Over the long weekend in Canowindra the annual Airing of the Quilts was on, which show-cased the best local and regional patchwork talent as well as promoting the town. Debbie Guihot, one of the organisers of the event, thought the weekend was very successful with 85-recorded quilts displayed in shop windows.
Unfortunately, the quilts couldn’t be aired on the verandahs this year due to the wet weather, however they certainly lit up the main street shop windows. Debbie’s concept for the airing of the quilts is for them to come out for spring after a long, dreary winter, though the main initiative of the event is to promote Canowindra. “Showing them off publicly in Gaskill Street is a good way to showcase our town, to get people to pull over and stop, get out of their car, walk around and really look at what we have to offer.”
Quilts cover all types of techniques ranging from traditional, whole cloth quilts, single colour, quilted by hand and contemporary to
some of the simplest work done by fabric panelling and simple borders. The wet weather and flooding caused some concern among organisers about being down in numbers. When time came to hang them out, organisers soon realised this was not the case as there were plenty on show.
This years quilts were much larger and goes to show the time and effort that has been put in to making them. The standout quilt came all the way from Canberra and was proudly hung in The Plague and I. Although quilts come from all across the Central West and Canberra, locals still contribute the most to the event. Some of the quilts displayed are also available for sale. “Some of our local quilts are outstanding!” Debbie Guihot said. Organisers of the event were Debbie Guihot, Fiona Ferguson and Robyn Wilkinson, who all did an exceptional job in organising the event for the town.