We celebrated a Sparkling 50th Anniversary Celebration Reception for Members, past and present, on Wednesday, 11 June 2025 at 6.30pm to 8.30pm. There were sparkling drinks and canapes as well as some exhibits and speakers from our membership.
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The first Guild meeting in Etobicoke was held at the historic Montgomery Inn, located n the west-end of Toronto. Almost 100 people were in attendance and about 60 of them signed up for membership.
Over the years the Guild met at several different venues around Etobicoke, including historic sites and libraries.
Eventually, a home was found at the Neilson Park Creative Centre in 1993 – a city owned building especially designed to house artistic activities.
A LITTLE BIT OF OUR HISTORY
THE 70’s
1975
EQG was established by a group headed by Sandy Small Proudfoot and her quilting students from Humber College.
It was the second quilt guild formed in Canada as first guild to form in Canada was by Mary Conroy in Sudbury.
The first official meeting was held on 30th September at Montgomery’s Inn with over 100 people in attendance. The first guest speaker was lifelong Malton quilter Annie May Johnston, who featured over 30 of her marvelous quilts. There was even one male member, Garnet Tracy, a retired teacher who made wonderful hand-quilted quilts. A current member, Lorraine Colbourn, was in attendance at this first meeting and current members Laura Christie and Peggy Girvan joined the guild shortly afterwards. The first guild newsletter was published and would soon be named The Scrap Bag.
1976
The first EQG Quilt Show was held on 8th and 9th May at the McGuire Gallery at Humber College. It was described as ‘a giant step forward in Canadian quilt making’. It showcased 50 quilts, as well as several wall hangings, two areas for large and small quilt frame demonstrations, plus a craft sale area.
1977
EQG introduced their first bus trip to the Simcoe County Quilt, Rug and Craft Fair.
The cost of $7.00 included bus fare and show admission.
Members were encouraged to wear name badges to meetings, as membership rose to 129 members.
A grant awarded to EQG from Wintario, and co-sponsored by the York Heritage Quilters Guild.
Sandy Small Proudfoot conceived and co-convened the first Canadian Quilt Conference at York University with the support of the guild. The guild was instrumental in helping York Hertiage and Niagara Heritage Guilds to form as quilters from both areas attended our EQG meetings.
1978
A draft constitution was prepared for presentation to the EQG membership. It was passed at the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, April 18, 1978.
1979
A contest was held to create the first EQG logo. The winner, Marg Corcoran, was announced during the April members’ meeting. The original design colour: brown.
THE 80’s
1980
Membership climbed to 167 strong.
1981
The Etobicoke Quilters’ Guild and the York Heritage Quilters Guild co-hosted
Quilt Toronto ’81 at York University’s Glendon College. Approximately 2,000 people, plus another 300 delegates, were in attendance. During the conference, a small group decided it was time to form a national organization and in 1982, YHQG hosted the first annual meeting of the Canadian Quilters Association / Association Canadienne de la Courtepointe.
1985
In celebration of our 10th Anniversary, EQG hosted a contest to create a new logo for our guild. Designed by Peggy Girvan, her winning entry, with the addition of a border (co-designed by Angie Krotowski) is still used by EQG today.
The Albion & Bolton Agricultural Society sponsored a juried quilt block competition.
EQG won First Prize for a ‘Quilt Made by a Group’.
1986
Peggy Girvan kindly let us have this pic of a calendar we produced in 1986.
1988
EQG was incorporated.
Our first directors were Sandra Lowry (still an active member), Anne Steele, Gabrielle Robert, Leah Batty, Katheryn Kilmer, Erla Macaulay, Linda Heron and Peggy Girvan (still an active member).
