By Matthew McCully
Family heirlooms are true treasures, and Kathleen Taylor’s family is kept warm and close-knit with quilts.
The kids, grandkids, and great grandkids each have one to call their own thanks to a tradition started by Grammie Marguerite Taylor.
But there was one quilt that held them all together.
“An anchor, that’s what my mom was like,” Taylor explained.
And this one quilt, made from a pattern her mom acquired from The Sherbrooke Record featuring the crests of Canada’s ten provinces and two territories, traced onto blocks with acrylic paint, was special to the family.
So, imagine their surprise when, over 50 years later, a second set of blocks was discovered, tucked in a drawer in Taylor’s sister Jackie’s home.
First things first.
Grammie Marguerite Taylor sent away for a pattern she had seen in The Sherbrooke Record around 1967, wanting to make a quilt for Canada’s centennial.
She bought the fabric and acrylic paints, cut the coloured and white squares and set to tracing and painting the 12 squares.
Kathleen’s sister Jackie helped mom with the quilt.
Once the squares were finished and assembled and the batting and back was prepared in a plain colour, it was sent to Mrs. Millie Cairns in Milby to be quilted by hand.
The cost was $6.
