The Prairie Hearts Quilter’s Guild has been a staple in the community for many years, and thanks to a new initiative in the quilting world, the guild has reached out to far-away Newfoundland in the spirit of camaraderie and friendship.
“I don’t think it’s ever been done before, but we have a twinning quilt group in Newfoundland,” announced the guild’s president, Ann Richey.
“We checked around, and we couldn’t find anybody else doing it. If it turns out well, and we have a lot of fun with it, we’ll put a report in to the Canadian Quilters Association and maybe more groups will (follow the same idea),” she added.
As part of the new arrangement, both guilds exchange ideas and share tips and tricks in the trade.
“We’re going to try and get little competitions going between each other,” said Richey in good nature. “Maybe (they will) send something from their local area, and we’ll send something from our local area and just get to know each other.”
The quilters in Newfoundland originate from multiple locations across the province, so they wanted the guild’s name to accommodate everyone.
“These ladies live in (the same general area now), so because they come from all different communities they call the group the Pigeon Inlet Quilting Guild,” Richey explained.
The name comes from a literary account of personal stories across Newfoundland written between 1954 and 1961. These stories were then narrated on the CBC Radio and became quite popular in the area. They contained several descriptive accounts, some of which were based on actual people, and were told from a positive yet realistic perspective.
In the literature, author Ted Russell (1904-1977) created a fictitious placename to base the myriad stories out of, and in the same spirit the quilters named their guild after the same fictional Pigeon Inlet.
Part of the sisterhood’s origin story comes from the unique placenames found in both the Pigeon Inlet guild and the City of Moose Jaw.
“We thought, ‘they have a strange name, (and) we have a strange name… they provide fish, and we provide grain… we live in a great big, huge, flat land that is open and arid, and they live in a tiny rocky area that is jutting into the ocean,’ so we’ve been exchanging back and forth on what we do,” Richey said.
The arrangement is made possible thanks to more guild members utilizing readily available Internet applications such as Zoom.
“Of course, everybody is online so we can share things back and forth. The Internet makes it so easy,” Richey explained. “We’re hoping that by the end of the year we can set up a video to get together.”
Richey said nothing has been formally arranged yet, but both groups continue to hold regular chats.
“These days, the only things you hear are negative. We’re trying to do a grassroots thing and (start) liking each other again,” she said.
“It’s been fun, and we’ll see how it ends this year and if they want to do it again next year,” Richey concluded. “The idea is just starting.”
Prairie Hearts Quilter’s Guild is a fun and friendly quilting guild based out of Moose Jaw, and currently has around 100 active members whose ages range from the mid-20s to the mid-90s. The guild meets twice every month between September and May.
More information can be found on the guild’s website at PrairieHeartsQuilters.com.
To contact the Prairie Hearts Quilter’s Guild, you can send an email to [email protected].
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