GLIN==> News release: Dreamcrafter quilter set for Great Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show

PRESS RELEASE: February 24, 2010
Contacts:  Teresa Mitchell, Great Lakes Seaway Trail, 315-646-1000
Dyan Swamp, Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop, 518-358-4285
 
Dreamcrafter Native Quilter set for Great Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show
 
Sackets Harbor, NY -- Dyan Swamp of Hogansburg, NY, has been named one of
the featured quilters at the March 20-21, 2010 Great Lakes Seaway Trail
Quilt Show & Challenge at the Seaway Trail Discovery Center in Sackets
Harbor, NY. Swamp will display a diverse collection of quilts that fit the
show¹s Circles and Wheels theme as well work that represent Native culture.
 
Swamp made her first quilt while awaiting her first child. In 1997, she
opened her own quilt store ­ Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop on the Akwesasne
Mohawk Nation in Hogansburg, and now has 6,000 bolts of fabric from which to
select colors, patterns and textures for her quilting projects.
 
³I am currently designing a ³Dreamcatcher² quilt. I know how to make a
traditional dreamcatcher using leather and feathers, but I have never made
one in fabric. I have just begun drawing the pattern,² Swamp said in late
January.
 
The names of other quilts that Swamp will display at the March show give an
indication of the diversity of her work.
 
³Medicine Wheel has a native Mohawk theme. Snail¹s Trail is done in ocean
colors of blues and greens. Spiral is a 36-inch round quilt that is striking
in shades of black, beige, and rust Native theme prints,² Swamp said.
 
Other quilts, wallhangings and miniatures by Swamp feature waves, curves or
a celestial theme. A P&B Fabrics Challenge quilt is made with 100 different
pieces of fabric. She has adapted a Dresden plate pattern into a wallhanging
that resembles a shelf.
 
Great Lakes Seaway Trail President and CEO Teresa Mitchell says, ³Dyan Swamp
of Dreamcrafters Quilt Shop has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Great
Lakes Seaway Trail Quilt Show since it began. We are pleased to feature her
quilting art as a Great Lakes Seaway Trail-based artisan, a friend of the
byway and a Native quilter at our 10th anniversary show.²
 
Swamp¹s quilted artistry and fabric vendor¹s booth will be on the second of
three floors of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center in the
historic former Union Hotel built in 1817-18 in Sackets Harbor. Swamp, a
self-taught quilter, teaches classes at her shop and at quilting festivals
and says the current economy has more people staying home to sew and quilt.
 
Other featured quilters at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail show include Bella
Bella Quilts author Norah McMeeking of California and award-winning quilter
and designer Mary Knapp of Watertown.
 
Quilting demonstrators, vendors, and the Fort Drum Chapter of Operation Kid
Comfort project that makes quilts for military families are also show
participants. 
 
The Orleans County Country Barn Quilt Trail of Western NY, a 22-mile loop
tour off the Great Lakes Seaway Trail byway with more than 40 barns with
hand-painted quilt block patterns, is a co-sponsor of the show.
 
Call 315-646-1000 for more information. #

Jpg available up to 230dpi res: Dreamcrafter quilter Dyan Swamp of
Hogansburg, NY, on the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation will have several quilts,
including this circular beauty, and fabrics, at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail
Quilt Show March 20-21 at the Discovery Center in Sackets Harbor, NY. The
show includes other featured quilters, demonstrations, Fort Drum¹s Operation
Kid Comfort, and vendors. More info: Seaway Trail Foundation, 315-646-1000,
www.seawaytrail.com.
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