Dani has been sewing, embroidery, knitting and crotchet for as long as she can remember. Nearly 40 years ago, whilst completing Part 2 C&G course in Soft Furnishing and Upholstery was introduced to patchwork and quilting. Subsequently embarked on Part 1 and Part 2 C&G P&Q courses and Teacher training. Dani has been teaching C&G courses in Soft Furnishing and Patchwork and Quilting in all levels for over 15 years. Following changes in C&G taught Contemporary Quilt Workshops for over 25 years. Dani enjoys sharing her ideas, skills and enthusiasm with students. Dani likes to explore and experiment and learn new techniques, which she like to expand in her own style. Dani is inspired by the world around – environment, garden, colour, line, texture… Her work is now mostly using her own hand dyed, printed, rusted, manipulated fabrics. Last few years her medium is also single use plastic which she feels is it better to be made into art, rather than into the landfill or the sea. Dani is a member of QGBI, SAQA. Has exhibited her work at several venues over the years and with CTL.
December 2024December 2024
Cathy started using Cyanotype photographic printing (Blueprint) in 2001. Her work has been exhibited in the UK, Europe, USA and South Georgia, and is in private and public collections (Kingston, Wilson, Shackleton and South Georgia Museums and UK Quilters’ Guild) Her Antarctic work (2010-date) features images of Shackleton’s and Scott’s Expeditions. The Captain Cook series (2017-18) were shown at the Hull Maritime Museum and the Ferens Art Gallery and the Quilters Guild Collection commissioned a duplicate of one of the pieces for their collection. The Threads of Green exhibition (Yorkshire Museum of Farming, 2019), explored the Green Man and Medieval art. Her most recent work features Admiral Nelson who lived in Merton for the last 5 years of his life. She is based in South West London and lectures regularly to Textile, Photography and History groups.
November 2022 I was introduced to patchwork and quilting in 1986 by a friend who wanted me to attend an evening class to keep her company. I must admit it was not on my to do list. After a term my friend decided it wasn’t for her but I was hooked. I went on to do my City & Guilds Part I with Mary Clare Clark at Haywards Heath Adult Education College and Part II with Jennifer Hollingdale at Morley College both of which were an incredible journey of learning the traditional followed by the alternative which led to exciting ways of creating my own style. I often use traditional and alternative together. I am interested in working with multi-layers of fabric which are cut back on the front and the back to reveal various fabrics which can be sheer or solid. Mixed media is often featured in my work. Tin, plastic, paper, photos; anything that makes an impact and is recycled. Dyeing, stenciling, drawing, painting and printing also play an important part. Depending on the effect I want to achieve I often use both machine and hand quilting on the same piece. I have exhibited in various exhibitions in the UK, USA and Germany. For me the most amazing experiences of being a patchworker and quilter are the tutors I’ve had, the friends made and the thrill of exhibiting my work and people’s reactions to it.
Susie Dakers
Member of the Quilters’ Guild
Co-founder with Jan Hale of Ouse Valley Quilters (Formed in 1994 – Disbanded in 2023)
Former member of Dulwich Quilters
I took up patchwork and quilting in 2018 after many years of not even threading a needle. I originally trained in fashion and textiles at Manchester Polytechnic gaining a first in 1976. This was followed by, amongst other things, work in costumes at the BBC, a diploma knitting course at Leeds University, followed by years of creative inactivity as I switched to earning a living by working for WaterAid in the 1980’s when it was a small charity, just starting up. For the last twenty or so years I have worked locally, so that I could organise family life more readily. In 2018 I started quilting seriously when my oldest friend introduced me to her world of quilting and I immediately joined the Quilters’ Guild and 4 months later, I, together with 3 others I met at my first Region 1 regional day, started up our own South West London Quilters. I am still finding out what direction I want my work to take, and I have a lot to learn, so I have been attending workshops both real and lately virtual, to catch up with where I want to be in the quilting world, most recently, before lockdown I was studying at Committed to Cloth doing their surface design course at weekends. Two pieces of my work which I took to a regional day's "Show and Tell" were selected to be displayed on the Quilters' Guild stand at the Knitting and Stitching show in Autumn 2019. I am a member of both the Contemporary and Modern group of the Quilters' Guild, and an active committee members for both the South West London Quilters and the Contemporary London Quilt Group. I have set up, written and run both of the group's websites. https://swlondonquilt.org.uk and https://ctlondon.org.uk. In January 2021 I was awarded the Quilters' Guild Travel Bursary and attended a Nancy Crow Strip piecing and restructuring workshop in May 2022.
https://anniefolkardquilts.uk
Instagram: #AnnieFolkard 
My introduction to quiltmaking was at a workshop in Cape Town given by Nancy Crow in the late nineties. When I moved back to England in 2002 I began giving workshops, teaching the improvisation techniques I so enjoy. I employ many different approaches to quiltmaking, depending mostly upon the challenges set by the exhibiting groups to which I belong.June 2025
Janice Gunner is a Textile Artist and former teacher of Textiles (mostly Patchwork & Quilting and Indigo Dyed Shibori). Current work explores the use of fabrics hand dyed in natural dyes, including indigo. She has written two textile books and has been involved in textiles since the age of five. Janice has won awards for both her work and teaching including The Lifetime Achievement Award from The Festival of Quilts. Janice was awarded the MA Textiles in 2020 from The University of the Creative Arts, Farnham, Surrey and was instrumental to the evolution of The Festival of Quilts.
