V&A Quilt Exhibition

I know many of you have scheduled a visit to the major quilt exhibition opening this week at the V&A, so I won't spoil your pleasure of discovery. If you are travelling by tube do take the underground passage to the museum, the roads between South Kensington tube station and the V&A are a mess at the moment, to say the very least. If it is not possible for you visit the exhibition in person, there is a terrific catalogue of the exhibition - Quilts 1700-2010 edited by Sue Prichard.What I particularly like about this book is its telling of the personal stories behind -sometimes literally - the quilts. We have already looked at the Rajah Quilt worked by the female convicts during their transportation to Van Dieman's Land in 1841. Here are just a few more examples of work that moved me. The first item - a scrap of patchwork cut in two - was handed over by a mother, together with her child into the care of the London Foundling Hospital. She would have kept for herself the other half against the day when she hoped, in better circumstances to prove her parenthood and reclaim her child.
Personal dedications of items confer a lasting spirit of life and generosity. I love this simple inscription and it is a reminder to me to always do the same - it doesn't have to be grand to be special, does it?
This piece reminds me of the stitched maps we see - how interesting to see it interpreted in quilt form though it looks sadly beheaded and very insular!
I have known inmates of World War II prisoner of war camps in the East; and have heard how terribly constrained even marginal living was, though somehow they discovered in themselves a previously unknown well of resourcefulness which enabled them to survive. This last Granny's Garden quilt was pieced and stitched in secret in the early 1940s by the Changi Girl Guide Group who somehow conjured a variety of printed dress cottons from amongst their group and other prisoners. How? Go visit! Go see!

Thank You White Roses of York

There are no white roses out in our garden at the moment, so I have only the blowing snowdrops to thank the York Embroiderers' Guild for the hospitality and friendship extended to me last week. This guild has the distinction of meeting in the Folk Hall at New Earswick, just outside of York. New Earswick is a garden community founded by the Quaker chocolatier Joseph Rowntree. The village came into existence 1902 a year after Joseph's son Seebohm published his book 'Poverty: a study of town life' - a study of the living conditions of the working classes in York, which revealed appalling statistics of dark, overcrowded and unsanitary housing. Joseph insisted there should be fruit trees in every garden at News Earswick.
I was so pleased to have the opportunity to talk about the history of samplers - one of the members emailing me said, 'I was expecting something rather dry as samplers are not my thing, but was amazed and now full of enthusiasm to find out more, you have certainly opened my eyes to explore and discover some of the hidden gems to be found in what was the original stitchers dictionary of patterns.' And I was delighted to find out about their Artists' Trading Cards system. Members design and stitch a small playing card sized item and then bring it along and exchange it for another stitcher's card, so eventually building up a real sampler of stitched designs. Thank you very much, York Embroiderers' Guild.

Feeling Quilty? Some Quilty Pleasures.

Liberty of London are offering fabrics for patchwork based upon original designs seen in some of the quilts in the forthcoming V&A exhibition - this is limited edition for a limited period. The prices are £11.50 a metre - click here to see more and purchase.

I am so delighted to see that the Sewing School at Liberty has reopened. This is where I learnt my stitching skills and I loved every minute. (We also used to be given a card that gave 10% discount on fabric and haberdashery - I don't know if they still run this, though.) There are classes for patchwork on 27 March and 1 May with Janet Goddard. See here for more details of these and other classes.

Free Charts to Download

Philippa Sims who you may remember is a volunteer curator at the Costume and Textile Study Centre at Carrow House Museum, Norwich is also a member of the Norfolk Heraldry Society and she has created a pair of heraldic motifs for you to download. The first is a griffon - one of the sixteenth century patterns for lacemakers and embroiderers by Federico Vinciolo, pattern designer to Henry I of France.
Griffons were thought to live in the high mountains of India where they dug up and guarded all the gold - hence their appearance as supporters to the coat of arms of the London Stock Exchange! The second is that other famous heraldic beast, the unicorn. Another of Federico Vinciolo's patterns of the 16th Century shows a Unicorn dipping his horn into the fountain to neutralise the water of poisons. Drinking vessels were often said to be made of 'unicorn horn' to safeguard those fearful of being poisoned. The famous tale of the Unicorn Hunt, where the mythical beast is tamed by a maiden is depicted on the wonderful tapestries now in the Cloisters section of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Click here for the Griffon download. Click here for the Unicorn download.