Prairie Wind & Silver Sage

Friends of Grasslands

Homescapes

A COMMUNITY QUILT

This book has been created to commemorate the Homescapes Quilt Project initiated by Colette Schmidt in 2005. 98 pages, softcover, 42 illustrations; Introduction by Colette Schmidt, Afterword by Laureen Marchand The individual blocks of the quilt are accompanied by a family story by the person who made the block. Published through PWSS, produced by Harland Press printed by Blitzprint

Prairie Stories in Word and Quilt

This book has been created to commemorate the Homescapes Quilt Project initiated by Colette Schmidt in 2005.
98 pages, softcover, 42 illustrations;
Introduction by Colette Schmidt, Afterword by Laureen Marchand
The individual blocks of the quilt are accompanied by a family story by the person who made the block.
Published through PWSS, produced by Harland Press, printed by Blitzprint

PREVIEW HOMESCAPES ON THE BLURB WEBSITE

In 2004, as a participatory project with the major Canadian dance event Grasslands — Where Heaven meets Earth, which was held in Val Marie, local resident Colette Schmidt brought together over 60 people from Val Marie and area to create Homescapes: A Community Quilt. The quilt was made of 40 handmade quilt blocks and stitched over almost 270 hours into a commemorative group artwork representing home, home place, or community. It has hung in the lobby of Prairie Wind & Silver Sage at the Little Brick Schoolhouse ever since, reminding everyone who sees it of how valuable home is.

In 2012 this community commitment was taken one step further and made into a book. Homescapes: A Community Quilt was designed by Prairie Wind board member Pamela Woodland into a beautiful commemorative volume.

“The purpose of the quilt project was to reflect ones sense of home, belonging, special place and to transcribe it into a 12″ x 12″ quilt block. The quilt was to support the Prairie Wind and Silver Sage mandate of creating a link between Grasslands National Park and the community. Most importantly, the quilt was to bring members of the community back into PWSS and have reason to return with visiting friends and family.

The goal was to have twelve quilt blocks submitted with accompanying stories behind each block. Invitations to submit were sent out to communities surrounding both blocks, through word of mouth to family no longer living in the community and two local Hutterite colonies. The response was overwhelming. We received a total of forty squares.”
— Colette Schmidt, from the Introduction