Jo Al Styles Fabric Store held its annual quilt show Friday and Saturday (June 4-5) inside the spacious Linden Alliance Church. The fabric store chose to hold the event, which started out over 20 years ago, as a customer appreciation tea and as a way to showcase the talents of the store's customers.
"There are hundreds of quilters in the area," said owner Alice Klassen. "A large size quilt, depending on the variables of the piece, can take 50 to 100 hours to make, which translates sometimes into real time of up to 2 years or more. This year we had 172 quilts on display by approximately 70 quilters. The number of quilts was a little less than last year's 200, but we had a lot more larger quilts this year." What started so many years ago as just a showcase for local talent has evolved into a regular quilt show that can rival many of the big centers. "It is an amazing compliment to be told by so many ladies that our show often outdoes the quality of quilts being shown in Red Deer and even at Heritage Park."
Alice is confident that quilting will be around for many years yet. "Twice a year the beginner course we hold at the store is always full. Quilting is not a dying art. For many of these women it is a way to keep our grandmother's heritage of creativity alive. Often it is the color combinations of the materials that speak to woman and call into play their creativity. They love to challenge themselves and combine colorful patterns with many quilting styles."
Some of the styles catching people's interest this year were the 'hollow cube', the very tedious 'cathedral window', and an interesting piece entitled 'Maysies Daisies'. The price of admission to view the splendor of these quilts was a food bank donation. A very large box was loaded down with food items for the Acme/Linden food bank, as well as cash donations which totaled $458.
