Bright patches

Or at least, so I am reliably informed.

At this point, I should confess that my own needlework is so poor that I have problems sewing my sons’ name labels into their school uniforms.

This does not matter, according to Jane Soffe who has been making patchwork quilts for almost 15 years.

“Anyone who can sew two squares together can learn to do patchwork quilting,” she assured me.

Jane is one of around 20 women who make up the West Hendred Stitchers, a patchwork quilting group who meet in a village hall near Wantage each week.

“It is about women getting together to do something they are interested in,” she explained.

“We all bring our own projects to sessions, which means anybody can join the group at any time,” she added.

Although Jane is officially the leader of the group, as well as another she runs at Challow Village Hall in Wantage, she doesn’t like to describe herself as a teacher.

“I’m here to instil confidence in beginners rather than teach, and because there are plenty of people here who have been doing this for years, we all help each other,” she pointed out.

“I don’t like pressure. Everyone learns or works at their own speed,” she added.

She isn’t exaggerating about the leisurely pace of the sessions — some last for as long as six hours.

“We spend the time chatting, have coffee and tea, and we stop and eat lunch halfway through and generally put the world to rights,” she explained.

Those sessions are named ‘sew and chat’, while others are shorter and more technical — focused on learning a new technique or featuring a guest speaker or teacher.

The village hall where they meet has trestle tables that are ideal for spreading out fabrics and the women bring their own sewing machines and travel irons with them.

I’d always thought patchwork quilting was an American thing but Jane told me it’s been around in the UK since the 18th century when it was used for bed hangings, bedspreads and cushions.

The idea is to sew together pieces of fabric to make a larger design, often based around a picture or geometric pattern.

The top patchwork layer is then stitched to other layers — usually a middle one of wadding and a third of backing material to give the familiar quilted finish.

Although in the past, it was often a way of using scraps of old material to make something new, these days most patchwork quilters buy their fabric new.

Shops such as Cotton Club in Bampton, Rustic Angel, in Moulsford, and Village Fabrics, in Wallingford, sell a huge variety of material. Many of them run courses for beginners, workshops and something called ‘shop hop’ weekends.

The idea is to visit three or more of the shops over the course of a day or weekend, taking in the activities, refreshments and mini goody bags on offer at each.

There is no doubt that patchwork quilting is incredibly popular, proved by the fact that around 25,000 people visited the annual Festival of Quilts exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC last year.

To an outsider, it seems as though patchwork quilting almost has its own secret language, with terms such as ‘fat quarters’ and ‘thin quarters’.

For the uninitiated among us, this has to do with the width of the fabric, sold by the metre.

You may also feel intimidated to hear quilters talking about PHD’s and UFOs — until you realise the acronyms stand for Project Half Done and Unfinished Objects.

Meticulous measurement is the key to success, as Chanelle Golding, who travels to the group from East Illsley, pointed out.

“You’ve got to be accurate to the centimetre. If you are a tiny bit wrong, it just throws everything out,” she explained.

“That’s why measurement squares are so important,” agreed Sue Mould from Newbury, showing her tool kit of rulers, quilting needles which are thinner than normal ones and a rubber mat to cut the fabric on.

Amazingly, Chanelle confided she used to “hate sewing” before she discovered patchwork quilting.

“It’s so therapeutic. I love the way that from such tiny bits of material, with imagination, you can make incredible things,” she said.

Wantage-based Stella Whittle is working on three quilts at the same time, and has just completed a stunning medallion quilt featuring gold and cream hues for her bedroom.

“I‘ve been sewing all my life, but I only discovered quilting two years ago. I wish I’d started years earlier because I’d have to live to 130 to do all I want to,” she joked.

Many of the women enjoy making gifts for friends and family, such as Rosemary Brown from Crowmarsh who made six cushions as Christmas presents last year.

Eight years and six quilts later, Monica Collyer still enjoys sewing quilts for a children’s charity she supports. She said: “This and the other groups I go to are a very friendly and we help each other out. Because we all started at different places and learned different things we can pool our know-how.”

At 46, Jax Narnor, from Newbury, is one of the youngest members of the group, although the membership ranges in age from 20 to 80.

In common with most of the women there, Jax fell into quilting by accident.

“I used to do cross-stitching and was at a seminar where the teacher failed to turn up. In her place was a patchwork quilter who brought 30 quilts with her.

“I never looked back. I love the design element, the complexity and versatility of it. There are so many ways of doing it.

“If you gave the same pattern and material to 12 people, each quilt would come out differently,” she explained.

Finally, I asked Heather Millson, who has won competitions during the decade she has been patchwork quilting, what she enjoyed most about her hobby.

“Working on a quilt is very relaxing and I like being able to make one when there is a new baby in our circle of family and friends.

“But to be honest, the best thing is you meet all sorts of lovely people — it is just so nice to get together and have a chat,” she said.

There are more than 15 patchwork quilting groups that meet regularly in Oxfordshire. For more information, contact The Quilters Guild on 01904 613242.

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