Circling The Stars

by Rosemary Archer, Bristol
Winner of the SWQ award for traditional quilt at Quilts UK Malvern 2009

What a lovely surprise to receive the £50 voucher from South West quilters for my quilt “Circling the Stars” in the traditional class at Malvern. It is also the first time I have won a trophy and I'm very proud to display that too. Thank you all very much. I’d just designed (in my head) a quilt for next year’s show to put into the “Colours of the Rainbow” class, so the voucher came at a great time, and where better to choose rainbow fabrics than from Strawberry Fayre’s vast range? Let’s hope what’s in my head can be translated into reality.

Patchwork and quilting is something that has really taken over my life, although I began only about 20 years ago. Before that I’d tried most things in the craft line but none of these crazes has really lasted. Needles and threads have always been my best friends though, since my childhood. At first I designed and made doll’s clothes and then made my own clothes, usually using Simplicity patterns. My mother never owned a sewing machine so the latter had to be done at school. My mum was a hat trimmer so she was always hand-sewing and it was great to watch those wonderful creations take shape in her expert hands. When I started work I bought my first sewing machine which was basic but heaven. I made my own wedding dress using this and in later years have made about seven more for friends using a much more modern machine.

When my children were small I bought a knitting machine, initially to make jumpers for them, but soon progressed to working for several knitwear designers. Believing I might be able to design as well as them I submitted several patterns to knitwear magazines. They were accepted, however, it cost more to produce the garments than they paid me for them so this was not an activity I pursued, even though it was very enjoyable. I still occasionally hand-knit garments without a commercial pattern.

About 20 years ago a friend at work celebrated her silver wedding and her daughter presented her with a lovely patchwork quilt - the names of the blocks representing memorable occasions in her marriage. Knowing my interest in sewing my friend brought this in to show me, and to someone who’d always believed patchwork to be hexagons sewn round bits of paper this was a revelation—how wonderful was this! I think I could see my life changing from that very moment, and when my friend’s daughter agreed to show me how she had made these blocks my life really did change forever. This was before the days of rotary cutters, and hand sewing was still the preferred method of working so it was back to needle and thread for me. My first piece was a cushion cover—long since consigned to the dustbin—and right from the start I realised I loved the quilting part much more that the piecing, because of the lovely textures produced. My cushion was quilted to within an inch of its life. My first quilt, a double bed sized one, was designed, hand-pieced and hand-quilted and took me over a year. I was never so glad to discover that machine-piecing and even machine-quilting was becoming acceptable and have never hand-made anything since, although I love the look of hand-quilting and still have a hankering to do a wholecloth someday—if only it didn’t take so long!

I do enjoy piecing quilts and try to do some every day but my greatest love is still the quilting. This led me to start my own quilting business about six years ago using a Gammill quilting machine. So now I quilt for several hours most days turning other people’s gorgeous tops into quilts. Can you think of a nicer way for a quilter to spend her days?

Rosemary Archer