilt.”

On one wall hung the quilt Wood referred to, stretching 10 feet across and eight feet high, with a large block sporting the words, ‘Black and White Affair’ sewn into the middle.

For the host Osoyoos Quilters Guild, the goal was to inspire the 190 quilters and nine merchants who were in attendance to offer products and advice to to quilters.

“Inspiration, and making new friends. We meet new people from areas you wouldn’t have the chance to visit,” offered Wood when asked the benefits of all these quilters meeting once a year. “It’s a whole scope of things. We split everyone up at the tables, so if a guild of 10 came in, they don’t sit together. We draw names out of a hat, and mix everybody up, so everyone gets to meet a new friend we hope today. Some of the ladies are here for the first time, so we encourage them when they read in our magazines that there will be another gathering, that they will be encouraged to go.”

Along with the chance to trade secrets understood only by quilters, those in attendance received the benefit of experts in the field.

“The speakers are inspirational. We had Stacy Day this morning. She is a young mother of a three year old, she has a three-day-a-week job working with a mammography machine, then she gets home, and she quilts. She has been awarded many awards for work,” said Wood. “This afternoon we’re having a more-contemporary quilter, whose going back to the seed bag days, when that was the only form of fabric, so it’s very, very interesting for us and some of the people who haven’t been exposed to all of this.”

For those not in the ‘quilting-know’ the process of quilting, at least according to Wikipedia, uses a needle and thread to join two or more layers of material to make a quilt. Typical quilting is done with three layers: the top fabric or quilt top, batting or insulating material and backing material. The quilter’s hand or sewing machine passes the needle and thread through all layers and then brings the needle back up. Eventually, after many hours, you have a quilt.

In some cases, time does not come into play.

“It depends on what you are creating. Our raffle quilt was created in the past year. We had a block-of-the-month club for a year. We got a block every month. We condensed it because we don’t meet in the summer, so we got two blocks a month,” explained Wood. “Once the blocks were made, you had to decide how we were going to put them in, and you had to sew them together and put in the borders. It takes many many hours to put a quilt together. We’re raffling that off.”

And the winner was… Lorne Arbour of Osoyoos.

Anybody interested in quilting can certainly get in contact with Maureen Wood. Her phone number is 250-495-4569.

…and all you have to do then is let the creativity flow.

Dale Cory

Oliver Chronicle