A Gift of Quilts

We will be at the Stitch and Craft show at Olympia ll from 15 - 18 March. Once more we will be fund raising to cover expenses for storing the quilts and preparing them for onward transmission to their recipient countries. We are on the top floor of the show and I don't think you will be able to miss seeing us! Do come and say hello - we love to meet the stitchers who have helped make this project so successful.

From Gillian Harrison: I read your call for Quilt Angels at the Stitch & Craft Show in March next year, in the Quilters’ Guild R15E newsletter (North East England). I now live and work in Scotland for Voluntary Arts Scotland and thought I would let you know about another London 2012 Inspire Mark project called People Making Waves. One of the strands of this project is called the Wave of Friendship and people in Scotland can apply for a Bursary of up to £500 to cover travel, accommodation, food and other out of pocket expenses to go and volunteer in London. So anyone living up here who would like to be a Quilt Angel could apply! Here is a link to the website: http://www.peoplemakingwaves.org.uk/pages/VolunteerBursaries People from London can also apply for a bursary to do some volunteering North of the Border, if you fancied coming up here!Getting the bursary might also make up for not getting a ticket into the show and encourage people to make the trip if that is the only thing they’ll have to pay for themselves!


	Banners for the Winter Olympics 2014! See what we have started.

Coats Crafts UK

Midsomer Quilting

Christine Porter

Doughty's Fabrics

Quilting by: Janie Rowthorn, Butterfly Quilters, The Cotton Patch, Elisabeth Green, Sue Sapstead (Quiltessence) and Karen Cocksedge. Quilting by Sheila Wilkinson. Barbara Sutcliffe at www.firtreequilting.com to Jude and Yvette Ness for quilting "Twambley". Our thanks also to Karen Florey at the Running Chicken Quilting Co. Please see our "Contacts" page for web sites.. Also

Handi Quilter for bags to transport the quilts

Fabrics from; Makower Fabrics, and Abakhan (Fabrics, Hobby & Home) Goosechase Quilting, Frabricsgalore and Out of Africa.

We are very grateful to our friends in the quilting world who donated items for our fund-raising Lucky Dip at the Festival of Quilts (2010; Doughty's, Fabrics Galore, Pauline's Patchwork and Quilting supplies, The Homeworks Books, Oakshott Fabrics, Threads and Patches, Patchwork and Quilting magazine, Bernina and Out of Africa. With their help we raised £1100. Not bad at £1 per ticket.

We are also very grateful for all the donations of prizes for our Grand Raffle and Tombola which included a year's subscription to Popular Patchwork magazine. We also thank our friends at Popular Patchwork and Patchwork and Quilting magazine for the space and coverage they have given in their magazines for this project.

We would like to thank David Matthews of Goodworth Clatford (our very patient photgrapher) for the work he is doing photographing and assisting us in documenting the quilts as they come in. Visit his web site www.clatfordphotography.com to see more about David.

A thank you too to Tony Oliver who photographed 56 of the final quilts so that we could get the images to the publishers in time. You can see more about tony and his work at www.aropics.com


	Olympic Logo quilt by Tiddly Dyke Quilters

We would like to acknowledge the support given to us by Test Valley Borough Council and their grant of £300 towards this project.

THE OLYMPIC SPIRIT - This quote says it all!

We are a multi-faith, multi-cultural group of women who meet one morning a week to build links and friendships, practice speaking English, try out crafts, learn new skills, and generally have fun together.

Our group of women from nine nationalities and five faiths have just completed a table drape for the InterFaith Group to use at their meetings. Previously we made a Celebration Quilt using materials donated from many users of the Victoria Centre. We are enthusiastic about contributing to the Olympic Quilts and Pennants.

Women's Have A Go Group, Wellingborough Northants

Angela Appleby was living in Sarajevo until last year and was a member of a craft group which due to their passion for quilting became a quilt group. The group was very fluid with members arriving and leaving all the time. In the 3 years that Angela was there members came from the USA, UK, Cyprus, Malaysia, Egypt, Japan,Germany, Australia, finland, France and Canada.

Angela now lives in Italy but is hoping that her friends from this group, wherever they are now, will be participating by making a block which she will put together and quilt.

This is a local community group, set up in response to residents' desire for a group where they could meet, chat and learn/undertake various crafts. The group has a wide range of ages from thirtyish to eighty plus and includes members with learning difficulties. Patchwork and quilting has been offered and enthusiastically taken up by members, many of whom had no previous experience. They have registered to make a quilt for the project. (no 437)

A Family Story Jenny Hornsey, of Basingstoke, contacted A Gift of Quilts as she wishes to make a quilt for the Olympics in memory of her father (R D Binfield). Mr Binfield published a book "The Story of the Olympics 1948 and he represented England at a Literary Festival which ran alongside the Olympics in that year. Mr Binfield also wrote an epic poem about the first marathon. We felt that this summed up why people are registering and are interested in continuing the link from the last London Olympics to the 2012 Games.