World Wide Whispers Quilt

Last year I was asked to take part in an international group quilting event called World Wide Whispers.  Have you heard of Chinese Whispers Quilts before? I had and had always thought it an intriguing idea. I will explain exactly what this involves if you keep reading.

This was called ‘World Wide Whispers’ because it involved groups from different countries.  I was part of a Scottish group and we were joined by quilters from Ireland, The Netherlands, Canada and USA.

Our group leader was the wonderful Ann Hill, who heads our Scottish Region (16) for The Quilter’s Guild of the British Isles.

She chose all the other 11 quilters in her group and I was chuffed to be asked to be part of this.  My month was July and I have been keeping this mini quilt a secret since I finished it at the end of that month.

So let me explain a bit more about a Chinese Whisper quilts which are inspired by the childhood game. The idea is that the first person in the group will be sent a photo and they will make a quilt inspired by this photo and send a photo of that quilt to the next person in the group.

The next person will make a quilt inspired by the quilt the last person made, and so it will go on through 12 quilters (one a month through the year).  Each quilter will only see the photo of the quilt before and no earlier pieces. By the end you can see how far the original idea has traveled and what it has morphed into.

I was sent this photo of the quilt Liz Ferguson had made at the end of June.

I loved the colours and the improv piecing and decided to echo this but to leave out the dolphins and (what I thought were) killer whales in the corner, but to keep the lines of the landscape.

I basically abstracted the piece a little and brightened the colours.  This is the finished top.  I loved making this – I adore improv and improv curves especially.

I quilted it with wavy lines of machine quilting using a few different Aurifil variegated 50wt threads. Then I added wavy lines of hand quilting this time with Aurifil variegated 12wt cotton thread.

I just love the texture this gives! I finished the piece with a faced binding and sent it off to Ann.

All the quilts had to be 18″ x 24″ and landscape.

Here’s a look at my finished piece which I called ‘Killer in the Corner’. This was a reference to the killer whales in the corner and the ‘ghost’ of them that I had left in the quilt.

In the photo I was sent they looked black, hence why I thought they were killer whales, but when I saw the actual quilt last week I realised that they were actually dolphins like the dolphin in the centre. Liz had made them all from a shiny reflective fabric which didn’t show in the photo.   I think this ideally illustrates the Chinese Whispers idea!

Last week we had a quilt show in Glasgow and all the quilts were unveiled together for the first time.  I visited to take a look and also to be part of a group photo.

So I bet you would like a look at all the quilts and see how it worked out?

Ann was up first and she used a photo of Mull that her husband David took. I don’t have a very good photo of this photo I’m afraid, as it was behind a reflective cover. But it looked a little like the scene on the left but without the figure.

The figure represents the only lady sherpherdess who walked her sheep along the paths beside the hills. I’d love to tell you more about the different quilts here and what the maker added and why, but it would really take all day so I am going to keep it brief and if you would like to know more then I will tell you how you can at the end of the post.  The next quilt (on the right) is by Margaret Roberts of Dunbar, she chose to depict the Berwickshire coastline where she grew up.

Helen Burgess of the Shetland Islands made the next one (left) and used her home as inspiration, including croft, pony and an authentically knitted jersey!

On the right is a depiction of a cottage in the Outer Hebrides by Sheila Dalgleish of Edinburgh.

Morgo Hunter of Ayr chose to depict the gentler landscape of the Isle of Arran and it’s beautiful sunsets.

Liz Ferguson of Falkirk actually went on a wild life trip near Mull to seek inspiration for her piece! Dolphins swam very close to the boat.

I didn’t have any particular landscape in mind when I made my piece but I have been on a boat trip which sailed close to Mull (and saw basking sharks!) so perhaps I was channeling this too when I made mine.

Evelyn Carlyle of Moffat took inspiration from the landscape I had created to depict the view from her kitchen window!

Nancy Smith of Blairgowrie also stayed closes to home with a landscape  just North of her home, complete with deer.

Avril Clark  of Fochabers brought some gorgeous birds into the moorland landscape.

And then Chrystine Livingston of Argyll brought the deers back again! But without knowing about the quilt before!

Lastly Gilly Thomson of Inverness abstracted the landscape again using on-point log cabin blocks for the hills.

I just love how we have managed to create a journey of landscapes all around Scotland and also through the seasons, but without any planning!  When you see them together you can clearly see how the colours have moved from subdued to bright to autumnal as the quilts were made in real time.

As well as the Scottish quilts there were quilts from all the Irish, Dutch and Canadian groups, with just a couple of the USA quilts (I think some hadn’t arrived in time) at the show last week.

There were so many stunning pieces but I chose these two from the Canadian  group as they are so beautiful, different and illustrative of the Chinese Whispers idea. The one on the left is by Karen Henry and the one on the left is by Terry Aske.

A booklet has been produced with statements from all the artists and colour photos of each of the 60 quilts. This is available to buy for £5 wherever the exhibition is shown.  If anyone would like one of these sooner then let me know in a comment and I will work out how this can happen!

The whole exhibition will be travelling to a number of quilt shows in all the group countries over the next few years, as well as Festival of Quilts 2019.  So hopefully there will be an option for some of my readers to see them in the flesh.

I am hugely grateful to have been involved in such a fun and creative event!