WHERE, WHO, and Why We
Are The Community Dump Quilters...............
What a name we here you say. Yes, but it does have a genuine link with the motley crew comprising of a dozen female Quilters.
Linford Methodist Church is a community orientated church and is our second home since the group was formed five years ago at Wat Tyler Country Park in Pitsea via our association with the patchwork shop then based there called Sew and Sew. We then transferred to the Church here in Linford when building works and the re-vamp of the Park left us with no venue from January 2009.
Our name comes from the fact that whenever we travel to get to the monthly Saturday Meetings or to source supplies from our local Patchwork Shop, Tyler’s Patch, now based at Barleylands Craft Centre, Billercay. We have to or had to pass by Pitsea, Basildon and Thurrock Councils Community Rubbish Dumps. So, you have to admit it was a common denominator for all of us who travel to meet from Romford, Stanford-le-Hope, Corringham, Basildon, Wickford, Canvey Island, Thundersley and Leigh on Sea in Essex and hence our name. You have to admit you wouldn’t forget our group name, will you now!
We feel we are a caring group of quilters who support each other both in our all consuming hobby and on a personal level. And, like all quilters we do prolific amounts of chatting, putting the world to rights, consuming lovely ‘gooey’ cakes, sweets and don’t forget the drinking of galleons of tea and coffee during our sessions. Yet, we still manage to generate an enormous amount of creative work.
All our gatherings are hands on, as we are a practical orientated group. Once a year we have a tutorial based workshop day and during the last couple of years we have worked together on a charity project by donating our quilts to an organisation like Little Havens Hospice in Rayleigh, Essex via the Project Linus Scheme.
Our group of ‘young’ ladies range in age from fifties to late seventies all of whom have a passion for patchwork and quilting. They all are talented in various other crafts too. You could use the saying ‘They could turn their hands to anything’ about this bunch of people and hit the nail on the head.
Clare Beard being interviewed in a
You Tube broadcast from our 2009 Exhibition
Published by "Your Thurrock"
Click here for
pictures of our October 2009 Quilting exhibition
Click here for pictures of the quilters in action.
Who we are:
EVA is the matriarch of the group and is a prolific maker of quilts and a keen machine embroiderer producing for family and friends. She loves her trips to the Quilting Shows large and small and shop hops all accompanied by her daughter Sue. They also attend various day and weekend workshops through the year around the UK. But it is noticeable that on our Saturdays there is an awful lot of sorting of wares, discussion about the where and whys of this and that and really not a great deal of productivity from Eva’s spot. And, yet for show and tell you’d be amazed at what appears from her large deep bags. Could she be Grandma Poppins?
Colour: bright Autumnal
SUE.H is probably one of our most experienced machine quilters a whiz when it comes to free hand machine quilting which we are so envious about and would love to understand how she manages to do it with such ease. Sue loves the challenge of making from kits, dabbles in lace making, knitting and crocheting with many things on the go for her grandchildren at any one time. Hates hand sewing and gets rid of that sort of work if needed to a quilt friend, Heather, to finish. A great show goer and workshop enthusiast just like her Mum. She always comes with a new project and tons of ‘just in case’ stuff in her car each month. We often wonder how the springs on her car cope with all the ‘this and that’ carried around for the outings of the quilting duo of Mum and daughter.
Colour: autumnal bright rather that pastel
PAT is a true hand quilter with a remarkable feel for colour palettes and balance. She has sewn all her life and is the groups’ most prolific producer and when we say prolific, we mean prolific plus! This woman takes on commissions without blinking her eye lashes from quilts to wall hangings, bags, waistcoats all very professionally done and at a phenomenal rate. From intricate to easy, modern to traditional, appliqué or patched her work is always stunning and she makes a pavalova to die for. We all, at times are envious of various aspects of Pat’s ventures into the quilting world. One in particular is the fact that she and her husband are fortunate to be able to spend regular amounts of time in the quilters heaven for fabrics and notions, the USA. More often than not her finished articles land up on the west coast of America with one of her sons, daughter in law and grandson. On her latest trip she has packed teaching kits for her to run a series of workshops for her daughter in law and her friends on a Halloween theme. Somehow it makes one think of the phrase ‘coals to Newcastle.’
Colour: autumnal
DOREEN dabbles with all types of P & Qing. She loves the camaraderie of attending workshops both, at home or away and has the knack of passing her knowledge on to others. Doreen can turn her hand to anything creative that involves fabric, embroidery, paint etc often being invited to submit pieces for exhibits all over the country. A sewing machine shop is an attraction for her and her purse. You can bet your bottom dollar that before she leaves the shop there will be a boxed machine sitting at the pay desk ready to walk out of the establishment with her. The machine collection, yes collection, is wide, from the basic - four maybe, two plus embroidery ones and an embellisher. There are many different makes but, does she read the instruction manuals. Off, course not. Doreen like Eva does seem to have a problem that actually nothing much seems to get achieved on Saturdays other than an awful lot of conjecture on ideas and ‘faffing’ about. But, whew, this woman is a cook extraordinaire and bakes the best cakes so, if, one arrives we can forgive her anything.
