Community Quilt

Photo Jamie Cruickshank

This large community quilt, 16'high x 6'wide, is a project which Moon Rain Centre directed for the Canadian Tulip Festival.

The project was designed and directed by Gabby Ewen, who is project co-ordinator for Moon Rain Centre. Textile artists, Owen Tuf, Phyllis Wedding, Jocelyne Ladouceur, Andie Haltrich and Thoma Ewen, artistic director of Moon Rain Centre, all assisted on the quilt project.

Community participants and visitors to the Canadian Tulip Festival wrote messages of peace and friendship onto ribbons that were appliqued to make the tulip flower, stem and leaves. One message I found significant is, "peace is not a solo activity". The signatures of participants are on the green rectangles that make the border. This is part of Moon Rain Centre's large "Vision Weave Project". www.visionweaveproject.blogspot.com

The Canadian Tulip Festival, now in it's 59th year, commemorates Holland's gift of tulip bulbs as thanks for Canada's hospitality to the Dutch Royal Family during the Second World War.

The Quilt was made on site at the festival in Major's Hill Park in Ottawa in

May 2011.
It has now been delivered to the Canadian Tulip Festival offices in Ottawa.

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project

Moon Rain and Gabby Ewen are excited to present  The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project, FUNtasia, Major’s Hill Park, Ottawa, May 6-23 2011.

The Kaleidoscope Quilt is the Canadian Tulip Festival’s visual celebration of Peace and Friendship through Colours, Culture and Community.

This unique piece of textile art will be created by the Canadian Tulip Festival’s 25,000 community members, in partnership with Moon Rain Centre www.moonrain.ca with textile artist Gabby Ewen’s direction.

The Kaleidoscope Quilt will be created using appliqué quilting and contemporary textile techniques and working with satin ribbons and brilliantly coloured fabrics which will be pieced and hand-sewn into the image of a radiant tulip in full bloom.

The Kaleidoscope Community Quilt Project is a hands-on intercultural, intergenerational participatory art activity that will be set up on the festival site for the duration of the Canadian Tulip Festival. Participants are invited to personalize a piece of fabric or ribbon by contributing a positive message of Peace and Friendship.

Messages of Peace and Friendship will be recorded and displayed, and all participants will be invited to sign, along the border of the quilt. The incorporation of these signatures into the art piece creates an active “living” record of all the community contributors and attests to the iconic quality of this legacy project.
For more information check out the offical website at

http://www.tulipfestival.ca/2011/03/21/the-kaleidoscope-community-quilt-project/

The Vision Weave Project

Vision Weave is an interactive community arts project that integrates fibre arts, text messages and community visioning in the creation of woven public art.

In Vision Weave, each community participant is given a strip of fabric on which they write their message or vision for a peaceful future and then interweave it into a collective tapestry.

info@moonrain.ca     http://www.moonrain.ca/   visionweaveproject@gmail.com