Unfortunately, we don't support Internet Explorer anymore as it has been replaced by Microsoft Edge.
Please try downloading Microsoft Edge or an alternative modern browser for the best experience.
Meet Marilyn Miles, one of our regional members
Marilyn Miles is one of our supportive members who has taken all the photographs of the quilts exhibited by some of our members at FoQ 2021. This year she has offered to do the same. We really appreciate this as not all our members are able to visit the exhibition to see the quilts themselves. So I asked Marilyn to tell us a bit more about herself.
As with many teenagers in the 1960s we made our own clothes ? no flash fashion then.! In 1986 I was living in Ottawa for eight months and found someone to teach me Patchwork and Quilting. On my return to England I helped start Mulberry quilters group in Wokingham, Berkshire. On moving to Gloucestershire in 2005 I helped start Five Valley quilters (5VQ) based in Nailsworth. I also became more involved with the Quilters? Guild and was the Web editor for Region 5 for several years.
Thee days I have a separate sewing room (which is rarely tidy!) and I usually have several projects on the go at once. I?ve nearly finished the red house Manor quilt and there are three more quilts pieced and basted just waiting for quilting
Recently I?ve become involved with making quilt hugs for care leavers. It started just by making a few blocks every month and sending them off to the ?coordinator?. They collect all the blocks and make them into Quilt hugs. The aim is not to make a bed quilt but a quilt that the care leaver can wrap around themselves. The carers are aged between 18 and 25 and are given the choice as to which hug they would like. The choice of materials needs to be age-appropriate and we are advised to avoid hearts, houses and Christmas fabric as many have had traumatic childhoods. Together with others in 5VQ we are making whole hugs and hope to have some to offer to Gloucestershire care leavers before the end of the year
Being a member of a local group and part of the Quilters? guild has given me a lovely set of friends. We have supported each other over the years through bereavement, divorce, difficult children as well as all the joys of life and love.
I am a completer finisher but can be very slow. a wedding ring quilt made for a friend?s marriage was completed after the birth of their second child. That was quick. Another took 19 years!
I have entered quilts into the FoQ - where I appreciate the feedback from the judges - and smaller shows. I once (many moons ago) got a 2nd rosette in a class of 3.
Quilts exhibited at FoQ 2022 by regional members
I have chosen Sarah Hibbert's Macaroons quilt to head the album of photos of quilts exhibited at Festival of Quilts 2022 by members of Region 5. Sarah's quilt was the face of FoQ 2022 after the pandemic caused the cancellation of the festival the previous year. The photos have all been very kindly sent by Marilyn Miles.
Quilts Around the House
The latest event held by the region was very successful. Even the weather turned out well. Our retiring regional coordinator, Liz Jarvis gave over her house in Clevedon to a display of quilts sourced from a variety of quilting groups and individual artists from within the region. Although it was all put together in slightly less than ideal circumstances (I.e. last minute due to committee problems) thanks must go to Michaela Knight, Ruth Case and Lesley Hagan plus Liz of course who all did sterling service in collecting the quilts, hanging them, serving refreshments and generally saving the day. The quilts were displayed in several rooms, either hung on walls or draped over sofas etc. Volunteers in the kitchen served refreshments including home made cakes to visitors who were able to sit in the garden in the summer sunshine.
Note from the Website Editor: Thanks go to Carole Webb for taking the photographs. We had hoped to show the quilts on the website in the domestic settings in which they were displayed. That has not proved to be possible owing to the restrictions of the software. Instead details of most of the quilts have been used instead of the original photographs.
Meet Diane Bell Our Vintage Quilter!
My interest in patchwork and quilting began in the late 1980?s after seeing quilts while holidaying in America over a number of years. Not knowing where or how to start I bought a kit in America consisting of white fabric squares stamped with a cross stitch design. Once stitched they were joined to plain fabric squares to complete the quilt top, wadding and backing added then hand quilted.
In 1992 a new quilt shop ?The Quilted Bear? opened in Clifton, Bristol. They offered beginner?s lessons so I signed up to a sampler class. It was all hand piecing and quilting. In early 1993 I was asked to attend a local quilt group - Westbury Park Quilters, as a guest. With a busy working life and young family, patchwork and quilting progress was slow, but my interest was always more in the quilting process rather than the piecing. Realising that hand quilting was the slowest element, I became a closet ?machine quilter? until I felt confident enough to bring my machine quilting to the group?s Show and Tell.
In 2014 I was able to purchase a sit down (stationary) quilting machine, a Handi Quilter Sweet 16, I took classes in long arm techniques as it is very different to quilting on a domestic machine.
I felt I still hadn?t really found my style of patchwork & quilting, I tried Modern but the quilting style for Modern didn?t really suit me. In 2018 I attended a 4 day quilting event in Bristol with an American teacher, Kelly Cline, who introduced me to vintage quilting and how to use vintage embroidery and linens. The vintage journey began, I?m totally hooked. I have now found my place in the quilting world.
