I joined the Quilters Guild Region 9 committee, with Heather Hasthorpe.. Norfolk has had a great shortage of representation in this part of the region, with the result that much happens in the West (Cambridgeshire and Huntingdon) and little in the East (Norfolk) I'm also just on the Suffolk border, so I want to reach out towards that Region 8 population too..
Now, I am also very interested in making quilting and piecing and other textile mysteries accessable and interesting to the younger generation.. I've been sewing since I was knee-high to a skirtmarker, and I am as obsessed as anyone - a day without stitch and cloth is not whole for me. And I remember how fantastic it was to discover the wonderful new stuff that was happening when I was a young adult and just starting out in the textile world..
I don't mean children.. Kids do pretty much what their parents allow them to, and it takes a strong-minded child to ask to do something that is truly outside the parents' ambit. Children with keen parents may still not continue as they head for their teens. Nor do I think of the college-students.. The ones doing creative subjects are not in need of me, and the others are too busy, too iPad, too Google (nothing wrong with that).. I am thinking more of the young mums, the ones with jobs and lives who nonetheless need to find or nourish a creative streak that is fulfilling, energising, and satisfying..
Not excluding or wishing to discourage the males of the species, but the number I have taught in 10 years would all fit on a smallish sofa. With room for cushions..
When I was a young parent, I made clothes (as a living, i was a dressmaker) and for myself and my children.. I made household goods, curtains, toys. I learned every textile craft I could find, weaving, embroidery, bobbin lacemaking, macrame, knitting, crochet, you name it..
I was and am a kite maker of great skill and reputation.. It's all sewing..
Nowadays, it's foolish to make any but the most special clothes - the new ones are ludicrously cheap and the High Street is full of charity shops which are also cheap..
So, sewing has to be for pleasure and for soothing the complex and stressful lives most of us lead.
I've set up a Modern Quilt Guild group for East and South Norfolk and North Suffolk (Broadland) and I want to encourage the QGBI Contemporary Quilt members in this region to make a group for working together and possibly exhibiting..
And I want to reach out to those people out there who might just enjoy what we do..
Image from the Thetford salvation Army citadel - I looked in vain for the door marked "Old Farts"
