Galway Advertiser 1994/1994_07_28/GA_28071994_E1_019.pdf 

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Patchwork Quilting - A Craft That's Also An Art
From Saturday, July 30th, an exhibition Patchwork and Quilting will open in St. John's Hall in Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare. Called "Quilt Crazy", it features the beau tiful creations of Corranroo Quilters, a local group of extremely talented women who live mainly in the South Galway, North Clare areas. This week Jeff O'Connell talked to Anne Ackerley, who set up the group a few short years ago, about this distinctive craft that almost imperceptively crosses the border into a genuine art form.

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nne Ackerley lives in a most beautiful corner of the world. The name of the village, though it really only amounts to a cluster of houses now, is Corranroo and it sits just over the border in Country Clare, though the nearest town is Kinvara. Corranroo Quilters, the group that is holding its second exhibition (and sale - you can buy these beautiful creations too!) in Ballyvaughan from July 30th to August 7th, grew out of a series of classes Ann gave in Kinvara a few years ago. "When I moved to Corranroo" - she and her husband, Roger, retired here from England - "I started going into Galway to the Irish Patchwork Society, but, obviously, it's a bit of a journey if you're going to be doing it regularly. So I decid ed to see if there were people nearer home who were interested." A craft fair was held in Kinvara around Christmas, 1991, and she put a notice up asking if there was anyone interested in attending class es in patchwork. "That really was the start of the whole thing"", Anne recalls. The classes proved to be a big success. Not only did Anne find herself teaching a number of eager novices, but people came along who had already done patchwork and quiliting already. In one of those happy coincidences that often happen when you're starting something up, around that time several women moved into the Corranroo/Kinvara area who brought not only their considerable enthusiasm along with them, but practical experience as well. "It was quite extraordinary. One of the women was a textile design graduate, and another had actually moved to the locality in order to work full-time at quiliting. And there were serveral others as well. So we had the beginnings of a group that was made up of beginners and people who had a great deal of experience in related areas, such as sewing curtains. And quiliting is just one step further along the road." The age range of the group is very wide, stretch ing from young women just out of their 'teens, to the oldest member of the group, Minnie Baker from Crusheen, Co. Clare, who's in her 70s. nne herself started quilting in England. "It was always something I was interested in, but it so happened that where I was living in Yorkshire there was someone who belonged to the Quilters Guild of England, and she was giving classes. I suppose it was her who really sparked my inter est" She had no idea if there was anyone interested in quilting in Ireland but she was very pleasantly surprised to learn that the craft was alive and thriving over here.

"English quilters tend to follow American pat terns very much, but I've found in Ireland that there is a tremendous enthusiasm for experiment ing - breaking the rules, I suppose you'd say with all sorts of patterns and designs, and I've found that very stimulating." So what is quilting? And where did it come from?

cy of the quilting itself. Quilting has a long history, stretching back, some would argue, to the ancient Chinese and still practiced in the orient today. The character istic quilted jackets worn in Eastern countries today are examples. The same techniques that are used to make the humble quilt that covers a bed were used in the

early quilters began making use of anything and everything to make up the designs of their quilts. This 'liberation' from the more traditional prac tices and fabrics that resulted from this colonial experience led to a great flourishing of quilting in the United States, especially in New England. As Anne explains it, "If you take a look at a book of American quilting, you'll see there are

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The word itself is English in origin andrefersto a padded bed covering, although this is hardly an accurate description of the stunningly beautiful creations that you can see at the Ballyvaughan exhibition or the gorgeous work that was done in the times when America - which has a long tradi tion of quilting - was still a British colony in the 17th and 18th centuries. he essence of these early quilts was their combination of fine design with warmth. A typical quilt consists of three parts: the cover, which is where the quilter can display the artistry that has made early quilts collector's items; the middle layer, which used to be made of cotton or wool wading but nowadays often tends to be a synthetic mate rial like polyester, and the underside, made from the same fabric used for the border of the quilt topside. Three different types of quilt can be separtated: the familiar patchwork quilt, which is made by sewing many separate pieces of fabric together; appliqued quilts, which have a quilt top made out of a single piece of fabric onto which artistic designs are appliqued; and wholecloth quilts, made from a plain or regularly-patterned fabric. In such quilts the artistry is shown by the intrica

Middle Ages to provide the heavy-duty quilted undergarments that helped make all that heavy armour more comfortable. And when the knights came back from the Crusades, their womenfolk started quilting both bedcovers and clothing, especially in countries like England and Ireland where the weather could be cold and wet. Quilting was a democratic craft, and during the Renaissance rich and poor produced quilts of astonishing beauty. The purely functional was transformed into the richness of a work of art. Of course, the same or very similar techniques were - and still are - used to make the gorgeous wall hangings and tapestries that can be seen in great houses as well as cottages. Quilting reached a high point in colonial America. When the Pilgrim Fathers (and Mothers, of course!) set sail from England, they brought with them the tradition of quiliting. The purely practical side of it proved invaluable dur ing those long, cold winters. nd necessity became, as it so often does, the mother of invention, because, once the early colonial set tlements were established, the possi bility of purchasing fine fabrics diminished because ships called only infrequently. So these

standard 'blocks', a single pattern of about 12 inches square. The types of 'block' patterns is very extensive, and the quilter chooses one or more of these to construct the design of any par ticular quilt. They have names - some are very basic like 'Castle Keep', 'Cross and Crown', 'Four Corners'; while others will be more elabo rate - 'Old Spanish Tile', 'Tangled Garter" or 'Autumn Leaves". However, what began as something new and even 'revolutionary' in time became a tradition itself. What Anne finds so exciting about Ireland and the quilters who've come together as Corranroo Quilters is a freedom from the con ventions. "Irish quilters are very experimental, and you find all sorts of material being used, like silk or tweed. And. while they will respect the quilting heritage, they'll be much more daring in creating new and quite fantastic patterns. I've seen some finished quilts that I've had my doubts about when they were started. But the finished prod ucts have been incredibly beautiful and even unique. You'll sec examples of both traditional and innovative quilts at the 'Quilt Crazy' exhibi tion at St. John's Hall in Ballyvaughan.

INSIDE: CONOR MAGUIRE ON FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS