The peaceful art of quilty pleasures
Eleanor Steafel explains how the 300-yearold craft has had a very modern makeover
‘I’m going to start quilting,” a friend announces casually, as if she has just decided to make a cup of tea. “You’re what?” I ask, faintly horrified by even the notion of quilts after a heatwave. “I’m going to make a quilt. I’ve found this template on the internet of a map of London that you embroider on to a huge quilt, and you put little stars by the places that mean something to you.”
I should point out that this particular friend has never before been known to sew so much as a loose button, nor darn a sock. But, sure enough, she has ordered the materials online (as a millennial, the concept of actually going into a haberdashery is perhaps a step too far), and resolved to spend her remaining summer evenings sewing.
The design looks so complicated that I feel sure she’ll be at it until Christmas. The hot weather, I can only conclude, has claimed another victim – she has clearly lost her mind.
A few years ago, it was knitting. Just as Women’s Institutes began to get a boost from a new generation of girls intrigued by the simpler things in life, and the idea of being part of a gang of women, so too did these old-fashioned crafts.
Television programmes such as The Great British Bake Off, The Great British Sewing Bee and The Great Pottery Throw Down followed, bringing families together across the generations with their wholesome feel, gentle humour and ability to transport you to a different time; when Sunday afternoons were for Victoria sandwiches and cross-stitch.
Quilting is the latest, then, in a line of bygone pastimes making a comeback. They conjure up images of rickety old beds in Little House on The Prairie, piled high with throws and crocheted blankets in burnt orange and mustard yellow – cosy and whimsical in that olde-worlde American way.
Quilts always seem reassuringly hefty and indestructible, and yet not nearly as thick or suffocating as a modern duvet. And with the weather finally on the turn (lows of 50F (10C) are predicted in parts of the country over the weekend), a quilt may be the very thing to transition you back to normality after weeks of interminably hot nights, when even the thinnest sheet felt like a fleece. So where in 2018 would one source a quilt?
The best way, of course, is to make one. Quilting classes are becoming more and more widespread, with sewing cafes – such as the wonderfully named Sew Over It in Clapham, London, where you can take a Log Cabin Quilt Class – popping up all over the capital. The Shoreditch Sisters (an east London WI group) hold a regular sewing bee, which covers a whole range of skills, including quilting. The group even took on a project a couple of years ago with department store Liberty, making a beautiful quilt to commemorate the store’s 175th birthday and the centenary of the WI.
Meanwhile, online company Haptic Lab allows you to download templates of city maps, constellations and coastlines – ideal for those of us whose attempts to keep their home as Scandi-chic as possible would render a traditional floral patchwork number out of the question.
It’s a form of mindfulness, says Chloe Fox, who runs Shoreditch Sisters. “In a fast-paced world where we live attached to screens, it’s refreshing to step away and focus on something like quilting. It takes precision and focus, which can sometimes be just what’s needed to take yourself away from modern day hectic life.”
The hobby’s popularity has risen, she adds, as we become increasingly keen to keep traditional skills alive.
“I think there’s a desire to return to the traditional crafts our grandparents did and to enjoy taking the time to craft something, like a quilt, as a unique gift, rather than something off the peg, which anyone could buy,” says Fox.
“We always seem to have a lot of people making baby quilts.”
Wedding quilts are also popular, as couples dispense with gifts in favour of asking each guest to bring a patch of material – some embroidered with messages, others in a meaningful colour, pattern, or shape.
And for many, quilts are works of art, to be hung and admired like tapestries.
Anna Baptiste, who runs the Festival of Quilts, on at the NEC in Birmingham this weekend, says that there is a great deal of skill involved. “People think of quilts as being things that go on your bed, but they are an art form and often breathtaking. The skill, vibrancy and creativity is extraordinary,” she says.
This year is particularly special, I’m told, because the UK’S earliest known patchwork will be on display. The 1718 silk coverlet will be in a specially built enclosed gallery, with one competition prize being a private viewing (these quilters sure know how to live).
Hundreds of quilts from around the world will be competing for “best in show”. It’s rather like the Chelsea Flower Show but for quilts, and while the visitor demographic has historically been similar (50-something, mainly female), the festival is starting to attract a younger audience. “In 2003, when we started, we had visitor numbers of about 12,000. Sixteen years on we’re expecting about 25,000,” says Baptiste.
“There is a trend towards newcomers to quilting. There are people from different backgrounds and all over the country.”
So, take up quilting now and by next summer you could find yourself in a position to compete. Then again, you could just pop to Zara Home and buy one for £90. But where would be the mindfulness in that?
The Festival of Quilts is at the NEC Birmingham until Sunday. thefestivalofquilts.co.uk