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The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

 

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

 

Dedicated to

Kwil’s Prairie Aunt Joan Rea,

Fynley H. and ALL Canadians

 

 

Kwil has stitched a little poem

Yet it's not so very small!

It patches provinces and territories

In a pattern of love for all!

 

You may not yet have heard. . .

Just ask frizzy-fuzzy Kwil!

His Prairie Aunt is . . .

"The Great Canadian Quilter”

Her sharps and notions never still!

 

A quintessential Canadian quilter!

She knows how dreams are built!

So she 'set' up a creative challenge:

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt!

 

It took many happy years!

She knew precisely what to do!

Quilting was her way to sparkle

Blocking, basting, binding, easing. . .

Gorgeous gifts for me and you!

 

This meant...

 

Long days piecing and pressing.

Stippling, sashing, scrimming,

and serging with joy!

Wrapping Canadians in a cuddle quilt!

A gift for women, men, girls, boys!

 

Kwil’s Prairie Aunt lived in Alberta,

Over the Rockies from Kwil.

So she quilted to nearby west,

Before heading north and east—

An explorer's love-filled thrill!

 

She stitched and sewed the pieces

On scorching or freezing days

She would recite

a prairie piece-work poem.

She'd smile and stitch and say:

 

Canada is a wondrous place. 

It is home to you and me. 

Canada is a loving place 

It's our patchwork country.  

 

Canadians are its people, 

People like you and me! 

Gentle, caring, proud, strong . . . 

A loving patchwork family. 

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt 

Will cover vast, rugged country, 

Embracing young and old. 

A patchwork quilt of love 

Keeping Canadians from the cold. 

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

grew over the Rockies

And West Coast Mountains too.

It draped the Mackenzies

and Pacific islands

As it grew and grew and grew!

 

In fact...

 

It grew north-east

across Canada’s upper third,

Yukon and Northwest Territories

so c-c-cold and vast.

Then blocking and binding in Nunavut

It backstitched Canada’s future

And echo-quilted past!

 

It grew south and west across

the rolling patchwork Prairies.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and

Manitoba’s wide-open lands.

All provinces she'd see in summer

Roaring off to “fill her eyes”. . .

In her Prairie Aunt van!

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

kept right on growing,

Stitches running up and down

And even if she grew weary. . .

Not a simper, sigh, or frown!

 

She stitched and sewed the pieces

On scorching or freezing days

She would recite

a prairie piece-work poem.

She'd smile and stitch and say:

 

Canada is a wondrous place. 

It is home to you and me. 

Canada is a loving place 

It is our patchwork country.  

 

Canadians are its people, 

People like you and me! 

Gentle, caring, proud, strong . . . 

A loving patchwork family. 

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt 

Will cover this vast, rugged country, 

Embracing young and old. 

A patchwork quilt of love 

Keeping Canadians from the cold. 

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

kept right on growing

Draping Ontario and Quebec!

Two great neighbours side-by-side

Sharing Hudson and James Bay

and “Les Grand Lacs”

 

It did not stop there, of course.

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

kept growing strong.

Newfoundland and New Brunswick were next,

Draping mainland and islands.

Reveling in the stashes

of hearty, hand-stitched song.

 

And yet. . .

 

On and on and on it grew!

Draping Nova Scotia

and Prince Edward Island too!

Provinces she loved to visit.

Oh, the colourful memories…

She'd sit and stitch and sift through!

 

As she stitched and sewed the pieces

On scorching or freezing prairie days

She would recite

a prairie piece-work poem.

She'd smile and stitch and say:

 

Canada is a wondrous place.

It is home to you and me.

Canada is a loving place

It is our patchwork country.

 

Canadians are its people,

People like you and me!

Gentle, caring, proud, strong . . .

A loving patchwork family.

 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt

Will cover this vast, rugged country,

Embracing young and old.

A patchwork quilt of love

Keeping Canadians from the cold.

 

And NOW?

 

Now her life’s work is done

It's her turn to sit back,

rock, roll, and rest!

She's 'cuddled up' Canadians

A loving, growing family—

From north to south to east to west!

 

Some may think this is batty,

Like the batting in a quilt!?

But Kwil's Prairie Aunt

comes from the generation

When Canada was built!

 

She knows better than to worry.

All doubts she's left behind.

Reciting her prairie piece-work poem,

Stitching and sewing in her mind:

 

Canada is a wondrous place. 

It is home to you and me. 

Canada is a loving place 

It is our patchwork country.  

Canadians are its people, 

People like you and me! 

Gentle, caring, proud, strong . . .

A loving patchwork family. 

The Great Canadian Cuddle Quilt 

Covers this vast, rugged country, 

Embracing young and old. 

A lofty patchwork quilt of love 

Keeping Canadians from the cold. 

 

©1999 Kalen Marquis