Quilting: How to get started

By Sonia Purnell Published: 10:00AM GMT 17 Feb 2010

Previous of Images Next "A canvas to express yourself": Katherine May at work on a quilt Photo: GEOFF PUGH Quilting: A bundle of worn and washed fabric An Action Man quilt

When a glamorous young actress tied the knot not long ago at the Actors Church in Covent Garden, central London, she dispensed with the normal formalities of a wedding list at a department store. Instead, the media and thespian crowd invited were each asked to bring a piece of material that meant something to them - all of which were to be stitched together to make a marriage patchwork quilt.

"It was quite a creative bunch of people who attended," says journalist Angelina Villa-Clarke, one of the guests, "so people brought some wonderful pieces including some with embroidered messages on them. I thought it was a really memorable idea." Although marriage quilts have been popular in the United States for some time, it is only in the past couple of years that patchwork quilts have become sought-after lifestyle pieces here rather than dusty, grandmotherly mementos hidden away in the loft. But now their charms have seduced a whole new generation of women in their twenties and thirties.

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"Ive been quilting for a couple of years now and was taught by my grandmother," says 26-year-old Jazz Domino Holly Mellor, president of the Shoreditch Sisters, a Womens Institute-affiliated group composed mostly of students and artists in east London. "I now run quilting bees, attended by lots of women my age, and we all sit around making our own quilts or stitching one together.

"Quilting is collaborative, cross-generational and artistic," she says. "It can also tell stories - one the Shoreditch Sisters is doing for the WI is a protest against domestic violence. Another Im making for my best friends wedding is composed of lots of interlocking circles to represent her union with her husband-to-be." Another young quilter I spoke to had stitched together fragments of childhood clothing, sheets and other memorabilia to make a quilt for a friends 18th birthday.

Certainly, Jazz is not the only one to report a surge of interest in quilting across the age spectrum. The Victoria & Albert Museum, as ever with its finger on the design pulse, is staging an exhibition this spring on quilts dating from 1700 to 2010. Meanwhile, Liberty, the central London department store known for its collection of prints and fabrics, is working with the museum to hold a complementary showcase of contemporary quilts to be called Quilty Pleasures.

It is also launching a "Worn and Washed" bundle of reclaimed and washed fabrics, priced from £7.95 to £90, as a collection of colour co-ordinated fabrics to make up into a quilt. The larger bundles have enough fabric to allow them to be sewn into a quick scrappy quilt measuring about 130cm by 185cm (roughly 44" by 62") or cut down in size for a nine patch, log cabin or four patch. (See glossary) The store is also responding to unprecedented demand by offering three extra classes in quilting at its Sewing School, most of which have already sold out.

Quilts do not have to conform to stereotypical images of faded florals suited to traditional country cottages. The contemporary 27-year-old textile designer Katherine May is creating four quilts for the Liberty show that turn most preconceptions upside down. Perhaps the most unusual is her quilt made from Barbie Doll and Action Man clothes , stitched together in a bold, free-form design with strong colours and an array of different materials. She collected hundreds of items of dolls clothing from car boot sales and eBay and created, in effect, a large collage backed with parachute material.

"I started quilting when I was 23 during the final year of my BA course at Chelsea Arts College," Katherine says, "when I saw some beautiful, inspiring images of women quilting together in a circle." She researched a little more and found some bold, expressive quilts, made by African-Americans in Alabama. Some had used fragments of denim work clothes, still with copper staining.

"I just loved that idea of recycling," she says. "The many women who now come to my quilting workshops - who range from their twenties upwards - also love finding a use for those little bits of fabric you dont want to throw away. There is a real mix of styles. A quilt is like a canvas to express yourself."

There is no doubt that quilts can be made to all tastes. May has made a deliberately masculine quilt for her boyfriend from lots of mens printed scarves, shot through with man-friendly blacks and aubergines. But for her sofa, she now wants to create "a traditional, soft, hexagonal floral design" that has a decidedly more feminine feel.

"I guess its a reaction against the minimalism of the past few years and a desire to recycle. But it also feels really empowering to create something yourself, something with a story, too."

THE BEGINNERS GUIDE TO QUILTING TERMS

Quick Scrappy Quilt A quilt, usually patchwork, made of many different fabrics, often leftovers.

Nine Patch A very popular design based on a family of square block designs, three units by three units.

Log Cabin A pattern in which narrow fabric strips, or logs, surround a centre square to form a block. These may be pieced from strips or sewn onto a foundation of paper or fabric.

Four Patch A block with two, four, or multiples of four units per row.

GET QUILTING

Liberty quilting classes (020 7734 1234) cost £50 per person. Quilty Pleasures will run at Liberty, Great Marlborough Street, from March 15- April 12. Katherine Mays workshops cost £20. For details: info@katherinemay.com or call 07799 410945.Worn and Washed quilting fabrics: www.wornandwashedfabrics.com.The Quilts 1700-2010 exhibition at the V&A, Cromwell Road, runs March 20 to July 4. More details on www.vam.ac.uk/quilts.