Diane Shink

My name is Diane MacLeod Shink and quilting is my passion.

Diane was certified as an American Quilters Society (AQS) Certified Appraiser in 2000 and has held a teachers license since 1963. She began quilting in Nova Scotia while in elementary school. Her university degrees included study in textiles, clothing and interior design. In preparation for testing as an s she studied over 100 books on Quilts and related areas and attended workshops and quilt shows throughout North America. She also attended seminars with many of the top quilt historians, including Barbara Brackman, Dorothy Osler and Michael James. Diane has traveled widely and visited many Museums housing quilt collections in North America and Europe. As one of five Canadian quilt appraisers she works at museums, quilt shops and Guild shows throughout Eastern Canada spending the summers in Nova Scotia.

Actively involved in all aspects of quilting she started a guild in Montreal West twenty years ago. As the regional board member for Quebec of the Canadian Quilters Association she served for 2 terms from 1994-1998 and has been a contributing member of the Canadian Quilter Newsletter since 1999 writing Yesterday Quilts articles quarterly. She also served as Publicity committee chair for Salon 2006, CQQ ‘s exhibit.
While teaching high school in Lachine, Quebec she coordinated the making of a quilt to Commemorate Montréal’s 350 birthday which was juried into the CQA National Show in 1994. In 1998 her school house quilt, "Thirty Years" was exhibited as part of CQA’s NJS at the National Arts Center in Charlottetown PE. In 1997 she helped members of Montreal West community produce a community profile quilt for their 100th anniversary, which hangs in The Town hall. Her Ice Storm Quilt was juried into Quilts with a Story exhibit at Joseph Schneider Haus Kitchener, ON 2002.

A published writer her first book co-authored by Karen Neary will be published by Formac Publishing Company of Halifax, Nova Scotia in October 2008 titled "Canadian Heritage Quilting, Quick Creative Designs". An article about Diane’s apron collection (now over 400 items) was published in Piecework magazine, January 2006. The Canadian magazine A Needle Pulling Thread Volume 2 issue 3 featured an article on her Star Quilt Collection in the Good to Know section, Summer 2007.

As a Curator of Quilt Shows she presented an exhibit Historic Wool Quilts of Quebec at Salon 2006 sponsored by Courtepointe Quebec Quilts at Saint Lambert QC.
She co-curated a Quebec exhibit, Quilts from La Belle Province at the May 2005 Waterloo Ontario Quilt Festival, Waterloo. ON, "Quilts with a Story" Tatamagouche, NS Cultural Center was organized, during the PAAQT Professional Association of Appraisers Quilted Textiles 2004 summer retreat.

Star Quilt Collection exhibitions (currently numbering 75 items)
Cultural center, Baie St Paul, Charlevoix County, and summer of 2007 titled TRAD.
Museum of Costume & Textiles of Quebec’s Lambert QC, A Century of Star Quilts
Mississippi Valley Textile Museum Almonte ON, Star Quilts 2001
Quilt Canada. York University· Eastern Canadian Star Quilts 2000

As a Quilt Scholar she has conducted research and presented papers on topics:
What Comes around Goes Around, Quilting techniques our Grandmothers used. Aprons and Quilts 150 years in Women’s Lives. Montreal Council of Women, 2008
Fringes and Frills, A Study of Quilt Edge Finishes, AQS Museum, Paducah KY, 2006. Researching the American Civil War Veterans Memorial Quilt, Vancouver, BC 1998