Tuesday 22 June 2010

Wardsville 200th Anniversary

On Saturday (June 19th) Jake and I drove to Wardsville, ON, a small town in SW Ontario to check out the Barn quilt project that was undertaken by the town's residents, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the founding of the town. It was a lovely day for a drive! The quilt blocks were amazing. The ladies of the town made a quilt with each block depicting one aspect of George Ward's life. Many volunteers painted the blocks onto wood panels. These blocks will be attached to barns and other buildings around the area to create a history tour. The London Free Press had a story in Monday's paper. More information is on the town's website. Here you can see some of the wooden quilt blocks lined up against the fence of the ball diamond (click on the pictures to enlarge them):


The second half of the blocks:

In the background, you can see a tent, part of a little historic village set up by reenactors depicting life 200 years ago. There was a general store, display of games and handmade chairs, some sheep and rope making demonstrations.

Close up of Crossed Canoes block:


The last block on the quilt depicting the Centennial of Wardsville:

Rising Sun block with me standing beside it to give you an idea how big these panels are. (I am 5' 4.5" tall :-).

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What a massive undertaking that was for the town's people!! The guide told us that there should be information on the above website when the blocks are on the buildings.

4 comments:

Cyn said...

WOW, that's spectacular! Thanks for sharing...
/;-)

Quilt Rat said...

Fantastic!!!!
Blocks that size sure would make great stash busters!!!!

CarolB said...

What a great idea! And, I love your blog, Jacqui. Thanks for mentioning it to me at the LFQG banquet.

Gerrie said...

Thanks for posting the pictures, Jacqui. I forgot about this "anniversary" & didn't get to Wardsville.