Like most guilds, the Cranbrook Quilters Guild had 40 years of photographs and minutes meticulously stored in filing cabinets and albums. The question arose: Is this history worth preserving in a public record? The simple answer is “yes.” So, it created a quilt registry.
Quilts are a part of Canadian heritage, as are the stories of the quilters. We must preserve it now while the women can still speak for themselves. We would rather not rely on posthumous accounts that speculates ‘why and how’ the guild and the quilt-making unfolded. So, we set out to document the “gilded or guild-ed age” of the Cranbrook Quilters Guild and its 300 members.
In this digital age, the virtual quilt show offers a unique way to showcase and encourage interest in quilt guilds and quilting. Given the volume of historical and contemporary (soon to be vintage) quilts, an online registry preserves quilts and their stories for generations to come.
Lisa Sharpe’s last quilt, hand-appliquéd by Lisa and hand-quilted by Lisa’s quilting students and guild friends. Lisa and Dominique Drummond led the first meeting of the Cranbrook Quilters’ Guild in the fall of 1984.
The last 40 years span the time when guilds formed across the Kootenay Valley. Now, members are “aging up” while fewer younger quilters join.
Guilds brought in quilting instructors “from away” to teach novices and make them the best they could be. They held biennial quilt shows in local auditoriums to display members’ creations. Further, they donated quilts to social and health agencies locally and abroad, including sites of natural disasters.
Guilds created welcoming communities. During this gilded age, quilting came back into fashion with an ever-expanding range of affordable tools to increase our efficiency and accuracy. At the same time, our selection of fabrics to make stunning quilts broadened.
Quilting has come a long way from the newfangled rotary cutter in the early 1980s to the multi-tasking sewing machines. It has evolved with the home-size, mid-longarm quilting machines many of us have in our basements. From home quilts to art quilts, from traditional to modern, the details of this journey arise in the quilters’ stories.
Creating the virtual exhibit
To complete the project, we partnered with the Columbia Basin Institute of Regional History. This collaboration allowed us to write an historical narrative and to apply for grants exclusively available to registered societies. The Columbia Basin Trust ReDi Grant Program and Heritage BC: Legacy Awareness Program primarily funded us, along with some generous personal donations.
With these funds, we committed to create a beautiful pictorial online/digital record of the guild’s history. We documented and registered more than 150 contemporary and vintage quilts, each with a unique story. Partnering with the Institute brought the skills needed to create and host the pictorial website. Meanwhile, many guild members donated their time and expertise for grant writing, interviewing, writing narratives and more.
This is the first online quilt registry in British Columbia open to public viewing. Fortunately, we consulted with the North Grenville – Eastern Ontario Quilt Documentation Project and the Alberta Quilt Study Society. They taught us the standards of the quilt-registration process.
After a workshop with the Society, we held five documentation days from October 2024 to May 2025. Our interviews focused on the member’s quilting life, the documentation (included pattern and fabric sources) and the ‘why’ behind each piece.
In our enthusiasm, we overlooked the members’ hesitation to share personal information online. Despite the guild membership voting in favour of the project, only 62 of the 80 quilting stories feature individual quilters. We are still satisfied with the results: 85 stories and 198 quilts.
Documentation day activities include photographing the quilt, documenting the pattern and structure and interviewing the quilt maker.
Accessing the quilt registry
The registry provides a permanent record of the quilting arts in the Kootenay region. It allows us to trace individual quilts passed through families or discovered in thrift shops. These stories give meaning to the phrase “and she enjoyed quilting and the guild,” which families often note in obituaries.
Most stories begin with a glimpse into the past. For example, the author recounts how their quilting journey started years ago with a sample quilt class. How they used cereal box cardboard to cut fabric shapes for quilt blocks. As a wife, mother, student or employee, they often struggled to justify the time and cost of fabric and notions.
It wasn’t until they were semi-retired and their children had “flown the nest” that they truly embraced the creative process. They began designing their own versions of common patterns for gifts for family and friends.
Now, some of those quilts have numbered registry labels that direct the recipient or finder to the website and a fuller story at cranbrookquiltersguildhistory.ca. The website and a QR code make it easy to view the site and the incredible gallery of quilts.
All Canadian guilds share a common beginning and ethos, attracting a diverse group of quilters with unique personalities. CQA/ACC members visiting the site will undoubtedly recognize the characters that complete a guild. They range from the overachievers, the paper-piecing queens and the “in and out-of-the-box” creators.
We invite readers to embark on a journey through the “gilded age” depicted in this project. As we say in quilting, “it’s better done than perfect.” While it may not be a perfect account, this narrative invites viewers to indulge in the memories.
