About Us

Visit the Meeting Reports

Despite our size, we are a friendly group of about 70. Our programme is varied as you can see if you click the links above.
We have an extensive library. Librarians love the opportunity to buy books hot off the press!
Our large collection of group-made quilts can be borrowed by speakers and teachers if they are not booked for an exhibition.
We support various charities either by raising money or by contributing items we have made such as Linus quilts or lap quilts for a local Nursing Home.
Members are encouraged to do what they can to help with the organisation and running of the group and are surprised, should they find themselves on the Committee, that they enjoy it!

Edith Norris Kaleidoscope Workshop. November 3rd and 4th 2010.

I attended the workshop on Wednesday the 3rd, it was my first visit to Cudham and I was very impressed by the setting, especially on a beautiful sunny autumnal day.

The room was already being set up and we were all eager to get out our fabrics and prepare for the cutting. We soon realised why only 8 were allowed in the group as Edith had to spend quite a time with each person helping them to find the repeats and where to cut.

The whole of the session before lunch was taken up with cutting and marking sewing line on our triangles.

After a short break for lunch out came the sewing machines and soon we heard squeals of delight as the kaliedascope effect of the blocks were seen for the first time.

By the end of the afternoon we had all managed to complete four blocks and Edith had given excellent instructions about how to continue. We all displayed our blocks and looking at the blocks it was hard to remember what the original fabric was like.

Some of the fabrics which Edith had been doubtful about at the start of the day worked very well and produced some lovely blocks after very careful cutting.

Thank you Edith for a wonderful day and a big thank you to Jean and Polly who spent the day encouraging us and supplying us with tea, coffee and a delicious lemon cake.

We now look forward to seeing the completed quilts!!

Vivien.

Message from Hannah.

We had eight in our group and had a lot of fun but worked very hard, Polly and Jean stayed for the day and spoilt us making tea and coffee, Jean made us a lovely lemon cake for afternoon.

Return Visit to Elmwood Nursing Home.

Beckenham Quilters were invited to return to Elmwood by Joy Corbett, the Activities Co-ordinator in order to see the quilt that some of the residents had made following our initial visit.

Some of the women had been inspired to pick up needle and thread again and try their hand at patchwork. The end result, shown here,



now has pride of place on the wall in the communal lounge, with a plaque showing the names of the women who took part in the project. Everything was sewn by hand.

They have started a second one and have plans for a third. Such an unexpected but splendid outcome from our original purpose of making lap quilts for elderly people.

Jean Bagley, Mary Trim and I took along a donation of 6 more lap quilts made by members and gave a little presentation, offering them some advice about their home quilts. Then we were fortunate to be able to see the recipients of the donated quilts.

Names were drawn out of a hat, then the laundry applied the person's name to our label on the quilt and we handed it over.

Here you can see Mary being able to give the quilt that she had made to Joyce. I don't know who looked more pleased. It was a special moment.

Then we took the quilt that had been made by Fiona Byers to Flo. You can see how it brightened up Flo's bed, and the whole room. She was thrilled.



We were able to donate two patchwork and quilting books given to us by Marie Roberts. Subsequently, following her death, her husband asked us to clear out her sewing room. He wanted everything to go to people who would use the materials. So I am pleased to say that this week, I took bags of materials, cottons, needles, threaders etc. to Elmwood to be used by the sewing group. It seems a fitting donation in Marie's memory to a group of women who are once again enjoying sewing in their twilight years.

This is an on-going project, as it would be wonderful if everyone living in Elmwood and Greenhill Missioncare Homes eventually all had their own lap quilts.

Do keep them coming whenever you have time to make one, and hopefully we will be able to take another donation next year.

Thank you to all members who have supported this venture.

Polly Munday

Sewing in Wartime.

Quilt Museum and Gallery, York

Anna, Jackie and myself went up to York for the hanging and Press Days on July 7th and 8th. Our quilts look gorgeous hung on the walls and displayed on beds and the plinths.

The CRCQ research team

Heather, the curator, has acquired many other artefacts, clothing, ration books, sewing notions and books, to add to the interest. That makes it a more rounded exhibition.

