Quilters' Guild Blog

Discover the Garden Festival quilt pattern by Karen Lewis, inspired by the historic Ladies Work Society quilt (1870–1900). A modern take on a heritage design, open to all makers.

Pauline Macaulay shares her instructions for sewing syringe driver/drainage bottle bags, commonly used by patients in palliative and post-operative care.

The Terry Higgins Memorial Quilt was unveiled at The Festival of Quilts this summer. We spoke to Terry's lover Rupert Whitaker, and Terry's close friend Martyn Butler at FOQ about their feelings and experiences in making this quilt.

“Please don't touch the quilts” is an instruction visitors to quilt shows are all too familiar with. Sara Sullivan of Romsey Quilters talks to us about her experience of the process of creating an accessible quilt exhibition.

Deborah McGuire, historian and hand sewer, reflects on a recent project which partners The Quilters’ Guild with the Royal College of Surgeons; two organisations bought together in a project by the Universities of Oxford Brookes and Lancaster.

We all know that quilters have big hearts, valuable skills and a desire to share the craft with others.

Find out more about this project organised by Bernina and The Quilters’ Guild.

From 14 – 16 May 2021 join in with the Crafts Council’s nationwide festival of craft participation, Hey Craft!

Did you know that Guild membership gives you access to many Bursaries & Awards? Let’s take a look at three upcoming bursaries open to applications now, as well as some work from past winners.

sketchbook. The word ‘sketchbook’ evokes strong reactions among many quilters, such as ‘I can’t draw’ or ‘Why waste time on paper when I could be playing with fabric?’.

We could all do with a bit of festive cheer right now, and how better to achieve this than to put our sewing skills to use?

We are delighted to share this article from Guild member Sarah Hibbert about her work, The Festival of Quilts, and her wonderful new Log Cabin design for The Guild’s Pattern Box collection.

Often when people volunteer, they are aiming to help others and give back to the community without looking for any material or financial gain while doing so. It is often purely altruistic, with the intention of the volunteer simply being to improve the quality of life for others.

We are thrilled to have recently acquired the contemporary wholecloth quilt ‘Slip 1, Knit 1’, made by Sandie Lush for The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles’ 7th National juried exhibition in 1999, which was held at Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Quilt maker and designer Sandie Lush gives you the low down on how to get started in wholecloth!

We are thrilled to reveal the design for The Festival of Quilts 2019 souvenir badge!

The Traditional Quilt Group is one of five Specialist Groups within Quilters’ Guild and is now over 14 years old. We have more than 340 members who share our passion for traditional blocks and techniques while embracing modern life.When I am at exhibitions displaying the Traditional Quilt Group challenges, a lot of visitors are surprised that there aren’t more hexagon quilts on display, as most people first think of hexagons as a traditional quilt.

If you’ve been following along with our newsletter for a while, you’ll know this year is our 40th Birthday and we have decided to give away a birthday present to one of our newsletter readers each quarter. Each gift has a connection to a piece from The Quilters’ Guild Museum Collection, collected during one of the four decades of our existence.

At The Festival of Quilts this year we have so many exciting Birthday celebrations for you to enjoy!

‘Flags of Thanks’ is a national collaborative art project led by Alabaré, as part of the 2019 Armed Forces Day celebrations hosted by Salisbury. The Quilters’ Guild would like to support Alabaré in inviting our quilting community to join in with this mass act of thankfulness.

The Guild's Block of the Month project was inspired by our Red Manor House Coverlet!

We all like to think that we’ll be with our family and friends at Christmas. Some of us, through no fault of our own are simply not that lucky. In 2013, poet Lemn Sissay MBE, founded The Christmas Dinner, specifically to be held for young people leaving the Care System.

Bernina’s modern quilting expert, Nicholas Ball, shows you how to create a beautiful modern style quilt for a baby. He uses the Patchwork Foot #97 for piecing and the Quilting Foot #29 for free motion quilting and lettering.

Quilting is the fastening together of two or more layers of fabric, with a layer of wadding or padding in between, either by stitching or knots. Quilting increases the lifespan of the patchwork or cloth and gives it added warmth and softness. The stitches hold the wadding firmly in place and prevent it from shifting, tearing or bunching during use. The lines of quilting stitches add texture and relief to the cloth and in the case of wholecloth quilting can be used imaginatively to create wonderful designs.

We’re delighted to introduce this great tutorial from guest blogger Laura Strutt on how to make perfect flying geese using foundation piecing.