In April 2021, whilst we were working from home and homeschooling, an old family friend and neighbour asked if I might help with a project on behalf of the Epsom and Ewell Talking Newspaper. This small charity provides news recordings to the partially-sighted and they hoped to be represented on a commemorative quilt which would talk about what Covid19 had meant to our local community.
The quilt, I was told, would be created from 48 different patches and once complete, would be donated to our local museum in Bourne Hall Library. Any medium could be used from sewing applique to crochet and even fabric paints. The only constraints were the size and shape and EETN had some specific wording which they would love to include - 'May kind words spread love'.
Immediately I was fully committed and since I find it hard to stick to any one medium, somehow all my favourite techniques found their way in to the final piece - from screen printing and free motion embroidery to heat transferred vinyl and french knots.
Fast forward to September and the finished quilt was unveiled at the first Ewell History Day, a fantastic event which included Morris men, Gladiators, WW1 and WW2 soldier re-enactments and even Dr James Dilley making bronze castings using a bellows-driven firepit. The Patching Up Ewell quilt was presented to Bourne Hall by the Deputy Mayor and it will hang in the library museum, which I visited regularly as a child and now take my own children to on a weekly basis.
If you would like to know more about how my patch was made or about eetn.org.uk you can visit the link below, which includes an interview (34 minutes mark) or find more of my projects on Instagram. Ewell History Day has its own Facebook page and you can see all of the patches in detail on the Facebook page for Patching Up Ewell. I hope it runs again next year!