Member Stories

Polly Merryweather

I joined Cambridge Quilters as recently as 2025 to meet a group of like-minded makers, though I had been quilting in some form or other for several years. I have thoroughly enjoyed all the meetings I have been to.

I suffered pretty grim needlework lessons at the grammar school I attended but nevertheless did make a few (easy pattern) clothes in the holidays when I was a student. My grandmother was an ardent quilter making many bed quilts using hexagons using traditional EPP though funnily I don’t remember seeing her actually sewing.

My aunt got me interested in quilting when she started making quilts from recycled fabrics around 2000, including many of my grandmother’s cotton summer dresses. She used bold bright print fabrics in stripes and simple Seminole-type designs cut from stripes, including diamonds and chevrons. My work in biological sciences research and looking after small children left little time for hobbies but I was inspired to make a quilt for a cot bed using similar methods to hers and whatever fabric I had to hand. I think the quilting bug got hold of me from then on. Next was a full-sized bed quilt made using men’s shirts (my husband always wore through the elbows) and my daughter’s outgrown bright dresses as accents. I used a simple pattern, all squares and rectangles, from Kaffe Fassett’s first patchwork book. Quilting was strictly in the ditch.

I love colour and the way colours can merge or change from one to another or from light to dark within a quilt. I made several quilts in this vein using batik fabrics in raw edge applique using the method called Interchange Applique (developed by Gillian Travis). I was gradually attracted to more modern styles of improv quilting, without the need for precise cutting and piecing. However, I do enjoy foundation piecing and drafting my own designs. I also gradually ventured to quilt a little more creatively using a walking foot for echo or straight-line quilting.  Recently I’ve been using solid fabrics and low volume prints more than I used to, though there is often a place for a little piece of that fabric I thought I’d never use!

Nicholas Ball’s book Inspiring Improv has been very well thumbed, and I have also been influenced by the work of Cindy Grisdela, Jo Avery and Carolina Oneto. Visiting shows like Festival of Quilts always brings plenty of inspiration and new ideas.  More recently I have been trying to improve my free motion quilting skills, and this took on a significant improvement with a new (domestic) machine purchased at FOQ in 2020.  I do enjoy this part of the quilting process, but I must admit it is time-consuming and therefore partly why my quilts are mostly of the wall-hanging type rather than bed quilts. I look in amazement at the skill of free motion quilters using long arm machines on Instagram and YouTube. Maybe one day.

Areas of interest: Modern

Fiona Payne

My quilting journey started about three years ago. I had made a one-off quilt for the Cambridge Open Studio, an annual event, that I was participating in for the first time since moving to Cambridge. This quilt, a Janet Clare design of sea gulls flying across the face of it hung proudly in my home amongst my paintings and prints for sale. I was thrilled that a buyer purchased it, sang its praises and wanted me to personally help him hang it in his home as a wall hanging. Since then, the painting and the printmaking have become secondary to quilt making and my art studio has become less furnished with easels, paints, inks and canvases but more fabric, threads, needles, rotary cutters and of course a new sewing machine.

I was hungry to learn more and began to join local quilting communities. I was already part of a very supportive drop-in quilt group at a local fabric store, Backstitch, and then heard about and joined the Cambridge Quilters. Over the last 18 months I’ve also dived into several Zoom workshops, talks and sew-alongs, slowly building my library of skills, knowledge and techniques such as free motion quilting, walking foot quilting, binding edges, tackling curves, quilt design to name a few so gradually more challenging quilts are part of my daily work. I have also found a great national and international community through Instagram and Facebook.

I see myself developing as a ‘modern’ quilter as I love bold brightly coloured contemporary quilts. I really love the quilts made by the quilters of Gee’s Bend whose quilts have been exhibited world- wide on art gallery walls and this year at the Festival of Quilts. I am inspired too by all the quiltmakers at Cambridge Quilters whose skills and experience I can tap into and learn from. I’ve also met up with some Cambridge based textile artists and am exploring combining fabric, paint, ink and stitch into abstract pieces often using recycled garments and fragments left from my larger quilting projects.

I am a retired Health Visitor and midwife having worked in the NHS for 30 years. At a recent meeting with Cambridge Quilters I learnt of the project to make tiny quilts for babies in neo-natal intensive care units.  What better way to use my fabric stash and my growing skills to also make these small gifts for tiny new-borns, it fits nicely into my new rhythm of life here in Cambridge.

