A Community Quilt of Stories, Place, and Connection
The Grand River Quilt is a collaborative textile artwork created by people who live, work, and gather along the length of the Grand River, from Dundalk to Dunnville, including Six Nations of the Grand River. The quilt grew out of The Grand River Community Play: The Voice of a River (2022), emerging from a series of community conversations and hands-on workshops that invited participants to reflect on their personal relationship to the river.
About the Quilt
The quilt is composed of 12” x 12” textile squares, each handmade by an individual or a group. Every square is accompanied by a short written piece—a story or poem—that speaks to the creator’s connection to the Grand River. Together, these textile and written elements form a collective portrait of the river as a place of memory, care, identity, and shared responsibility.
Tour and Exhibitions
In the summer of 2025, The Grand River Quilt traveled the length of the river as part of the Grand River Community Play Project. The tour began in Dundalk and concluded with a “grand” finale at Chiefswood on Six Nations of the Grand River territory, emphasizing the quilt’s role as a gathering place and storytelling catalyst.
Join us for the launch of the Grand River Quilt Project Tour on April 11 & 12 at WEFTFest held at the Hampton Inn, 55 Benjamin Rd, Waterloo by the St. Jacobs Market.
We are honoured to be exhibiting alongside the Quilt of Belonging and many other community quilts and guilds. For more information, please visit: https://weftfest.ca/
Saturday April 11 9am – 5pm, Sunday April 12 10am – 5pm. Free Entry
Community Process
Community participation is at the heart of the project. The quilt was created through a series of workshops held along the Grand River, welcoming participants of all ages and experience levels. No prior quilting experience was required, only a willingness to share time, stories, and care for the river.
Each workshop created space for conversation, reflection, and making, resulting in a work that is as much about process as it is about the finished quilt.
Learn More
Photographs of the quilt and the accompanying stories are available online
Photographs along the way from 2022 to 2025
For questions about the project or upcoming exhibitions, please email Pat Flood.
Meet the Co-Creators
Sharon Gashgarian and Pat Flood
The Grand River Quilt has been a “labour of love” shared by Patricia Flood and Sharon Gashgarian. They met at a Voice of the River workshop in Brantford in 2022. Sharon suggested the idea, and Pat joined in to help where she could. Since then, they’ve both travelled the length of the Grand, holding workshops and showing the quilt.
Sharon (on the left) is a community-engaged artist and cultural organizer based in Brantford. She loves all forms of textile art, but particularly quilts as a form of storytelling, remembrance, and connection. Her work bridges art and community practice, lived experience and the quiet, enduring language of cloth.
Pat (on the right) is a painter, theatre, film, and television designer and a past President of the Associated Designers of Canada. She is the author of Susan Benson: Art, Design, Craft (Firefly Books) and recently retired from teaching in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.
