Saturday, November 9, 2019 | 12:00 – 4:00 PM
Join us for a Remembrance Day event as we look back at the Famous Names Quilt.
The Famous Names Quilt was a fundraising project led by Margaret Bishop, a member of the Air Force Officers’ Wives Association, to raise funds for war charities from 1940-1942. Margaret Bishop was married to Billy Bishop, a WWI pilot and recipient of the Victoria Cross.
The quilt has over 1,100 signatures, which were collected at Air Force Bases where entertianers and Allied servicemen alike signed squares for the quilt. Billy Bishop also may have collected signatures during his speaking tours. The quilt features signatures from Hollywood celebrities like Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Buster Keaton to politicians like Winston Churchill and W.L. Mackenzie King.
Once the signatures were collected, they were embroidered by the women of the Air Force Officers’ Wives Association. The squares were then assembled and quilted by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Ottawa. The quilt was raffled off and the proceeds went to war charities run by the Air Force Officers’ Wives Association. The quilt was won by a woman from Manitoba who sold tickets to view the quilt at her home, also donating the proceeds to the war effort.
