In December, we received a visit from some dear Canadian cousins and spent several enjoyable (if chilly) days driving around Kent with them to share the delights of our new county. (We moved here in 2021.) We visited a number of the beautiful country churches in Kent including St Mary’s Fordwich, pictured below.
We were fortunate enough to find the church open and there met Janet Hurst who lives in the village and who encouraged us to look around.
The church is a Grade 1 listed building which is 900 years old. It has a twelfth-century font and it contains a large piece of stone known as the ‘Fordwich stone’ which appears to have been a grave marker, memorial or shrine, possibly to St Augustine. The church is situated just three miles away from Canterbury.
The church is no longer in active use by a congregation but it is preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust and public events such as concerts are held there. I realised on this visit that it was actually my second visit to the church as we had seen it whilst walking the Augustine Pilgrimage from Rochester to Ramsgate a few years ago.
On this visit my eye was caught by a stunning, colourful quilt which was mounted on the wall just below the organ loft.
Here is a closer view of the quilt:
Even on the mid-December afternoon when we visited, the glorious colours of the quilt really sang.
The quilt is called ‘The Burst of Creation’. It was made by a group of makers led by Natalie Miller and their names are on display in the church:
Fortunately Jane Hurst – who was looking after the church that afternoon – was able to give me a contact so I could ask permission to share the beauty of the quilt with you.
Natalie Miller was kind enough to send me this picture of the back of the wall-hanging (always of interest to quilters!) which clearly shows how the piece was quilted.
Natalie also passed on the following information about the making of the quilt:
“The hexagons were all made from Kaffe Fassett charm packs and the technique of colour washing with EPP hexagons we followed from Kate of ‘The Last Homely House East of the Sea’ YouTube channel (link here)”
All photographs in this post by Natalie Miller are reproduced by permission.
The link to the YouTube videos is included by permission of Kate (‘The Last Homely House East of the Sea’, website:https://thelasthomelyhouse.co.uk/
You can see more information about the church of St Mary the Virgin Fordwich here The address is: The Drove, Fordwich, Kent CT2 0DB
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Amanda Jane Textiles 