October 2020 Meeting Highlights

For our second Zoom guild meeting of the 2020-2021 guild year we welcomed Bill Stearman as our very engaging guest speaker. Originally scheduled to visit our guild at our April 2019 meeting and to hold a workshop the next day, our Program team arranged for Bill to join us remotely from his home in Picton ON.

Bill started making quilts just 6 years ago in 2014. He has accomplished an amazing amount! Bill has made an impression in the wider quilting world with his quilts accepted in various quilt shows including Quilt Canada, some men-only quilt shows, and featured in publications. He also enjoys teaching his workshops and he is a member of his local Bay of Quinte Modern Quilt Guild.

Bill's quilts all signify an experience or emotion in his life, which has had many ups and downs, twists and turns, and a wide and rich range of life experiences. Bill started quilting to take his mind off the physical pain of a medical condition that he was experiencing, and it worked, and set him off on a new artistic path  of quilt designer and quilt maker. Bill stressed that he is not a quilter because his involvement stops with the quilting design, and he then passes his quilts off to his trusted quilter.

Each of Bill's quilts has a story and Bill, a gifted storyteller shared these interesting and compelling stories with us through his "Backpack show" of 25 of his quilts. Why a backpack? Because Bill is too new to quilting to store his quilts in a trunk!

Bill Stearman from his home in Picton

Here is a sampling of the quilts that Bill shared with us at our meeting. Thank you Bill for giving us permission to post your photos of your quilts on our Blog.

This is the quilt that Bill wants to remembered by. It features text from a speech and his own hand-dyed fabric on a Double Disappearing Nine Patch background, and raw edge applique.

For the oppression of ...

​"Dreamtime Walkabout" features Australian fabrics and hand painted fabric by Elaine Quehl. It and has been shown at Quilt Canada. It too is a Double Disappearing Nine Patch design which appears in many of Bill's quilts.

Dreamtime Walkabout

​"Surviving January" which many of us saw displayed at Quilt Canada 2019 in Ottawa.

Surviving January

Panic!

At Peace

I Wish I Had a River

Reclaiming Pride: A Bedspread

That Time Before (Covid-19)

This quilt "30 Dead and Counting" addresses systemic racism. Another Double Disappearing Nine Patch design and 2 layers of batting - polyester on top and wool on the bottom

30 Dead and Counting

At the end of his presentation Bill shared the news that 2 of the quilts we saw will be featured in Quilt Canada 2021, but we'll have to wait and see which ones!

Visit Bill's web site for more information about him and his quilts, and an interesting video featuring these and more of the quilts in his Backpack show.

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The meeting ended with draws for a $10 gift certificate at Sew Inspired and the lucky recipients were Sue S, Kathy F and Janet B.  And the library gift package went to Eleanor L.