June meeting, Bolton

A lovely summer evening, I drove over to Horwich with two guest members from Pendle branch to see Claire Wellesley Smith. She explained how she gained a degree in politics but always wanted to stitch. Gradually her direction changed and she became very involved with the community and its surroundings. She experimented with natural dyes and then encouraged the community to grow their own flowers and plants specifically to use their colour. Living in Bradford, this was quite an unusual challenge!!!!She encouraged her community to see the connection between the past and present, disasters like the textile mill fire in Bangladesh  and home. She brought along a quilt that had been stitched using traditional but local dyes. Claire has also written a book, Slow Stitch.

a slide which looked so interesting, slips of fabric, dyed with natural colours

 A close up of the quilt, mainly made of log cabin pieces.