Artists

I have been sewing for as long as I can remember. I was introduced to patchwork and quilting while studying Level 2 City & Guilds (C&G) course in Soft Furnishing.in the 1990’s. I was hooked and proceeded to do Level 1 and 2 in Patchwork and Quilting and Teacher Training course. I then taught both C&G courses in all levels for over 15 years. I have been very fortunate over the years to have had so many talented and inspiring students who won C&G awards for their work. I now teach Contemporary Quilt Workshop at Morley College, London and have beginners, intermediate and advanced patchwork and soft furnishing classes in my local area. Inspiration for my work comes from the world around me, environment, colour, line, textures, ... I tend to work in a contemporary style. For most of my work I now use my own hand dyed, screen printed, mono-printed, rusted, discharged fabrics. I both hand and machine quilt. I am always learning and exploring new techniques and enjoy sharing my delight in art and cloth with others. December 2019

I learned to sew at a young age with my mother and aunt (both who were excellent needlewomen).  However, I am the first quilter in the family!  In 1981,I made my first block with Joen Lask at The Patchwork Dog & The Calico Cat. I did my City & Guilds Parts 1 & 2 in Embroidery & Design (C&G Patchwork & Quilting didn’t exist at that time) but returned to P&Q after that and never looked back. I have done countless workshops with some great tutors. I then learned to dye and print with Leslie Morgan before she and Claire Benn formed Committed to Cloth and continued with C2C until it closed in 2021 and I am so grateful for that experience – it changed my work.   I enjoy working with acrylics as well as mixed media and hope to learn more about using earth pigments later this year. During lockdown, I did some excellent online courses that took me away from my comfort zone.  Although I admire traditional quilts, I far prefer to print my own cloth to use in my hangings which are quite abstract. I have always loved writing – have written many reviews in different magazines and newsletters and like incorporating text in my work if applicable. Thanks to a project in 2021, I have rekindled my love of hand stitching – I try to do some every evening.  I still want to get better at free motion quilting as well as try to make a dent in my fabric in 2022. Member of The Quilters Guild, Contemporary Quilt Group, Studio Art Quilt Associates and Dulwich Quilters.

Urszula's interests cover several genres through textiles, fibre, arts and sculpture.   Knitting at 4,  dressmaking and beadwork at 11, tailoring by late teens, venturing into weaving, spinning and quilting whilst living in the States in the 70's.   Regularly attending the Continental Quilting Congress in DC, exposed to the influences of Nancy Crow, Nancy Halpern, Rhoda Cohen, Jinny Beyer, Michael James, the Gutcheons, Elly Sienkiewicz, as well as Jo Diggs, Virigina Avery and Yvonne Porcella the latter group relating to  garments where tailoring skills proved beneficial. Transformaation to textile art whilst living in Maine and then enhanced by a degree in  studio art and art history degree in the 90's with more recent influences of Alicia Merrett and Christine Chester have helped transpose work to a more textile art nature.  Her current interests lie in trasposing feelings to fibre and thoughts to threads simplifying forms to a abstract figurative nature. Successful in coordinating group quilts in the US and UK.  (The Cambridge quilt in the Guild's Museum,  Holy Redeemer, College Park, MD, raising between $3 -4,00 annually) Present member of Contemporary, Modern and Traditional of the Quilters Guild of Great Britain,CQL Contemporary Quilts London, Textile Group, Cambridge and SAQA Exhibited Pintree Quilters Guild (quilts published in Lady's Circle Patchwork), Art Quilts Maine, Cambridge Quilters, Festival of Quilts, Knitting & Stitching, Harrogate

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

Connie Gilham hated sewing at school.  Despite that, she  gradually discovered how satisfying dressmaking could be and continued making clothes until a holiday to New England in 1994 where a visit to Keepsake Quilting changed everything.  Not long after Connie found Marsh Quilters and started taking classes with Janice Gunner.  Her spell as International Officer for the Quilters’ Guild widened her quilting horizons and she enjoyed seeing a different range of textile art  in other countries.  Connie loves dyeing , painting and printing fabric and using silks and velvets in my work.   She got an honourable mention at the Festival of Quilts in 2016, and won 2nd prize in the Contemporary category in 2017.   December 2019

