Black History Month: West-African fabrics

It goes without saying that we quilters love fabrics! Fabric manufacturers are constantly developing new prints and colour combinations to entice us to buy yet a few more fat quarters, despite the stash of fabrics already at home. Today we're going to take a look at West-African fabrics, starting with wax prints. These are primarily …

Black History Month: Latifah Saafir

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Latifah Saafir at QuiltCon (the Modern Quilt Guild's annual quilt and show conference) in 2018 and have been following her work on social media ever since. During Black History Month we are showcasing the work of amazing black quilters and artists here on the Youngish Quilter …

VE Day!

Victory in Europe Day marks the day in 1945 when Britain and its allies accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, marking the end of the war in Europe. To celebrate VE Day the Curator of The Guild Museum Collection, Heather Audin, has created a Youtube video for you to watch! Join her and explore …

Book Review: Threads of Life by Clare Hunter

Towards the end of Clare Hunter's social history of sewing, Threads of Life, she describes a guest writer visiting her creative writing group. The group members go around the group introducing themselves and their projects. Clare describes the writer's reaction when it is her turn: 'I tell him I am writing a book about the …

Suffragette banners

We hope you are enjoying our focus on the achievements of women stitchers. Today, join us for a dive into the history of banner-making about a hundred years ago, as it was used by the suffragettes in their fight to gain votes for women. The suffragettes had started to use calico banners with slogans printed …

Votes for Women: PROCESSIONS 2018

We hope you had an empowering International women's day on Sunday. Collectively, each one of us can help create a gender equal world! Continuing the theme from Sunday we thought we'd share an interesting project that The Guild took part in in 2018.    The Quilters’ Guild supported  PROCESSIONS, a mass participation artwork that marked …

Stitching how you feel: Lorina Bulwer

This month, we are focussing on sewing and well-being. Today, we shine a light on the work of Lorina Bulwer (1838-1912), a woman who, having been denied her freedom and power of expression, used her needlework to give vent to her feelings and thoughts. image by Norfolk Museums Collection Born in Suffolk, after the death …

Meet Emma Wilkinson: Designer, Embroiderer and Kiltmaker

We first saw Emma's work on show at the Knitting and Stitching show in November 2019 and we were mesmerised! Today we are lucky to have Emma join us for an exclusive interview about her experiences and her beautiful work.  Please tell us a bit about yourself, how you got into textiles and sewing – …

Recycling fabrics: Pauline Mills

This beautiful quilt was made by quilter and Guild member Pauline Mills. Pauline is totally committed to using recycled fabrics, this piece is made entirely from striped shirts! We are now living in ‘a throw away society. The UK now sends many thousands of tonnes of clothing to landfill every year!’ We hope this has …

Textile Artist – Mandy Pattullo

The last post introduced you to two textile artists and here is another who recycles, this time, some very old textiles. Mandy Pattullo trained as a surface pattern designer and was encouraged by her college to look at old fabrics to get inspiration.  This sparked an interest that led to Mandy to start collecting old …