Missing Literacy Quilt Found!
Rebecca Still, Literacy Specialist
This year, the Literacy Co-ordinators of Alberta 1990 International Literacy Year Quilt was found! It had been missing for many years, and in 2019 CLN put out a call to solve the mystery. Nothing happened until, quite by accident, it was discovered a few months ago in a storage room by an organization.
This quilt, now 35 years old, represents the history of literacy in Alberta.
1977 - The first volunteer adult literacy projects were created in Alberta. For several years, a consultant from the Department of Advanced Education supported the projects. When the consultant position was frozen in 1985, the literacy coordinators, now a larger group, decided they needed to create their own professional development and networking group.
1987 - In September, the Literacy Co-ordinators of Alberta was established with funding from the Community Programs Branch of the Department of Advanced Education.
1988 - A group of literacy coordinators in the southwest corner of Alberta decided to make a quilt to celebrate the 1990 International Literacy Year declared by UNESCO.
1990 - A call went out to literacy coordinators around the province to submit a 12 ½-inch square of 100% cotton for the quilt. In all, 51 organizations submitted a square, with just enough time to put them together as the “top” for the Literacy Conference ’90 held in Edmonton. Documentation states that 1200 delegates and speakers saw it!
1991 - The top was sent to the Crowsnest Pass and set up at the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre for quilting. A diverse group of people added their stitches to the quilt during February 1991. During this time, 1523 people across Canada and the United States saw the quilt, with 42 helping with the quilting. Here are just a few of those people who added to the quilt:
- A lady from New Hampshire, who had a broken foot, stopped by to quilt and shared stories of her own quilts.
- A young teenager from Great Falls, Montana, who was a defence player on a hockey team, took time out from the local hockey tournament to add “inches of stitches”.
- Several men and women in the Pass added stitches, and the Lebel House of Quilters in Pincher Creek worked in shifts.
You can read the names of all the quilters here. The quilt was finished in time for display at the 1991 Literacy Co-ordinators of Alberta conference in Calgary. It then went on the road, touring the province to be viewed at conferences, agricultural and trade fairs, and libraries. An album went along with it that told the story of the quilt and each quilt square.
This is a beautiful quilt in the sense that so many were involved in its creation, and it is now a legacy quilt. As I read over the names of the programs that submitted a quilt square, I was amazed at how many still exist today. See if you can find your community among the quilt square stories.
You might also be wondering what happened to the Literacy Co-ordinators of Alberta. Around 2002, it amalgamated with the Alberta Association for Adult Literacy to become Literacy Alberta. In 2015, the federal government pulled funding from provincial coalitions across the country and Literacy Alberta folded, along with other provincial coalitions. Fortunately for us here in Alberta, Community Learning Network was willing to step into the space with funding support from Advanced Education.
We are very fortunate to have found the Literacy Quilt because it represents an important part of our history. I invite you to share your literacy story to keep alive the great work you are doing for literacy and foundational learning in your community.
Good news! You will see the quilt at the next Literacy & Learning Symposium in Edmonton – April 29 & 30, 2026.
Even better news! Are you interested in bringing the quilt to your community? Perhaps you have plans for a special event that would lend itself to displaying the quilt. If so, reach out to CLN about bringing the quilt to your community!