Display of art quilts and demonstration of longarm quilting by Joan Hug-Valeriote

On Saturday, Sept. 23rd, 2023, Joan opened her Studio (and her garage) to visitors to the Ward in Guelph, during the first annual Praise the Ward Festival… www.praisetheward.com

Click on any image to see the gallery.

It was a beautiful day and all the quilts literally came out from under the bed and out of the closets to be displayed and aired out. 

In addition to all the quilt “eye-candy” and vintage quilt magazines, there was also the opportunity for people to try their hand at using a longarm quilting machine. Most of them had no idea they could write their names onto a quilt in cursive writing and were very pleased with the result when they tried following a pantograph pattern with the laser light. It seemed magical when they saw the pattern they were following appear on the quilt stretched onto the rollers. 

Hopefully the Praise the Ward Festival will take place again next year and become a regular feature in Guelph’s cultural mosaic.

Click on any image to see the gallery.

Open Studio visitors used the Longarm quilting machine to write their names on the fabric.