The  Montreal Council of Women celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 1993. President Amy Williams and her organizing committee asked for special memorabilia that would represent the 80 federated societies that had adhered to MCW over the years.

l was on that committee and suggested a "quilt" that would be made of all the emblems/logos of our members. We asked them to provide their emblem in a special format that could be integrated in a tapestry. We received an overwhelming enthusiastic response. I volunteered to work at it.  I distributed to all presidents of our 80 societies a square of sturdy cotton 12X12 inches that was to be used to illustrate their logo by painting, embroidery, stitching, etc.. The artists were to respect the size of the sample and the authenticity of their logo. We even supplied an artist embroiderer, Shirley Cohen who volunteered to embroider the ones that could not be done for lack of a volunteer. Shirley embroidered with great skill at least twenty of them! After six months of work from the artists, we collected the squares and started to put them together. What a job! We had to "mix and match"' colors and designs to come out with a real work of art.

After many hours of shifting the pieces on my dining room table, discussing the emplacement of the squares, my two helpers, Mary Howsen and Sophia Economides helped me stitch the squares on a cotton background, finished the borders, made loops to hang the tapestry on a curtain rod, and Hallelujah!  we came up with a most interesting piece of "quilting" to show off!. It was beautiful. The logos were done in varied fashion, colourful, some were very artfully crafted.

On the day of the MCW ‘s anniversary, the Gazette put our banner on the first page with a very good article presenting the Council and its busy members, proudly showing our masterpiece to the Montrealers. We considered our tapestry a wonderful heritage for the Council, one to keep and revere for years to come.

Jeanne Maranda