Areas of interest: Modern and textile contemporary art

Memberships: The Quilters' Guild, the Cambridgeshire Modern Quilt Guild and Cambridge Open Studios

Jill Essex

I joined Cambridge Quilters in the summer of 2018, having done dressmaking in my teens.  Being completely new to patchwork and quilting, I enrolled on a fortnightly course at Studio 39 in Baldock at the beginning of 2019. On a snowy Friday in January, I found myself for the first hour the only student with two tutors, but gradually others appeared and I got to know a friendly group of experienced quilters. As the only beginner in this slot throughout the year, I was working at my own pace through a well-thought out programme of increasingly complex block designs and techniques. Gradually some of the terms which had baffled me at Cambridge Quilters’ meetings such as needle-turned applique and foundation piecing became clear.

So, choosing fabrics and getting used to some exacting standards (having my ¼ inch seams measured and being told my points weren’t pointy enough), by the summer I had about twenty 6 inch blocks and the problem/opportunity of trying to turn them into a coherent quilt design. At this point I was offered lots of advice and was strongly advised that I need sashing in a contrasting colour to ‘lift’ the quilt so I chose one to tone in with the highlight pink/orange colours which had started to appear in some of the blocks as I was getting more confident.

 I wanted a centre piece and my Ohio star surrounded by two co-ordinating flying geese and my last block, the cactus flower, had potential. So, just when I thought I’d finished making blocks, I needed two more flying geese (a quick job) and three more cactus flowers (good for my foundation piecing practice). And at this point the ex-maths teacher in me came out: I worked out the measurements for two rectangular sets of flying geese to make the centre piece fit with the other rows of blocks.

So the quilt came together. And the sashing which I’d liked so much was suddenly too much. So some weeks making a ‘piano key’ border followed, to tone down the sashing and use up most of the rest of the fabric I had bought.  The quilting is mainly ‘in the ditch’, apart from a bit of straight line quilting in the centre motif to bring the Ohio square and the flying geese together. I did a bit of hand embellishment on the folded maple leaf and friendship stars and, apart from the binding, which took longer than I thought it would, I was done.

I learnt lots about technique and colour, about how much work goes into a quilt but also how much fun you can have. I’m now working on my free-motion quilting skills and have a plan for a ‘quick’ next quilt which will major on the quilting rather than the patchwork.  Watch this space.

Elaine Blundell

My quilting life began in my late 40's after visiting a Cambridge Quilters exhibition at Grantchester, and being persuaded to join the group. I had made a couple of quilts before, a baby quilt and the obligatory hexagon quilt. My main hobbies before this were knitting, having been taught by my mother at a young age, and cross stitch, with a bit of bobbin lace as well.

The first quilt I made on becoming a member of the group, was the result of a chairman’s challenge. We were given two fat quarters and told to make something with them. One was covered in ivy and the other grapes. I made the centrepiece of a medallion quilt with these, but then added other borders to make a bed quilt. I called it 'Just like Topsy' as it didn't seem to know when to stop growing. I think this was the start of my fascination with making bed quilts, but I really need to stop as all my family have at least one quilt and most of my beds seem to have at least two. Unfortunately for me, there is always that new pattern you see that just says, please make me.

Although the majority of my quilts are hand quilted, because I love the process of this, I have machine quilted some of them. After a lot of practice, I think I have finally learnt how to get a good free machine stitch on my machine. 

Since retirement, I have been able to spend a lot of time in my sewing room and usually have at least a couple of projects on the go. One of these has to be a hand sewing project, so that I can sit and sew in the evenings and be sociable. The project I am working on at the moment combines appliqué and embroidery which I am really enjoying. It is a BOM, which is not something I have done before.

 I do enjoy most types of patchwork, but particularly love foundation piecing. I think this is because of the precision of it. All those lovely points!

I cannot imagine my life now without sewing. It gives me so much pleasure, has given me some wonderful friends and taken me to places in the world I would never have visited without this interest. I hope to be able to continue for many more years. 

The quilt in the photograph was made for a competition, organised by region 9 of the Quilters’ Guild, to celebrate 40 years of the guild. The title of the competition was “ a little bit of red in a 40” square. It was based on the design of an antique quilt which I played around with on my computer. The hardest part was making sure it measured 40” exactly. I’m very happy to say it won 1st prize, and apparently the judge did measure it!

Happy Sewing

Annelise Saunders

My name is Annelies Saunders. I was born and educated in Switzerland and came to Cambridge to learn English in 1972, met my husband and have been living in this beautiful city ever since.

I was used to sewing and made my own clothes when I was younger. After I retired about six years ago my husband bought me a new sewing machine, which stood unused for at least two years. I also joined a Craft Group and met lovely and interesting ladies there. Most of them are quilters and belong to the Cambridge Quilters. I admired their work and wished I could learn how to quilt.

Two years ago one of the ladies at the Craft Group told me about a new beginners class starting at Coleridge School. I joined and love it. Under the supervision of our teacher, Marion Curtis, I have learned so many techniques and I love playing with all the colours and patterns, We are a great class and learn from each other.

