The Parkside Centre is alive with the sounds of people having fun and enjoying themselves. At times, it can be downright noisy.
The community centre, located on Durham Street next to the YMCA, offers a variety of opportunities for people aged 50 and older to stimulate their creative energies. These activities include ballroom dancing, guitar lessons, and writing and drawing classes. There's live entertainment and lunch most Fridays.
Many groups, such as the Sudbury District Quilting and Stitchery Guild, hold their meetings at the Parkside Centre.
The quilting guild meets on the first Tuesday of each month although some special interest or "cottage" groups get together on other evenings.
Marjorie McEwen is president of the guild, which has 121 members and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2025.
"I am passionate about sewing. I love the precision of it," said the retired nurse, who discovered the pleasures of sewing, knitting and needlework when she was a girl.
Vice-president Susan Young also enjoys the detailed work and said, "figuring out patterns is fun."
Young had always enjoyed needlework and became an active quilter after she retired from her administrative job at Laurentian University.
Quilting, the practice of stitching together layers of padding and fabric, dates back to ancient times. Their makers turned them into folk art with colourful unique patterns.
While sewing and knitting may be considered "women's work”, it has not always been that way. Tailoring is a traditionally male occupation. In the Middle Ages, there were men's knitting guilds. In 18th-century Scotland, entire families knitted woolens for income. Men made their living as lacemakers in 19th-century Belgium.
The Sudbury guild does not have any male members at this time although a small percentage of Canadian men today are engaged in fabric arts and there is a Canadian male quilters organization.
Interest in "hands-on hobbies" such as quilting, knitting, embroidery and weaving is growing in part because people were looking for something to do during the COVID-19 lockdown. Millennials are discovering fabric arts as a way for self-expression.
Craft stores have reported a surge in business that continues. Pinterest’s trend report in 2021 claimed, “Embroidery is the new tie-dye.”
"The whole craft has changed" said McEwen. "The style of quilting is changing. Almost no one hand quilts now, no one has the time."
She explained the laborious task of sewing the patterned top layer, the middle batting and the backing of the quilt together is usually done by a longarm quilting machine rather than by an individual or a group of women hand stitching at a traditional "quilting bee." This allows the maker more time to be creative.
"People are embellishing their quilts with beads, and modern art is entering the construction of the quilt tops. It is not the traditional stars. It is people designing new ones and making it very modern."
Young adds, "It is modernized now. Before it was a needle and thread and a sewing machine. Now we have all kinds of gadgets that make it a little easier."
Every three years, the guild hosts Quilts on the Rocks, an exhibit of their work. The next exhibit will be held October 2024 at the Northbury Hotel.
"We need a large space because our quilters have been busy during the pandemic and the 2021 event was cancelled," said McEwen.
Quilt on the Rocks raises money to buy materials for its Community Quilt Program. The quilters make as many as 350 quilts for distribution to long-term care homes, Genevra House, Monarch Recovery Services, Our Children, Our Future, Maison McCulloch Hospice, and Health Sciences North.
The sewing group also participates in the Quilts of Valour project, which makes "thank-you" quilts for members of the Canadian Armed Forces and veterans.
The Sudbury guild is not currently offering classes for beginners, but they encourage new members and are willing to share their knowledge.
Vicki Gilhula is a freelance writer. Arts & Culture is made possible by our Community Leaders Program.