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For her first quilt, Trina O’Rourke made a baby quilt, choosing an applique pattern of Noah's Ark. Her grandmother said, "Well, Trina. You were never one to start with a small project.” Trina soon learned what she meant, but with some help, she proudly presented the baby quilt to her new nephew! And then, Trina says, “I didn't actually make another quilt for many years later!”
Trina likes the therapy it provides her. “When you're quilting, your head needs to be in the game - no time to think about other things. The quilts that hang in my shop aren't always perfect - they reflect where my head was at in different parts of my life. There's one in particular that I absolutely LOVE that is quite noticeably 'out' in spots. I made it in under a week so my siblings and I could give it to my father for his last Father’s Day. You shouldn't pass judgement on those crooked seams or lopped off points either. You never know what it was that made them come together like that!”
“I love, love, love to make a scrappy, pieced quilt! LOVE them! Put my hand in a box and pull out a piece of fabric and sew it to the next one! No rhyme nor reason to them at all! I love the tranquility of chain piecing and adding one piece to the next until the quilt top is finished!”
Do you have an “I can’t believe I did that” story related to your quilts?
“Sure do! I can't believe I entered the Win This Space contest put on by The Municipality of Huron East in 2015 and WON! That's how I ended up opening
The Cotton Harvest! AND I can't believe I picked up the phone one day while I was alone at the shop and managed to secure the Cherrywood Challenge Quilt Exhibit to come to Canada for the very first time! Van Gogh arrived in November 2017 and Prince arrived in October 2018! What a crazy life it's been indeed!
Trina likes the therapy it provides her. “When you're quilting, your head needs to be in the game - no time to think about other things. The quilts that hang in my shop aren't always perfect - they reflect where my head was at in different parts of my life. There's one in particular that I absolutely LOVE that is quite noticeably 'out' in spots. I made it in under a week so my siblings and I could give it to my father for his last Father’s Day. You shouldn't pass judgement on those crooked seams or lopped off points either. You never know what it was that made them come together like that!”
“I love, love, love to make a scrappy, pieced quilt! LOVE them! Put my hand in a box and pull out a piece of fabric and sew it to the next one! No rhyme nor reason to them at all! I love the tranquility of chain piecing and adding one piece to the next until the quilt top is finished!”
Do you have an “I can’t believe I did that” story related to your quilts?
“Sure do! I can't believe I entered the Win This Space contest put on by The Municipality of Huron East in 2015 and WON! That's how I ended up opening
The Cotton Harvest! AND I can't believe I picked up the phone one day while I was alone at the shop and managed to secure the Cherrywood Challenge Quilt Exhibit to come to Canada for the very first time! Van Gogh arrived in November 2017 and Prince arrived in October 2018! What a crazy life it's been indeed!
How the Quilt Tours Began
While teaching small quilted articles at Quilters Fancy and the Etobicoke Board of Education Joy Brennen also worked part time
at a travel agency. “One of my students said seeing you work for a travel agency, could you possibly hire a bus and take us to a Quilt Show? One day tour turned into several.”
Joy and her husband research each trip, travelling to check out the hotels, restaurants and attractions in the area where a Quilt Show will be held. Her tours have taken quilters to a variety of states, including Houston and Paducah. Last year Joy accompanied 50 quilters to visit Jenny Doan and the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Another tour to a C.Q.A. Quilt Show in Halifax had both quilters and husbands on board. Plans also included time for the husbands to golf while the quilters travelled to a variety of quilt shops.
Travel with JOY (Hanover Holidays): So many quilt tours … so many new places to see … so many new friends to meet … all of which began from a suggestion 35 years ago!
While teaching small quilted articles at Quilters Fancy and the Etobicoke Board of Education Joy Brennen also worked part time
at a travel agency. “One of my students said seeing you work for a travel agency, could you possibly hire a bus and take us to a Quilt Show? One day tour turned into several.”
