The Big Quilt “A Child’s Dream” by Ron Morissette


As an airbrush artist I have always wanted to be recog- nised in print however I never thought it would be as a “seamstress”?!!!


The story began with a Hawaiian artist who goes by the handle of Habu. He came up with this brilliant idea and tried to get a similar project going on another site. I did a square for that quilt which was to go to a burn hospital in Tennessee. I posted the square in the Airbrush Technique Forum thinking it would be cool to do a project like this some day with our group. I got a lot of positive responses immediately. I am a very busy person and thought this would be a little much to take on but something in me didn’t want to let the idea die with closing of my computer monitor that night. I eventually jumped in with both feet hoping they wouldn’t be well planted in my mouth by this decision a few week s later! I have never made a quilt in my life nor did I have any idea how it was done.


I technically can sew but I would not say I am skilled or at least wasn’t before this. I began to research quilting on the Internet and came across a great site by a lady from the southern US who now resides here in Canada. She encouraged me to go through with the project thinking my mother in law would be doing the sewing. I went to a local Chapters and bought $45.00 worth of books on quilting and how too reference material. After reading the books within 24hrs I decided, “I can do this!” I posted my intent to go ahead and the entire community got behind it im- mediately. I wanted to make a quilt about 6 feet by 8 feet to enable it to fit a Queen size bed or make a nice wall hanging. (Completely flying by the seat of my pants at this point!) The next thing was to contact a charity that might be interested. I wanted to help children and my wife came up with the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto. I thought, “If you can’t get behind that what can you get behind then?”


It took some time to get in touch with someone who could help me out with the info. It turns out that most major charities don’t do their own fundraisers. It is done by other organizations and they add their name and blessing to the event so the public can call them to find out that it’s le- gitimate. Organizations like the United Way put on these fundraisers. All fund raisers must be registered with the


charity to ensure public confidence in it. The representa- tive was quite excited to have this opportunity. The char- ity is behind us but I have to completely finish the quilt before they can help us promote the event. I am keeping a spreadsheet of all the artists and where they are located in the world. I want to make up a binder with all of the artwork printed up inside and have the names of the artist and where they live.


As I write this article we currently have a total of 26 art- ists involved from at least 4 countries and 3 continents. That is somewhat awesome to comprehend for a 41-year- old construction inspector. It is my honour to bring people together from all over the globe to do a little bit of local community service possibly changing lives one “square” at a time. It appears that this might turn out to be a longer ride than I thought. It will likely take several months to put this quilt together. I have to construct the quilt top by trimming all the squares, placing the filler pieces between squares and placing the border around the entire project. The next step will be to get a quilt back and some batting for the inside and put it together with light long stitches or pins. This is where the heavy slogging starts. I have to then stitch every joint together through the batting sewing it to the backing fabric using elaborate patterns to make it one solid mass. I will do that by sewing machine otherwise my next of kin will have to pick up the project after I pass on! That technique must start at the middle of the quilt and work its way out to the edges. Once this is done I will then bind the edges placing loops for hanging and a quilt label with the title on the back.


Artist that work on squares for the quilt: Sean McGraw


Chuck Genge Brian Feicht


Jerry Flemming Ron Morissette Doug Probst


Kimmo Jurvanen Giles Caron


Sharryn Reihart Darla Hagensick


Andreas Barr Jammer


Chris Duncan Lorin Gipe Paul Morgan Lee Fowler Blair Elliot Eric Bain Jeff O


Jim Ferraro and family


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