At the weekend I helped with an exhibition day organised by the North-East region of the Quilters’ Guild. My tasks included selling Tombola tickets (great fun seeing people win sewing-related items), and then later, looking after the sales table, full of quiltery-type items for sale: mugs, cards, address labels, patterns, etc and – most usefully – some non-slip quilting gloves. I’ve heard good reports of these, and have seen a friend quilting away with similar gloves on, gently stretching the fabric away from the needle on either side, the textured surface of the gloves providing traction. Looking forward to trying them out…

As the Quilters’ Guild no longer, sadly, has exhibition space in York, it has put together some travelling exhibitions which can be shown in different parts of the country. One of these so-called ‘suitcase collections’ , known by the name ‘Travelling Trunks’ came to the village of Hett in County Durham, so that 40 beautiful small quilts, all made by members of the ‘Traditional’ special interest group of the Quilters’Guild could be put on display. Here are just a few :

These pieces demonstrated a wide variety of traditional patterns, and were a pleasure to examine. An accompanying folder allowed visitors to read each maker’s statement about their particular piece.

This small quilt by Lynne Johnson was a particular favourite of mine:

This is an interpretation of the centre section of a historic quilt, made in 1805-10 called the ‘Billings Coverlet’, from the Quilters’ Guild collection. Click here to find out more about the Coverlet. The notes accompanying the suitcase collection revealed that this quilter had not only made the small quilt, but also a full-size 80″x 80″ version of the full quilt!

If, dear reader, you belong to a quilt group affiliated to the Quilters’ Guild, you too could arrange an exhibition of these small gems. Click here to go to the Guild website.