Patchwork and quilting became a slightly obsessive hobby for Jill about 10 years ago, and she moved rapidly from traditional patterns and designs to City and Guilds courses with Barbara Weeks, a teacher who encouraged her to experiment with dyeing, printing and the experimental techniques of contemporary quilting. An introduction to the Quilters' Guild and its Contemporary Group led to Jill volunteering to act as Treasurer for the specialist group and then for the whole Guild. She harbours a suspicion that she is invited to groups for her financial rather than quilting skills! Being part of a group which aims primarily to exhibit is the next step on her development and it seems to be a lot of fun on the way. December 2019

Valerie’s passions are colour and pattern, which have driven her obsession with textiles for three decades. Traditional patchwork quilts using commercially printed fabrics were her primary inspiration and although her work has become increasingly contemporary she still enjoys the challenge of confining herself to ready-made and “found” fabrics. The collection of such materials — from Amish stores to Australian boxer shorts, Mexican markets to a tatty tablecloth found on a beach in Greece — is an important part of her practice. Valerie has a City and Guilds in patchwork and quilting and a BA Hons (2011) in embroidery and mixed-media textiles from Opus/Middlesex University. She was selected for the Graduate Showcase at the Knitting and Stitching Shows, and twice for Fine Art Quilt Masters at the Festival of Quilts. She has also exhibited with Prism and Stitch-Links. March 2020

I started sewing when I was in primary school.  We used to have one lesson a week to learn embroidery.  Then I continue that for lesisure and learned knitting and crochet. I did my  City and Guilds courses stage 1 and 2 in creative embroidery at Chelsea College of Art and Design.  I also did a teacher training course.  In different centres around Southwark, I have taught embroidery, patchwork, knitting, crochet, silk painting and weaving.  I am always keen to learn new ideas and skills. I work as a part time crafts tutor.  My blog can be viewed at nkneedlework.wordpress.com and my Instagram is at Instagram.com/nkneedlework

Pauline began quiltmaking in the 1970s at an evening class led by Michelle Walker, followed years later by City and Guilds at Missenden Abbey. Further classes and workshops have continued to develop her skills, approach to design and exploration of cross-cultural traditions. Having lived and worked in Latin America, Africa and South Asia she enjoys researching the social history behind a chosen theme, so that the textile has layers of meaning embedded in the cloth and stitch.  As a social anthropologist she is interested in what quiltmaking means to the makers and the role of quilts in people's lives. She initiated and led the UK oral history project 'Talking Quilts: Saving Quilters' Stories' 2004-2007, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund (www.quiltersguild.org.uk) and carried out research into the UK quilting 'revival' during the 1970s. (See "I thought I was the only one", Quilt Studies, 20,2019,35-68). Over the years she has published articles in The Quilter. Working organically she loves to explore the power of transforming fabrics with mixed media, paint, dyes, collage and stitch both machine and hand to tell a story, increasingly drawn to the challenge of sketch books as tool.

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.

clairemannerswood.com

@claire.mannerswood.art

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a needle and thread in my hand. I caught the patchwork and quilting bug in the mid 70s as the revival of the craft was starting and after gaining a City and Guilds qualification in the early 90s started a lasting creative journey to develop my own work.  I enjoy the company and stimulation of working alongside likeminded creatives.

With the opportunity to travel once again I am planning to base my new work on recent trips, these experiences have been heightened after so long away.  Islands fascinate me and a visit to the Outer Hebrides has provided a wealth of ideas to explore.  The sea will also continue to feature in my work along with stones, pebbles and shells collected along the shore.  I take lots of photos and make notes when we are travelling and even if these ideas don’t come to fruition in completed pieces I always have a rich seam of inspiration to draw on.

My love of colour continues so this will often be one of the starting points for my work.  I predominantly use a sewing machine but am hoping to incorporate more hand stitching in future pieces.