We were thrilled to see how our contribution has been recognised by the museum.

The logo for our "Canadian Red Cross Quilt Research Project" is prominently displayed alongside those of the Heritage Lottery Fund and York Tourism.

Fame indeed!

Also on information boards are our mission statement and an article I have written for the catalogue.

A reporter from a local newspaper came and took photos including Anna on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the local BBC news programme 'Look North' sent a reporter and photographer who did interviews with me and Fiona Diaper, the museum director. It went out on some versions of 'Look North' that evening. Fiona and I also had interviews with a reporter from BBC Radio York, which were much more nerve-wracking as they were live.

I went up again the following week to do a briefing for the volunteers and staff, who are all very interested in the quilts, and asked some searching questions. Later on that day, I did an interview for their oral history project, which will be on the museum blog. I haven't looked for it, so don't know whether it is on there yet or not. Then in the afternoon, I did a talk for visitors which was well attended, and again provoked several questions.

Once again in the museum yesterday (21st July) with friends, in talking with the volunteers and Fiona, I was delighted to hear that it has been their most successful exhibition so far in terms of numbers. This is no doubt due in part to the good local media coverage it has had, but hopefully the word will spread and it will continue to attract visitors until the exhibition closes on October 16th.

It is quite possible to do the trip to York in a day on the train. Book a ticket well in advance to get a cheap deal - my record so far is less than £16 return with a rail card. I do hope some of BQ's members will be able to make a visit.

Maxine March

22nd July 2010

Anna with her quilt in the 'Under African Skies' Exhibition in the side room.

Polly spent some months in Australia with her family over Christmas and been given a challenge! This is what she found......

Canadian Red Cross Quilt Downunder

Knowing that I was returning to West Australia last November, Anna Mansi asked me if it would be possible to track down a Red Cross quilt that had been taken to Australia by the Petre family when they emigrated in 1982. The family had received a Canadian Red Cross quilt from the WVS in 1943 when the roof of their house in Sanderstead, Surrey was blown off. It accompanied the two Petre children when they were evacuated.

When the family emigrated, they had used it as padding round a precious engraving.

Its use continued downunder, once to carry a litter of puppies to the vets, and later as a blanket for a sick horse called Rosie.

Finally it was donated to the West Australia Quilt Association (WAQA) in 2000 by the son of the original owners.

I was invited to a meeting of WAQA by a couple of Australian women I had met at a Shibori dying class. I contacted the group's chair and historian and asked if it would be possible to view this quilt, take photographs and complete a registration form, so that its existence could be verified. They agreed and asked me to talk to the members at the meeting about the quilt's history, of which they were unaware.



I looked forward with anticipation as the quilt was slowly unwrapped, and I was amazed to see what good condition it was in.

It was made of furnishing fabrics, mainly velours and velveteen, and some of the colours were still very bright. It had a standard backing of ticking, but the binding looked as though it had been replaced at some stage. Two labels on the back had survived: the standard Red Cross Society label and another one which still needs some research.

It had another unique feature: ANTS!

A colony of ants and their eggs had taken up residence and my Australian friends were horrified. Luckily, my asking to see it had virtually saved it, because it would not have been taken out and inspected for another year, by which time it would certainly have been damaged.

I learnt afterwards that they moved all the quilts from the storage facility they had been using to a safer location.



Polly Munday.

Cudham Workshop with Edith Morris

At the November meeting BQ were entertained and inspired by Edith Morris's impressive " Show and Tell" of about 30 quilts.

The following morning ten of us arrived at Cudham to learn to make her Double Pinwheel quilt, using just two fabrics.



This is quite a simple pattern apart from cutting the angles -Edith carefully checked before we cut! -and there was a constant buzz of sewing machines and chat as we assembled our blocks.

We had a short break for lunch -and several for tea -but by the end of the afternoon most of us had completed four blocks and knew exactly how to finish our tops.

All ten different fabric combinations were stunning and it will be interesting to see the finished quilts.

It was a stimulating and satisfying day, so many thanks to Edith, to Polly who organised the event and kept us topped up with tea and to Jean Bagley for setting up and clearing the venue.