When I took a phone call from Jenny Strong earlier on this year asking if her quilting group ‘The Dulwich Quilters’ could make Charity Liberty Quilts for the Alice Caroline Quilt SOS project, I was delighted. Jenny mentioned that one of the quilters in her group had sadly passed away last year and left a large Liberty fabric stash for them to use for charitable causes. Sheila Conway’s fabric stash has been put to a fantastic use in these 7 stunning quilts which will be personally hand delivered to the children in Latvia later on this year.
A couple of weeks ago, one of Jenny’s friends delivered the 7 beautiful quilts, made with the fabric stash, to the studio. It was such a coincidence that it was someone I used to sing in a choir with so it was really lovely to see her (and the beautiful quilts).
I asked Jenny some questions about the Dulwich Quilters and her regular support of our Quilt SOS project.
How long have you been a member of the Dulwich Quilters?
“I have been a member of Dulwich Quilters for 9 years, but the group is 32 years old and Sheila & our current chairman, Jill, were founder members.”
Thank you so much for being a wonderful supporter of the Quilt SOS project in previous years. Why do you make quilts for charity?
“I started making quilts for Charity through the Linus project – we support King’s College hospital. I also make quilts for charity auctions & I have made 2 for your Quilt SOS appeals. I love working with fabric and feel that as well as enjoying a hobby the end product is helping someone else.”
I wanted to find out something about Sheila Conway and her love of quilting. Jill Alexander, the Chair of the Dulwich Quilters told me more.
What did quilting mean to Sheila?
“Sheila enjoyed using her stash & took great pleasure in quilting for its positive use. She was a very talented quilter with many beautiful quilts hanging in their house.
Sheila would have been delighted that her fabric was being used for Charity. The Dulwich Quilters have made 7 SOS quilts, as well as 4 Charity quilts for our next Exhibition, in September 2020, using Sheila’s fabric.
For the SOS quilts we were lucky to have a large box of Sheila’s Liberty fabrics and our groups chose what they wanted to use for their design, with some being augmented with some of Sheila’s other cottons. Our charity quilts are being made in small groups. Each group chose a colour theme and then delved into Sheila’s cottons. There is still more fabric, which we are making into Linus quilts and specially designed incubator covers for the neonatal ward at King’s.”
Thank you so much for making quilts for charity. All of the quilts for our Quilt SOS project are hand delivered directly to the children so we know that they are getting to their final homes. The wonderful women who have made these are quilts are Linda, Diana, Caroline, Jill, Sara, Jean, Jenny P, Julia, Lindsay, Khurshid, Jackie, Elspeth, Janis, Marianne, & Jenny S. Thank you so much!
I would like to send a heartfelt huge thank you to all at the Dulwich Quilters who helped to make these beautiful quilts. A special thank you must go to Sheila’s family for donating the fabric for this project. I know that the quilts made using these donated fabrics will be treasured for years to come by the children that receive them.