THE 90’s
1993
Wendy Smith who is still a quilter with us was on the sub committee that planned and got Neilson Park built. The main voice was Kathleen Haushalter, who worked tirelessly with the City of Etobicoke and the committee members, architects, everyone! The Quilters, were one of the original groups involved. We had input into planning Studio C and we moved into Neilson Park the minute it opened. The Opening was February 12 – 14, 1993. The Etobicoke Quilters’ Guild president at that time was Heather Sproule and there was a big debate as to whether the NPCC membership fees could be more than $5.00 a year!
Through a generous donation by the late Louise Sugrue’s family, a collection of 300 quilting books and magazines were donated, creating a very extensive Guild library.
The first “EQG Challenge” was born. Participating members were given a specific fabric and challenged to use it in their creation. Viewers would decide the winner based on the best use of the provided fabric and the incorporation of at least one nine-patch block, in addition to the overall presentation. The Challenge was on display at the NPCC Gallery from June 6-19.
1995
A note from September 11 meeting minutes:
“E.Q.G has been put on the internet.”
1999
This graphic shows an incredible ending to this decade: Articles made and distributed by members of the Etobicoke Quilters’ Guild.
THE 2000‘s
2000
We celebrated 25 years as a Guild.
2001
EQG has supported local charities since it’s inception and continued to do so as one of its mandates. This year alone, EQG donated 260 quilts to 12 charitable agencies. An additional 12 quilts were donated to the Breast Cancer Quilt Auction, which raised $7,835.
2002
The incredible generosity of our members continued. Over 200 quilts, 300 wheelchair bags were donated, plus 13 quilts for the Breast Cancer Quilt Auction.
For our quilt show, Quilt Fever, 250 volunteer slots were filled to make the show a success.
2008
The Garnet Tracy Hand Quilting Award was created and first awarded at Quilt Fever 2010.
2008/9
Peggy Girvan and Joy Brennan (both present-day EQG members) have been friends forever, since their children were toddlers. They met at Richview Library during children’s programming they took their kids to. Fast forward to 2008 when Joy (and her husband Len) began scoping out quilt shop routes in Canada and the US. In 2009, with the assistance of a local travel company, they began hosting these roadtrips for EQG. Steadfastly committed to the fun, food, and adventure, they ran the roadtrips for a decade. The photo below was of the participants who travelled to Des Moine Iowa. Recognize anyone?
Joy is at the forefront on the left wearing monochromatic browns.
THE 2010‘s
2015
EQG celebrated our 40th Anniversary as a Guild with a special luncheon held at the Islington Golf Club.
THE 2020’s
2020-2021 THE PANDEMIC
The Guild faced some new and interesting challenges during the pandemic! The first thing we did was to get some distant presenters for our regular monthly meetings which switched over to Zoom. We maintained that for the duration and we really enjoyed being able to take in the presentations from people that we never would have been able to enjoy otherwise.
Because we couldn’t meet regularly in Studio C during this time, we had a virtual gathering every Monday morning – very cleverly named “Studio Z” (which works better when you say it the American way). Led, organized and arranged by Brenda Shewchuk, each session had opportunities for people to chat with each other, share their latest projects and then watch a video or two. This regular (virtual) gathering proved to be especially valuable when one of our members cruelly lost her life and we were able to grieve with each other and process the sadness all together as a group.
During this time we also made two quilts together—one with 215 small orange pieces to commemorate the horror of the Indian residential schools, and a larger one with variations of the Friendship Star block as a thank you gift to Brenda.
The pandemic provided a lot of challenges, but together our guild really pulled together and in many ways, became even closer.
TODAY
2025
Etobicoke Quilters’ Guild is proud to be celebrating our 50th Anniversary with a membership of 175 strong.
We continue to welcome both new and experienced quilters from Etobicoke and beyond.
In hosting our biennial Quilt Show, Quilt Fever, March 28th and 29th, we were pleased to showcase over 130 incredible works of art to the public.
We are proud to be recognized as one of the oldest established quilting guilds in Canada and we hope to continue to guide quilters in the art of quilting for the next 50 years.
All Information from the EQG Archives