-by Beverly Phillips
A sewing class in the ’80s has culminated in a fabric art show at the J. Franklin Wright Gallery in Port Hawkesbury.
Sherrille MacKeigan of Port Hawkesbury took a sewing class at SAERC in 1982 and began making clothes, dresses, and handmade quilts for her girls. She only makes quilts now, but has diversified her craft, employing new techniques such as foundation paper-piecing, English paper-piecing, machine embroidery, appliqué, and long-arm quilting to create intricate patterns.
Modern quilting techniques come with advantages. “When I first started quilting, it was all by hand,” said MacKeigan, “so, it took much longer to do a quilt then. But now they are machine quilted; and the kids use them, they’re washed, and they last so much better.”
The quilts she makes today still take months to create. “They’re all different,” she said. “So, some may be over a period of a year, but the ones I made for my daughters, probably three or four months. It just depends on how much time I have.”
Sometimes the biggest quilting challenges create the most precious quilts. What MacKeigan fondly refers to as “the quilt from hell” is one of the most special to her personally, which she completed just before her youngest child left home for university. “It had a black background with a different flower [to sew] each month,” she said. “Some of the pieces were small, like one inch square. It was very time consuming.”
MacKeigan doesn’t sell her quilts, but gives them away to friends, family, and charities. Quilts of valour, the IWK, and mental health organizations have all been lucky recipients of her work.
She simply enjoys making them and is always looking for something interesting to try. “I find a pattern that I want to make,” said Mackeigan, “and I make it, and then it finds a home. I don’t do it for specific people, but usually it’s just a pattern I want to try or explore, and it ends up in my collection.”
MacKeigan continues to develop her skills, taking classes when she can, and always looking for a challenge. “I’ve been working on one since the new year,” she said. “And it’s taking a while. It’s paper piecing [a quilting technique that uses a paper template to create precise and intricate designs], and I’ve got half of it finished. It’s taking more time than I thought it would, but I like to take on a challenge quilt every year.”
To check out her exquisite quilts in person, they are on display until September 23rd at the J. Franklin Wright Art Gallery in the Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre, at 606 Reeves Street. The gallery is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.