Joy and her husband research each trip, travelling to check out the hotels, restaurants and attractions in the area where a Quilt Show will be held. Her tours have taken quilters to a variety of states, including Houston and Paducah. Last year Joy accompanied 50 quilters to visit Jenny Doan and the Missouri Star Quilt Company. Another tour to a C.Q.A. Quilt Show in Halifax had both quilters and husbands on board. Plans also included time for the husbands to golf while the quilters travelled to a variety of quilt shops.
Travel with JOY (Hanover Holidays): So many quilt tours … so many new places to see … so many new friends to meet … all of which began from a suggestion 35 years ago!
The following information was taken from “A Shop Near You”, Quilter’s Connection, Spring 2018:
After a garage fire also damaged her sewing room, Hilda Wales opened Sanity Hill Fabrics & Quilts in the rebuilt former garage. “We had the idea of getting artists and crafters together in a place where we could all sell our wares on a co-operative basis. I made quilts, afghans … others put in wood crafts, knit articles, pictures and candles.”
A long-time quilter, Hilda finds that the shop and the classes she teaches “go hand in hand to keep the art of quilting and sewing alive in our community. I make the quilts we sell, and I quilt them either by hand or machine. To me, quilts are a part of our heritage, lovingly handcrafted to proudly tell a story and last at least a lifetime!” When asked about the origin of the name of her shop, Hilda said, “Sewing has been my sanity while I raised our adopted children and foster children. To date, we have fostered 106 children over a 33 year period.” (Editor: It sounds like the perfect name, Hilda!)
After a garage fire also damaged her sewing room, Hilda Wales opened Sanity Hill Fabrics & Quilts in the rebuilt former garage. “We had the idea of getting artists and crafters together in a place where we could all sell our wares on a co-operative basis. I made quilts, afghans … others put in wood crafts, knit articles, pictures and candles.”
A long-time quilter, Hilda finds that the shop and the classes she teaches “go hand in hand to keep the art of quilting and sewing alive in our community. I make the quilts we sell, and I quilt them either by hand or machine. To me, quilts are a part of our heritage, lovingly handcrafted to proudly tell a story and last at least a lifetime!” When asked about the origin of the name of her shop, Hilda said, “Sewing has been my sanity while I raised our adopted children and foster children. To date, we have fostered 106 children over a 33 year period.” (Editor: It sounds like the perfect name, Hilda!)
Guild member Alison McDonald has been sewing since she was 5 years old. She loves quilting for its tradition and colour, precision and organization. Alison likes both paper piecing (precision) and hand applique (tradition), but she also loves scrap and modern quilts. “Oh, heck I like them all!”
Alison started out hand quilting, then did free motion machine quilting on her domestic sewing machine before arthritis in her hands led to buying a longarm 10 years ago. This brought “a renewed interest in actually finishing my quilts instead of just making tops. I love to challenge myself with precision quilting on my own quilts using rulers and intense threadwork to add dimension and interest to my quilts.”
Do you have an “I can’t believe I did that” story related to your quilts? “I suppose there must be some stories of cutting the wrong fabric or the wrong size or shape I could tell, and I have a few UFO's as evidence of that! But I'd prefer to forget about those and focus on the good ‘I can't believe I did that’ stories, like the Sew What Else customer who won an award in a major competition recently in the U.S. She very sweetly emailed me with the news that ‘we’ had won 1st Runner up Best of Show … now that's an ‘I can't believe it’ moment!"
Alison started out hand quilting, then did free motion machine quilting on her domestic sewing machine before arthritis in her hands led to buying a longarm 10 years ago. This brought “a renewed interest in actually finishing my quilts instead of just making tops. I love to challenge myself with precision quilting on my own quilts using rulers and intense threadwork to add dimension and interest to my quilts.”
Do you have an “I can’t believe I did that” story related to your quilts? “I suppose there must be some stories of cutting the wrong fabric or the wrong size or shape I could tell, and I have a few UFO's as evidence of that! But I'd prefer to forget about those and focus on the good ‘I can't believe I did that’ stories, like the Sew What Else customer who won an award in a major competition recently in the U.S. She very sweetly emailed me with the news that ‘we’ had won 1st Runner up Best of Show … now that's an ‘I can't believe it’ moment!"