Cheryl Robertson has been busy designing quilts, cutting fabric and packaging kits, preparing for her debut as a Quilt Canada vendor.
The owner of Creemore House of Stitches quilting and yarn shop will be a vendor at the international quilt show in Toronto from June 15-18, where she hopes to promote not only her own business but all of Creemore.
At the event, hosted by the Canadian Quilters’ Association, there will be 400 quilts on display, including those in the National Juried Show, and more than 70 vendors.
Robertson has taken on the ambitious project of designing a lot of her own patterns that will be completely unique to her booth. With her helpers, she has put together more than 200 kits that contain a pattern and everything needed to complete the project. Many of the designs have been created with the show’s theme in mind: A Taste of Summer.
“A lot of the kits have a summer theme,” said Robertson. “The patterns are easy enough so anyone can do them.”
Robertson said vendors are required to showcase the latest fabrics in their products but what they chose to sell is up to them.
In addition to a full-size quilt and a lap quilt, she has designed four children’s quilts, one of which is an I Spy Snakes and Ladders game, complete with the dice. She has also designed picnic blankets, a wall hanging, table runner and children’s placemats in both Thomas the Tank Engine and princess themes. She is also selling fabric, notions and jelly roll fabric strips packaged in cupcake wrappers.
It is a big undertaking, said Robertson, seeing as she has no staff and is also preparing for two self-guided tours on which her shop is a stop. Creemore House of Stitches is also a part of the Lakeside Yarn Crawl and Row by Row. For both, Robertson has also designed projects. She gives the patterns away for free and she sells the kits with all the materials to those interested and the tours do bring new visitors to the village.
Robertson has been sewing for 50 years, and has made many garments, for herself and her grandchildren. She has sewn for weddings and has done many alterations over the years but while working in the corporate world she didn’t always have time for sewing. She made her first quilt in 1994. It was a memory quilt with a giant dahlia pattern, a gift for her mother after the death of her father.
After cutting out all the pieces, Robertson said she sent them by mail to family members who signed their names and sent them back, making a family tree of sorts.
Robertson then put quilting aside for a while until taking it up again eight years ago. In December, 2010, Robertson opened the quilting shop at the south end of Mill Street.
“I had always wanted to open my own shop so I took the opportunity when it became available,” she said. “I started out with very little inventory and built it up over the years.”
Three years ago, when she outgrew the shop and moved to the current location at 151-C Mill Street.
Robertson says, in preparing for the quilt show, she has had a lot of support from her fellow shopkeepers in the village. She has borrowed certain things to complete her booth and will be promoting the source.
The Quilt Canada merchant mall is open each day of the show, held at the International Centre in Toronto, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Creemore House of Stitches will be at Booth 231. For admission prices and more information, visit www.canadianquilter.com.
Robertson is also organizing a bus trip to the show on Thursday, June 16 with a behind-the-scenes look at the juried quilt show. The bus trip costs $50 and leaves at 8 a.m. For more information, call the shop at 705-466-6363.