Sackets Harbor, NY — Dyan Swamp of Hogansburg, NY, has been named one of the featured quilters at the March 20-21, 2010 Great Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show & Challenge at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY. Swamp will display a diverse collection of quilts that fit the show’s Circles and Wheels theme as well work that represent Native culture.
Swamp made her first quilt while awaiting her first child. In 1997, she opened her own quilt store – Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop on the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation in Hogansburg, and now has 6,000 bolts of fabric from which to select colors, patterns and textures for her quilting projects.
“I am currently designing a “Dreamcatcher†quilt. I know how to make a traditional dreamcatcher using leather and feathers, but I have never made one in fabric. I have just begun drawing the pattern,†Swamp said in late January.
The names of other quilts that Swamp will display at the March show give an indication of the diversity of her work.
“Medicine Wheel has a native Mohawk theme. Snail’s Trail is done in ocean colors of blues and greens. Spiral is a 36-inch round quilt that is striking in shades of black, beige, and rust Native theme prints,†Swamp said.
Other quilts, wallhangings and miniatures by Swamp feature waves, curves or a celestial theme. A P&B Fabrics Challenge quilt is made with 100 different pieces of fabric. She has adapted a Dresden plate pattern into a wallhanging that resembles a shelf.
Great Lakes Seaway Trail President and CEO Teresa Mitchell says, “Dyan Swamp of Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show since it began. We are pleased to feature her quilting art as a Great Lakes Seaway Trail-based artisan, a friend of the byway and a Native quilter at our 10th anniversary show.â€Â
Swamp’s quilted artistry and fabric vendor’s booth will be on the second of three floors of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center in the historic former Union Hotel built in 1817-18 in Sackets Harbor. Swamp, a self-taught quilter, teaches classes at her shop and at quilting festivals and says the current economy has more people staying home to sew and quilt.
Other featured quilters at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail show include Bella Bella Quilts author Norah McMeeking of California and award-winning quilter and designer Mary Knapp of Watertown.
Quilting demonstrators, vendors, and the Fort Drum Chapter of Operation Kid Comfort project that makes quilts for military families are also show participants.
The Orleans County Country Barn Quilt Trail of Western NY, a 22-mile loop tour off the Great Lakes Seaway Trail byway with more than 40 barns with hand-painted quilt block patterns, is a co-sponsor of the show.
Call 315-646-1000 for more information. #
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