105 Nored Plaza 6750 Island Hwy. N., Nanaimo

250-390-3602

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UPCOMMING EVENTS

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Join us on Friday, January 9th & Saturday, January 10th for our:

* OPEN HOUSE *

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While you're waiting for me to post some more events you may as well check out the Quilting Traditions/Superstitions after the 'PAST EVENTS' section.

PAST EVENTS

(SEE TABS AT TOP OF PAGE FOR PREVIOUS YEARS)

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While you're waiting for me to post some more events you may as well read the following:

Quilting Traditions/Superstitions

- After a quilt is completed the quilter will sleep with the quilt for one night and then it is given to that special person whom it was made for.

- When a person is ill it is said that if they sleep with a quilt all the love from that quilt will help heal them.

- Never make human figures on a quilt. It is believed that the figures will walk and visit you at night.

- Never take a quilt pattern and change its design to make it your own. It was considered stealing. Each quilt design was made special for a particular person and in stealing it you have stolen part of their spirit.

- "Shaking the Cat" meant that a cat was placed on a quilt and usually four girls would grasp the edges and shake the quilt. When the cat jumped off, the girl closest to the cat would marry next!

- Quilters believe that if you sleep under a new quilt, your dreams will come true!

- Quilters believe that if a thread broke while quilting, it would bring bad luck!

- If a young lady collected 999 different buttons or fabrics, the 1000th would be brought to her by her one true love.

- Shake a new quilt out the front door. The next person to come in will be the one you will marry.

- As soon as a quilt is taken off the frame, wrap the cover around an unmarried woman to give her the luck to find a mate or throw it around the first single man to charm him into a relationship.

- If you break a needle while quilting, the next new baby will be yours. A pick with the needle while quilting means a kiss given under the covers.

- Put the last stitch in a quilt sewn with other workers and you'll be the next to acquire a mate.

The first person to sleep under a new quilt that has not been made as part of a trousseau will get a glimpse of his/her future mate in that night's dream.

- Beware the quilt pattern known as "turkey tracks"-sleeping under it night after night might turn your mate into the wandering, unfaithful type.

- If an unmarried girl puts in the last stitch of the quilting, she will be an old maid.

- If the thread breaks, it will bring bad fortune.

- Lone Star quilts can be bad luck in certain circumstances; a single girl who makes one will never marry.

- Sleep under a new quilt and you dreams will come true.

- During the Victorian Era it was considered to be very bad luck to begin a quilting project but not complete it. If you began such a project it must always have been completed or it was believed that marriage would never come to you.

- It used to be thought that a girl should have 12 completed quilts by the time she was wed to ensure marital bliss.

- If a special wedding quilt was made, only the bride-to-be or her immediate family would work on the quilt. Once a wedding date was set, the quilter and her family would buy fabric, filling and thread to finish the quilts, often with the help of "quilting bees," gatherings of friends and neighbors who helped finish the new household bedding.

- It's bad luck to patch an old quilt or comforter, but it's OK to darn small rips or tears.

- Break a needle while making a dress for yourself and you won't live to wear it out. Breaking a needle while making clothes for others carries no curse.

- Sew after sunset and you'll be poor your entire life.

- Once stretched on the frame, a quilt must "never be turned around" or one of the quilters will go blind or her hands will be paralyzed.

- Packing textiles away with sassafras leaves keeps bugs away, but only if you recite a secret incantation when you do it. [The incantation isn't necessary - sassafras does have some insect-repellent qualities.]

- At a quilting bee, wrap an engaged girl in the quilt and roll her under the bed. [No reason is given for this custom!]

- A bride may not sell whatever dress she's married in, but she can wear it, give it to a younger sister, or cut it up to be used in quilts.