On June 29, 2023, Margaret Conibear was presented with a Friends of CQA/ACC silver pin at the Annual General Meeting held virtually on Zoom, in recognition of her unwavering support of CQA/ACC. This pin is given to volunteers who go above and beyond in service to the Association.
Margaret Conibear was there, way back in 1981, at the first meetings when the Canadian Quilters Association was being formed. Since then she has attended almost every Annual General Meeting. In fact, Barb Fraser made a sign that she and Marg wore at several AGMs, which until recently were held at the annual Quilt Canada conferences: “We’ve been here every year!” And her Chatelaine proves it, with its beautiful pins from each event.
Over the years, Marg has met and is still friends with many well-known Canadian quilters. Of course, long before that, she was quilting and sharing what she knew with others.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Marg in April to discuss the history of CQA/ACC, look at all the many samples of work all around her home—her own and others’. We talked about the many techniques she has learned, including some that I want to try, as well as the outreach work she does with her local guild, the Sudbury and District Quilting and Stitchery Guild. Marg also follows the activities of the Fibre Art Network in Western Canada. Her own works range from traditional blocks in traditional bed quilts to modern wall hangings.
She shared with me her memories of being President of CQA/ACC in 1988/89, voting on the logo in the early 1980s, lugging t-shirts across a university campus that was the venue for an exhibition in Montreal. She showed me a copy of the write-up given to her when she won the Dorothy McMurdie Founders Award in 1996. And she shared with me her love of collecting information contained in Canadian Quilter magazine and an earlier publication called Canada Quilts, and talked about her association with The Canadian Quilt Study Group, which Nancy Cameron Armstrong organized.
Marg described perfectly a belief that I share: “I feel there should be a record of what has been done in the past to help us in our future of quilting in Canada.”
When I contacted Marg to let her know about this award, her reply was beautiful: “I am honoured and humbled by the news of the award. It will eventually sink in. CQA/ACC and quilting in general has enriched my life with friends and travels in many countries. I am forever grateful.”
I hope to be as gracious and helpful if I am contacted by a newbie quilter when I am in my 90s! For her support of CQA/ACC and quilting in Canada we are very proud to award Marg Conibear this year with the Friends of CQA/ACC silver pin.
