Ninety-two kilometres southwest of Assiniboia, the village of McCord holds a regular event during the last Sunday in June, where handmade quilts are on display in the community’s park, the hall and elsewhere. This year on June 23, the organizers decided to hold the sixth quilt show inside the community hall, Dee’s Greenhouse and in the United Church because of the recent showers in the region.
“There’s nothing more beautiful than seeing quilts hanging outside and blowing in the wind, but we’re holding it inside since we’ve had five inches of rain. But usually, it’s outside in the park,” explained Debbie Collins, one the event’s organizers.
Collins also described how Quilts in the Park has grown since the event began six years ago. “We’ve grown to having shopping vendors,” Collins said. On Sunday, there were also raffle ticket sales, as well as beverages, buns and slices of pie for sale inside the hall.
In total, there were more 170 quilts on display in McCord this year. “Some of the quilts are handmade,” Janet McCrea, another event organizer said.
The quilts themselves involve a lot work and effort to produce. Colleen and Craig Lawrence from Moose Jaw were showing their quilts at the show in the McCord Community Hall on this sunny but cloudy afternoon. Craig described just a bit of the extensive labour which goes into making one of their three-layers quilts. “We do the longarm quilting, the top and the backing,” Lawrence said then held up a quilt decorated with sewed-in floral patterns he designed.