October 2022

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

Viv started making patchwork quilts in the 1990s and her work is informed by traditional quiltmaking. Patchwork allows Viv to express her love of fabric and colour. She mainly makes scrap quilts using many different fabrics, the more the better.  Viv is currently working on a series of miniature patchwork quilts. They are made with love and care. The fabrics, threads & needles are selected through experimentation. Some fabrics are vintage or even antique. Some are sourced from America, India or Japan. Some are hand dyed. Other scraps come from recycled clothing and textiles. All are chosen for their special qualities that Viv finds beautiful in some way. Each quilt is hand pieced and quilted taking many hours of patient and detailed work.  An exhibition of these quilts will be shown at the National Trust Stableyard Gallery, Morden Hall Park in October 2020. Website: www.vivphilpot.com Instagram: philpotviv December 2019

I draw my inspiration from the natural world, using landscapes for whole cloth wall hangings and local scenes and flowers for smaller-scale embroideries referring to photographs as a starting point. My childhood spent in Zambia has had a great influence on the colours I prefer to use – the ochres of the African soil and the dusty yellows and browns of the sun-dried savannah grasslands. I use thickened procion dyes either painted or mono-printed on to cotton to create the background landscape into which I then hand or machine stitch to provide detailed texture and imagery. I hand dye both cotton fabric and embroidery threads to complement other materials and techniques that I use in my work such as paper lamination. I am a member of the Quilters Guild of the British Isles, the Embroiderers’ Guild, Spectra Textile Artists, Fabricata, Kaleidoscope and TwoplusTwo. https://www.facebook.com/Twoplustwo.4/ https://www.facebook.com/spectratextileart/ https://www.facebook.com/fabricatatextiles/ December 2019

I love textiles - handling them, decorating them, cutting them, rearranging them and stitching them to make something that pleases the eye as well as the hand. My work is everchanging and continues to develop as I discover and explore new ideas and techniques. Most of my pieces are quilted wall hangings ranging in size from the smallest at 8 inches square to up to 60 inches tall. I have also over the years made king-size bed quilts, lots of baby quilts and everything in between. Website: https://www.clothroadartists.com/artist/lucy-poloniecka/ December 2019

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

http://www.lindaseward.com

https://www.instagram.com/quiltmaniac1/ https://lindaquilter.myportfolio.com/work

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008344875064

https://naturalinda.picfair.com

October 2022.

Rachel has always enjoyed sewing.  She came to patchwork and quilting in about 2000, her mother-in-law had lived in the USA in the 1990s and one of the books she brought back inspired her to have a go.  However the demands of a full time job meant that she was mostly self taught with modest ambitions.  With retirement in 2014 Rachel embarked on learning, through the City and Guilds patchwork and quilting qualifications and about dyeing fabric at Committed to Cloth, and making patchwork and quilting friends. She now enjoys starting with white fabric and dyeing it before cutting it up in to small pieces and putting it back together again.  She also enjoys hand sewing and embroidery.  However she has yet to settle on a style and wishes that she was better at turning the image in her mind's eye into reality. December 2019

Since the age of six, when I learnt to knit, I have been a maker of things textile related – clothing, household furnishings, both large and small and knitwear. Quilting came into my life by chance with a friend’s expressed intention to make a quilt so I felt I had to try one myself and was hooked on the process and the outcomes. After a decade of quilt making I took a new direction into art quilts and mixed media work. I now work in textiles and mixed media, inspired by both the natural and man made worlds. A theme is explored in depth leading to a large body of work on my chosen subject; topics I have explored include monochrome and line, poppies, Virgil’s Georgics and concrete brutalism. I paint fabric and stitch paper, incorporating text, digital imagery, mono printing and both hand and machine stitch. My work is held in private collections in the UK, USA and Australia and has been featured in books and periodicals. I am a member of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles, Studio Art Quilt Associates, London Quilters and New Horizons Textile Group. Website: www.sabiwestoby.com December 2019

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

Nicqui took up patchwork and quilting in the 1990’s quite by chance when asked by a friend to fill a space on a quilting workshop. Having always sown she initially dabbled a little with traditional patchwork but found her creative textile voice on becoming an early member of the Committed to Cloth community in 2002. She completed a City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting with Janice Gunner in 2015, exhibited at Festival of Quilts the following year as a Diploma graduate and was also nominated for the Medal of Excellence.  Her work is nearly always wholecloth using a combination of surface design techniques and can be found in a number of publications and private collections. More recently she has focused on the use of earth pigments and acrylic paint in combination with procion and natural dyes and has rediscovered the joy of hand stitch. A member of the Quilters Guild, The Surface Design Association and Studio Art Quilt Associates.