I made my first bag and quilt and am pleased to say that after encouragement from my teacher both are going to be exhibited at the Quilter's Exhibition at the David Rayner Centre at Scotsdales in October 2018. The quilt is in the Drunkard's Path block technique. I bit fiddly but I enjoyed making it. I also joined the Cambridge Quilters and enjoy the various talks on
Patchwork and Quilting The most memorable talk was about the tent makers of Cairo. I will probably never forget it. I hope I will be quilting for a very long time yet. I have been told one never stops learning about it.

Marion Curtis

Weaving and bobbin lace were my early textiles passions but I fell into patchwork and quilting quite by accident whilst teaching Art and Design Technology at St Bede’s School in Cambridge. One September found me with a pile of indigo tie-dyed fabric left over from Activities Week.  I couldn’t throw the fabric away and set my new GCSE group to embellish it with appliqué and other stitching methods.  Somehow, we then cut it all up and pieced it back together to make bags.  

Around the same time, I discovered the rotary cutter and a book by Jan Mullen called “Cut Loose Quilts”.  I knew enough about patchwork to realise that I would never stitch hexagons together but in Jan’s book I read that you can break the rules.  That suited me very much!  I experimented in so many patchwork blocks and I would very much describe myself as a modern quilter. You might ask what is this? Well, you just know modern quilting when you see it.   Hard to define but Modern Quilters tend to experiment, often taking a traditional block or pattern and experiment to make something fresh. I will improvise from a starting point until I achieve my vision. I have a current fascination with curved piecing while I play around with positive and negative space

I joined Cambrudge Quilters around 2013 when I retired from teaching in a secondary school. I still teach a morning class at Coleridge Learn & Train with a class called 'Adventures in Patchwork and Quilting'.  I also teach in my own studio and I really enjoy bringing out the 'creative' side of learners as a sort of artistic mentor. I am a regular exhibitor every July with Cambridge Open Studio and love having visitors to my lovely space on Perne Road. 

Areas of interest: Modern and contemporary quilting, design and teaching.

Memberships: The Cambridgeshire Modern Quilt Guild and Cambridge Open Studios

Moira Neal 

I love being a member of Cambridge Quilters and have enjoyed membership since the early 1990's at a time when fewer than 12 of us met in an upstaits room in St John's Church on  a Wednesday evening. Meeting in person, chatting over a cup of coffee with fellow quilters has to be one of life's great pleasures! It is lovely to be surrounded by other makers and share ideas. 

Jane Hollis

A few years ago my book group read the Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier and I was fascinated by the Quaker story and how the women came together to quilt.  As a result I decided to make my daughter a quilt to go away to University. I chose a simple framed square design by Kaffe Fassett.  I decided to hand quilt each frame and then embroider words from her favourite songs within each block. I was so pleased she loved it.  

I was now hooked and was advised to join a local quilting group. I looked online and found the Cambridge Quilters and went along with a good friend who was also interested in quilting to see what it was all about.

The members were doing a 4” samplers and I looked forward each month to seeing their work.  I was made to feel very welcome and could ask questions about how to proceed with my daughter’s quilt.  I particularly enjoyed the guest speakers; their stories were so interesting and they brought in their amazing work for us to see.

I then decided to do a sampler quilt for myself to learn new techniques and find out what things I liked doing.  I was inspired by Tula Pinks City Sampler and then went online to find some more difficult blocks. I particularly liked stars but found circles difficult. I ran out of fabric so the colours developed as I went along depending on what I could gather. I quite like the journey and making changes as I went along. The Cambridge Quilters introduce you to local events and day courses and I went to Moira’s fabulous sewing studio to learn how to free machine quilt, I used this technique on the sampler quilt (pictured) and am continuing to develop my style and skills.

My next project is going to be a bed quilt in an Amish design, in greys and black with hand quilting. Watch this space…

Doris Chatfield

I have been sewing and knitting for as long as I can remember, but started to take things a little more seriously when I joined a dressmaking class many years ago.  I became interested in quilting when I saw the amazing quilts my friend was making and she encouraged me to come along to the Wednesday CQ group.  This was back in 2016 when the challenge set was to join a group of around 6 people to make a quilt together by passing on a bag of fabric of your own choice in the hope of having at least 6 squares that could then be turned into a quilt.  I learned so much from that challenge and met some wonderful and talented quilters.  I ended up with a beautiful Christmas quilt for my son, which is much adored.  Since then I have progressed a little, but still tend to stick to simple techniques and patterns.  I feel there is much I need to learn which is why I enjoy coming to the CQ meetings and workshops to be inspired and encouraged to try new things.

Areas of interest: Traditional