Loon Quilt - Quilt Canada '92 Logo

The Thunder Bay Quilters Guild hosted Quilt Canada in 1992. The guild held a contest for a design to be used to create the logo quilt for the conference. The winner of the contest was Virginia Antoniak, a talented designer and quilt artist.

Virginia Antoniak's winning design for the Quilt Canada '92 Logo Quilt, incorporating trees, the Sleeping Giant (a landform visible from the city of Thunder Bay), the waves of Lake Superior, a needle and thread, and the loon. The design style is the Woodland School of native art.

I was contacted by Krystyna Perron who represented the guild and asked if I would make the logo quilt incorporating Virginia's design. I agonized for 3 months over how I would use it, because I thought the drawing was perfect in itself and would not translate well if plunked down in the middle of a bed quilt. The Quilt Canada Logo Quilts had always been bed quilts, and I strongly felt that Virginia's drawing wouldn't translate well to that format.

The risk was that the Canadian Quilter's Association members would not appreciate a wall quilt as their conference logo. I talked to Krys about my idea, and she encouraged me to do whatever I felt was right.

I worked out the construction logistics in my mind, then spent 3 weeks making the quilt. It is foundation-pieced, hand-appliqued, beaded and machine quilted. I used silver metallic thread for the needle, and a large green faceted bead for the eye.

Quilt Canada '92 Loon Logo Quilt
Designed by Virginia Antoniak,
adapted and created by Janet Rice-Bredin

Fortunately the quilt was well received! Yesterday I was contacted by the Thunder Bay Quilter's Guild and they have been given full rights to use the quilt and image as their new guild logo. You can see it on their website home page.