Colour: anything goes
MIRIAM is our hand appliqué artist mainly pictorial based and up until recently did all types of quilting including the patching ALL by hand no matter what the size of the project. The acquisition of a new machine has found her exploring machine patching. Rumour has it that Doreen has even got her venturing into exploring the field of machine embroidery. But, her affinity for sewing by hand still remains. I think you are getting the feeling that food especially sweet items go along with quilting in this group but, there is a twist in this case that the tasters that appear on a Saturday come via the prowess of her husband.
Colours: delicate pastels
PAM and Miriam travel to the meets together and come a fair distance down the A13 to join in our sewing sessions. We have known Pam for years but she only joined us this January when the ‘Dumpers’ were able to expand to a dozen. It is known that you’d never be cold if you stay at Pam’s as one bed alone has seven full sized quilts stored on it. Like us all she is a very keen sewer and a fine exponent of the art. Her construction and quilting tastes verge towards the traditional but they’re very varied. Hand and machine work, appliqué, Celtic, whole cloths etc. Pam, like Miriam, Maria and Pat are the quieter and studious members of the group.
Colours: muted
MARIE takes about half an hour to rendezvous with us and is a talented artist and this comes through in the quilts, wall hangings and quilting challenges she undertakes. Marie is one of the studious workers and is organised, prepared and neat in what she does. Like most people interested in artistic skills she is an all rounder taking on all kinds of needle based hobbies. Recently, she came with a set of cushion covers to finish making from a visit with her family in Australia. It was felt that a few of us were logging this fact in our memory banks for future reference.
Colour: brights and purples and blues
KATHY is the real fitness fanatic in the group as she comes from the gym on Saturdays before honouring us with her presence and is as fresh as a daisy on her arrival here. This lady tackles all kinds of styles but they tend to be quilts and she is a much better quilter than she thinks. As the owner of a professional embroidery machine she regular creates logos etc to emblazon on‘t’ and sweatshirts etc for the teams, family and friends that support the motorsports team that is the hobby of her husband, son and grandsons. She now has two young granddaughters so she can at last put her choice of delicate prints and pastels into her creations at last.
Colour: pastels
HEATHER is one of the top table trio, a seamstress, embroiderer and the hand sewer that Sue gets to do her finishing off. Ideal as Sue and Heather work together. We think of her as being a one project at a time person, really most strange for a sewer. There are no UFOs in her closet, not keen on kits, but likes making all kinds of items bags etc. Our Heather is a fabric recycler and has a real way with colours. She can quite often be found accompanying Sue and Eva visiting Quilt shows around the southeast of England.
Colour: varied
SUE.G Joined us in the spring of this year taking us to maximum capacity and was introduced to us by Doreen her mentor although most of us knew her through her other hobby/craft business when she was at Wat Tyler Park. So you can gather she has an eye for design, colour, style and her work area is always just so, even down the way she cuts and sews. Sue is a relatively newcomer to the world of quilting yet takes on advanced designs with aplomb by patching and quilting by machine. So, with her and her husbands’ ever growing clutch of grandchildren she still has a multitude of recipients to receive all her future quilting gifts for years to come.
Colours: rustic
MARY is the second closest member to our base these days and is usually here early to help set up the hall for the day. Mary and her right hand woman, Kathy, sit together and steadily work on their projects and natter throughout the day. She likes having a go at blocks of the months, kits of all types, not just for the bed but comforters, bags and bits and bobs, like many of us. Yet, is just as at home in creating scrap quilts and ones using her own designs by putting a twist into them with her choice of colours or by adding an extra into a commercial pattern. This lady, too, has many off spring and makes for them on all those special mile stones in life and the arrival of each new member. As with all in the crowd here she enjoys undertaking the challenge of a new method or style from time to time.
Colour: bright autumnal
CLARE is a fabric hugger and feeler, a very messy quilter who always leaves a trail of threads and pins behind her, not an accurate cutter but is just totally fanatical about quilting and anything that has to do with working with fabric. She likes to think that she is not a waster, is a massive hoarder of mainly natural fabrics and any craft that she is interested in, unfortunately she is a ‘that could be useful’ person. Her husband and family just say she is a collector of rubbish and regularly offer to acquire a skip for her to clear out her work space. Enjoys all sizes of project from the minute to the ludicrous but doesn’t have the time to be as creative or adventurous as she would like to be.
Colour: brights, oranges and yellows
So dear visitor these are
the members of the Community Dump Quilters and we hope that you have enjoyed
your visit to us.