The Citizen, 2009-07-16, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 16, 2009.
The former home of The
Green Gallery has gone in a
new direction: The Quilters
Way.
Judy Kucharski has just
moved into town, spent some
difficult days putting her shop
together, but now she is ready
and open for all of the
public’s quilting needs.
After a trip here in January,
Kucharski says she fell in
love with Blyth before she
even knew much about it.
Only now that her store is
open and summer has come,
did she even know about the
Blyth Festival, the Threshers
Reunion and other attractions
that fill the village’s calendar
every year. She says now that
she is seeing the full portrait,
she loves Blyth even more.
“I love this area. I love
nothing more than to just go
for a drive,” she says. “You
get to see the rolling hills and
the farmers working in the
fields. It’s beautiful.”
Kucharski has been quilting
for nearly 15 years and
opened a store over three
years ago at her last home
near Port Dover. The quilting
market there, however, was
too concentrated. She wanted
to serve a community that
didn’t have a hub for its
quilting community.
She closed the deal on the
location in April and began
working to make her shop
look the way it does today.
The Quilters Way is
stocked with rolls of fabric
ready to be worked together.
Kucharski says she is more
than happy to be
commissioned to do quilts,
but that her store features all
of the tools for people to get
quilting on their own.
At her last store, Kucharski
began long-arming, a very
advanced technique when
making quilts.
She calls quilting one of her
two true passions in life, that
and tea.
Kucharski says that while
she has been quilting for more
than a decade, she has been
sewing since she was very
young. However, it was one
day when she was living in
Georgia and she visited her
local book store in search of a
good book to read, that she
stumbled upon her newfound
passion.
She picked up a book on
quilting, something she knew
nothing about and had never
before considered, but once
she began, she kept going,
and she still hasn’t stopped.
After deciding to relocate,
Kucharski began looking all
over the province in 2006.
She drove all over the place
looking for the perfect
location, until she found it in
Blyth, taking a drive to Huron
County in the winter.
She says that she has
already had people come up
to her, expressing their
excitement that her store is up
and running. And while she is
looking forward to giving the
community a hand with its
quilting, she is still taking on
projects of her own.
A customer recently asked
her to make a quilt out of her
son’s old hockey jerseys, as
he prepared to be shipped
overseas through the
Canadian military.
For years, Kucharski
worked for the Mastercard
division of the Bank of
Montreal. However, several
years ago her position was to
be changed and she was
offered a buy-out package, a
decision which she will never
regret, she says.
“I would never go back,”
she said. “Sure there have
been a few sleepless nights,
but you meet so many
different people. It’s just a
completely different
world.”
For her future plans,
Kucharski says that she wants
to feature some local artists’
paintings on her walls, and
eventually open a full scale
gallery above The Quilters
Way. She also wants to
expand to include workshops
and clinics on quilting very
soon.
She is currently looking for
teachers to help her with
potential future clinics.
Judy can be reached at The
Quilters Way at 519-523-
9515.
THE EDITOR,
Epilepsy Huron Perth is a
non-profit organization that
provides programs and
services to Huron and Perth
Counties. We provide
information sessions to area
schools, the public, service
providers, school boards,
service clubs etc. We offer
support to individuals and
their families affected by
epilepsy either in their home
or at our office as well as
support groups and peer to
peer support.
Did you know that epilepsy
affects one in 100 people, two
in 100 students will be
diagnosed with epilepsy, one
in 14 seniors will develop
seizures and 30 per cent of
individuals with epilepsy are
not medically controlled?
Epilepsy is the second highest
neurological disease after ....
headaches.
As a result of the
overwhelming support of
individuals in Huron and
Perth Counties, we have 400
volunteers offering time and
support in various fundraisers
as well as very generous
donations from local service
clubs, churches, businesses
and individuals. Without their
generosity, it would be
impossible to continue our
services to people affected by
epilepsy.
We also receive money
from United Way, both in
Huron and Perth County.
Their support over the years
has been gratefully accepted.
We receive no government
funding and continue to work
towards that goal.
However, in these difficult
times to continue to offer
support we must raise over
$85,000 annually (74 per cent
of our budget), without these
funds already mentioned we
are at risk of not being able to
continue our services.
We are asking for your
support to our organization to
enable us to continue our
work, if you are able to make
a donation to our agency
please call us at 1-877-427-
0033 or mail to the address
below.
Your support is apprecia-
ted.
Lynne Armstrong
Executive Director –
Epilepsy Huron Perth
P.O. Box 1111
Seaforth, ON N0K 1W0
Pros provide guidance
Quilters Way opens in Blyth
THE EDITOR,
As you may already know,
on July 29 between the hours
of 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., the
community of Blyth will be
making history.
For the first time ever, our
community will be the site of
a Canadian Blood Services
blood donor clinic.
Due to the size of the
community, Blyth has
traditionally been overlooked
in efforts to find blood to be
used for such things as cancer
treatments, treatment of
automobile accident victims
and for those undergoing
heart surgery.
After more than a year of
trying, the Blyth Masonic
Lodge and a number of other
community partners, have
convinced Canadian Blood
Services to ignore the size of
our town, and to focus on the
size of our collective heart.
I have been a part of this
community for my entire life
and I believe that we can
make a serious contribution to
this effort. If you have been
touched by any of the
ailments that I have
mentioned – or know
someone who has – then you
have even more cause to
donate or to volunteer your
time at this blood drive.
It takes about an hour to
make a donation but that
donation can save up to three
lives.
Our target is 110 donors at
the clinic on the July 29. With
that in mind, I would like to
ask each and every person
who reads this letter to roll up
their sleeve and give.
Let’s show everyone that
our collective heart is far
larger than expected; let’s
show that neighbour-helping-
neighbour attitude that is so
important to us; and, most
importantly, let’s help save
hundreds of lives.
Please call 1-888-236-6283
and book your time to donate.
Greg McClinchey.
Continued from page 4
all the other reasons we
need shoreline vegetation
such as improved air
quality, maintain wild-
life habitat, and provide
shelter from wind and rain
and shade from the summer
sun.
And there’s hardly the
excuse of not being informed.
A phone call to the Lake
Huron Centre for Coastal
Conservation (519-523-
4478), or to one of the local
conservation authorities
along Lake Huron, can put
people in touch with
experienced conservation
professionals who can
provide the appropriate
guidance.
Don’t cut your choices:
remember vegetation benefits
the lake.
For more information on
protecting Lake Huron's
coast, visit the Coastal
Centre’s website at
www.lakehuron.ca
Geoff Peach
Lake Huron Centre for
Coastal Conservation.
Welcome
Judy Kucharski of The Quilters Way, which has just opened in Blyth, says she fell in love with Blyth the
minute she saw it, not to mention her current location, the former site of The Green Gallery. She says she
wants to expand very soon to include works of local art as well as workshops and clinics to help would-
be quilters to get started and established quilters to get better. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
WANTED
7 HOMES THAT NEED ROOFING
7 homes in your area will be given the opportunity of having an INTERLOCK metal
roofing system installed on their home at a reasonable cost. This lifetime product
is capturing the interest of homeowners across the country who want to know this
will be the last time they will have to re-roof their home. Our product is
environmentally friendly and comes with a transferable Lifetime Limited Warranty
with an excellent choice of colours to complement your home and is going to be
introduced to your local market. Your home can be a show place in your
neighbourhood and we will make it worth your while if we can use your home.
Please call:
1-866-733-5808
Toll-Free 24 hours 7 Days a week
Letter to the editorWriter asksfolks to give
Letter
Epilepsy HP
seeks support
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen