Deborah Barlow has spent countless hours conceptualizing, sewing and perfecting her quilts. Now, after an estimated 25 years of involvement with the Saskatoon Quilters’ Guild, she is the featured quilter for the group’s biannual Quilt Extravaganza. “I sewed clothing as a teenager. I made lots of clothes, never made quilts, but my grandmother made quilts in the 30s and 40s. And I have a couple of hers that are just a treasure for me. I wish I had been able to quilt with her. So I didn’t take up quilting until after I was ready to have a hobby when my kids were older,” Barlow said. The two-day event is an opportunity for quilters to showcase their art and learn from one another. The extravaganza also features vendors and educational sessions for those in attendance. Every other year, the event brings in quilters from across the country. There is also a featured quilter at each event. This year, Barlow was selected to showcase her various styles of quilts and share her expertise with the group. “This guild is so talented and they work together so well, and you can see the organization that it takes to put on one of these shows. And the diversity of pieces. There’s something for everybody in this show. This is the best guild show in Canada. It really is. And so for me to be the featured quilter from this talented group is just an honour, a huge honour,” Barlow said. Barlow says her background as a florist often lends itself well to her quilting. “It doesn’t matter the medium that you’re working in for design. As a florist, we work with the elements and principles of design and textures and feel and fabrics just was a secondary. It was just a natural thing to transition to working with fabrics from the other career I had,” Barlow said. While she had a number of quilts on display, Barlow’s piece titled Weir Fishing caught the attention of many. The art quilt, which depicts a group of pelicans, has won a number of awards including the 2024 National Juried Show Best in Show Award. The piece has also travelled to various international quilting shows. “I go to the weir and take photos. Never got the right shot. And then suddenly I saw in the newspaper this shot that Jeff Lyons, a photographer, had published in the paper. And I contacted him and he generously gave me the photograph, which I drew a pattern from, and then created the imagery from that,” Barlow said. The featured quilter recalled how joining the Saskatoon Quilters’ Guild helped her learn more about the various styles of quilting. “I started out doing traditional quilts and I used to just do scrap quilts. And then I found out that there was a guild in the city, and I joined the guild, and I learned that there are art quilts. There’s all different things. It just opened up a whole new world to me, and then it became my passion,” Barlow said. Barlow shares hope that as those in attendance were heading home after the show, they received some inspiration from the work of the Saskatoon Quilters’ Guild. “I hope they’re inspired just to do a little artwork, whether it’s a sketch or go home and piece a table runner or work on a quilt … just be inspired to work and to work on something that’s good for the brain,” Barlow said.