December 2024 
Sarah Hibbert is a modern British quilter influenced as much by art and architecture as quilting heritage. She has made a significant name for herself on both sides of the Atlantic, which has seen her work shown as well as being acquired for both public and private collections.
Her Reflections quilt was acquired by The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles in 2019 for their permanent collection to represent modern quilting. Sarah has also had two of her recent quilts acquired by The International Quilt Museum in Nebraska. Together with hosting solo galleries, in Birmingham, Sitges and Seoul.
As of July 2023, Sarah has been newly appointed Ambassador to The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, Modern Group. This is a totally new role and Sarah is very excited about inspiring new and existing quilters.
Sarah loves the combination of old and new; of the traditional and contemporary; she uses patterns passed down through the generations but always adds a twist of her own. Working mainly in linen textural fabric, hand stitching, natural, rich tones and clever, but limited use of prints, she brings her quilts into the modern vibe of design to create a conversation between the fabrics.
Sarah’s second love is paper collage which has encouraged her to broaden her colour palette. From these simple paper creations, she has taken her designs through to quilt layoutsand finished quilts. She loves seeing her design in two different mediums. This is what has inspired her first book From Collage to Quilt: Inspirational Quilting from What You Have which was published by Lucky Spool 2022.
https://www.sarahhibbertquilts.com
December 2024
Claire is a textile artist who creates abstract sculptures and machine embroideries. She brings a wealth of emotion to her creative process, often transforming life experiences into meaningful sculptures and artworks.
While Claire had always been interested in ‘making things’, it was during a fine art course (completed in 2021) that Claire moved from painting into textiles and discovered a passion for creating 3D textile artworks. She has since completed a range of short courses to develop further skills and techniques which are then apply to her sculptures.
Claire uses inherited, donated, found and recycled fabrics in her work and the fabrics can often dictate the direction of the sculptures, which combine architecture and tailoring with individual vibrancy inspired by colour, pattern and texture. A variety of sewing techniques are used to create volume, texture and tone in fabric and she often employ playful elements. Claire aims to make her practice as sustainable as possible by recycling fabrics, using donated recycled timber and environmentally friendly glue.
Claire’s aim is to continue to develop stronger and hopefully more commercial textile sculptures and machine embroideries and generate more commissions. Every new sculpture is an experiment of some kind. Claire’s work is quite slow and meditative, and she has endless ideas for future sculptures and embroideries. She will dream, create and edit them in her head before finding the time to get started.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t stitching. As a small child I learnt the basics at home, taught by my mother who not only made our clothes but also showed us embroidery stitches and encouraged all our creative endeavours.
I love all things textile, yarn, fabric, threads – the range of colours and textures never fails to stimulate and delight me.
I take a lot of photos and am always seeing possibilities and ideas for future projects as I am out and about. Many of these ideas will never actually see the light of day but I will never be short of inspiration and have a rich seam of ideas to draw upon.
Most of my work is done on the machine but I am hoping to incorporate more hand stitching into my work in future.
Amanda has loved making things since she was a child, influenced no doubt by her mother (a keen dressmaker) and her father (a garden designer and amateur painter). Her school and university encouraged her in a different direction, however, and she became a Cambridge University Modern Languages graduate working in educational publishing. It was not until much later, when she was in her thirties, that she changed direction. Embroidery classes (including City & Guilds Certificate) led on to a BA in Textiles & Surface Pattern at CCAD/Teesside University, then a Textiles PGCE (Bretton Hall), followed later by City & Guilds Patchwork & Quilting Certificate, taught by Barbara Weeks. For thirteen years, she taught Textiles and Art in a secondary school, in a SEN provision and in FE. In 2014, she set up her small business Amanda Jane Textiles. Currently, she draws, paints, designs and stitches full-time as a designer-maker (listed in the Crafts Council Directory).
https://www.amandajanetextiles.com
September 2022
Linda Seward went to Rutgers University/Douglass College, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Home Economics. She then studied fashion at Tobe Coburn School in New York City, where she lived for several years. She worked in publishing as a needlework & crafts editor in both America and England. Linda has written many needlework books, including The Complete Book of Patchwork, Quilting & Appliqué and The Ultimate Guide to Art Quilting. In addition to making quilts, she lectures internationally on quilt making and works as a freelance writer, editor, teacher and quilt judge. She is a member of London Quilters and The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles.
Website: http://lindaseward.com
https://www.instagram.com/quiltmaniac1/ https://lindaquilter.myportfolio.com/workhttps://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008344875064
https://naturalinda.picfair.com
October 2022.
Having lived in various parts of Asia and South America a large part of my adult life, stitching and embroidery have become very important to me. I like to work with all types of fabrics and threads, dyeing, quilting and embroidering both by hand and machine. I consider each project to be a journey and never like to over plan, preferring to start with simple ideas and allow them to evolve organically. I am fascinated by boundaries, both physical and emotional, and a lot of my work reflects this. Walls, fences and trees in particular have featured in a lot of my work and i particularly enjoy the texture and decay/distress that can be introduced there.
I studied for a C&G in machine embroidery at Missenden Abbey with Pam Watts and following that, in 2012, I joined the Committed to Cloth community and studied with both Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan. My work is now taking on a new direction and my style is gradually changing as I find myself drawn more and more back to my first love of hand stitching.
I'm a current student of Christine Chester at Studio 11 Eastbourne and I'm a member of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles, Fabricata and Textile Expressions.
October 2022