According to the old adage a picture may be worth a thousand words but quilter Alison Jenkins showed members that there’s a story behind every piece of her handiwork.
Alison, a retired teacher and former club president, said that she had been sewing since her junior school days. Encouraged by her mother, a keen sewer and embroiderer, she made her own school cap and apron and eventually progressed to making all her own clothes before taking a place at Bath College to study home economics with dress as her secondary subject.
“In my final year I made a wedding gown for a friend,” she said.
When she married and became a mother to two boys she bought a knitting machine so sewing took a back seat for a while as she made sweaters for her sons.
After retiring she took up quilting on the recommendation of a friend while they were on holiday in Alaska where she bought a “a fat quarter” – that’s quilt-speak for a pack of quilting fabric usually colour co-ordinated.
Her talk was embellished by a wonderful range of her handiwork that made it hard to believe that she only started quilting in 2008 when she joined a local group. On learning that she was to become a grandmother she decided to make a quilt.
Along the way she attended numerous workshops and classes and on each occasion she learnt a different technique, beautifully illustrated by pieces of her work. Holidays also invariably meant a visit to a fabric shop and the inspiration for another project. One such item was a framed beach scene of Saundersfoot in South Wales complete with tiny shells and pieces of driftwood.
Quilts in all sizes, designs and colours, cushions, wall hangings, table runners, Christmas decorations, along with bags of all sizes were a remarkable testament to the skill she has mastered.
She described how challenging it had been to master all the different techniques needed – hand sewing, machining, drawing her own designs and most importantly precision cutting using a special rotary tool.
“Each piece of fabric has to be cut perfectly accurately or it all goes wrong,” said Alison.
Alison is the leader of the club’s quilting group comprising around a dozen or so members and in 2011 a quilt they made was raffled at the Soroptimists annual conference in Brighton and it raised £800 that was later donated to the Portsmouth branch of Alzheimer’s Society.
Club secretary Pat Caulton thanked Alison for her illuminating talk on what is undoubtedly a demanding craft.
*See the item in this section entitled ‘Security and comfort for sick youngsters’ that explains Alison and the club’s involvement in the Project Linus UK.