I met Lucy Horner in an online photography class, and fell immediately in love with her exquisite photos and her enthusiastic, can-do personality. Though she undoubtedly had no idea what she was in for, it sure was a lucky day for me when she heard of The 70273 Project and offered to collect blocks in her area of the U.K. She is an amazing, talented dynamo of a woman, and I am hugely awed and grateful by all that is going on in her neck of the woods across The Pond. Writes Lucy in her most recent update . . .
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Friday 13th October 7.30pm St Stephens Church, Maidstone Rd, Chatham ME4 6JE … We will be having a ‘Putting Together’ Evening. If you are an experienced sewer with your own machine, please bring it along to St Stephens and help us start putting together the Rochester Cathedral Quilts. Thank you to those of you who have already volunteered to put together quilts – YOU’RE AMAZING! If you can help put together a quilt but don’t live near to Medway then do get in touch – bundles of blocks can be sent XX Email: Lucy for more info and if you can come along to St Stephens.
Friday 10th- Saturday 11th November 10 am-4.30 pm (4 pm on Saturday) – The Autumn Quilt Festival, Kent Showground, Detling, Kent ME14 3JF. Lucy and her Team 70273 will be block making and putting together quilts at the Grosvenor Show What better way to commemorate Armistice Day in 2017 – making blocks and quilts for The 70273 Project. Click on the link above for full details.
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Thank you thank you thank you XX Thank you to all of you wonderful people at The Great British Sewing Bee LIVE who stopped and made blocks, pledged blocks and have promised to give our Project wings by getting their sewing groups, schools and community groups involved back home. Thank you to Berol, Bev, Debs, Edina, Gabby, Linda, Louise, Lydia, Sal and Sally who donated their days to run the stand. To Upper Street Events for the opportunity to spread our message, and to our fellow stand holders for making blocks and donating fabric & ribbon XX
Here are some photos from The Great British Sewing Bee Live, and I love how they contain the meditation of people stitching to remember somebody, the connection and chat with whoever they are sitting next to, and the happiness at contributing to this beautiful blanket of love that we want to wrap the world in.
Val flew over from Toulouse to be at the show and was delighted and surprised to see two of the French Quilts being displayed at The Great British Sewing Be LIVE. She contributed blocks to the quilts that were displayed in Lacaze, in the South of France back in June. Twenty of these quilts are now doing a UK tour, and will be on display in Durham and Rochester Cathedral next year.
This week is National Inclusion Week, and this year the theme is ‘Connect for Inclusion’. This could be the perfect week and way to introduce The 70273 Project to groups, schools and colleges.
And big thanks to Louise Back for cutting all those 100’s and 100’s of blocks up for TGBSBL! If you’ve got sheets and white fabric to donate then let us know!
271 blocks arrived through the post this week … many from people who pledged to make blocks at TGBSBL. Jill Nibloe sent a letter with hers which sums things up beautifully:
‘Dear Ladies, I am very pleased, proud and humbled to take part in this Project. I have worked for many years supporting secondary school students with learning difficulties, so when I saw the stand at the Sewing Bee show I was hooked. I had no idea about Aktion T4 so this is a way of spreading love around the world and perhaps atoning a little for all the ‘wrongs’ that happen. Many thanks and lots of love.’ Lots of love to you Jill! We salute you! XX
Photo By Clive Tanner
Photo By Colin Tolhurst
And finally, The 70273 Project received a royal block when the Countess of Wessex visited Rochester Cathedral and she took time to make her own commemoration. The Countess was visiting the newly opened Cathedral Library and also touring the tactile timeline in the Textus Roffensis exhibition space which the incredibly talented and delightful Wendy Daws and the Kent Association for the Blind Medway Art Group were involved in, as well as The Crypt Glass Manifestation which was created and designed by artists from the Kent Autistic Trust. Both of these groups will be involved in creating the altar hanging for The 70273 Project which will be on display in the Cathedral from Mid January to early March.
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A hearty Thank you to you, Lucy, and the dynamic Team 70273 you’ve put together. I can’t wait to be over there next year and meet y’all in person.
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Other places to gather around The 70273 Project water cooler:
Join the English-speaking Facebook group – our e-campfire – where you can talk to other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.
Join the French-speaking Facebook group – our other e-campfire – where you can chat with other members of The 70273 Project Tribe.
Like the Facebook page where you can check in for frequent updates.
Follow the pinterest board for visual information.
Post using #the70273project on Instagram. (Please tag me, too, @whollyjeanne, so I don’t miss anything.)
And if you haven’t yet made some blocks, perhaps you’d like to put some cloth in your hands and join us.
Or maybe you’d like to gather friends and family, colleagues or students, club or guild members, etc. together and make a group quilt.
If you’d prefer to work solo and need a little more room to spread your creative wings, consider making a Middling.
oh wow Jeanne. My mind is blown by this whole thing. oh wow xoxo
Hello, my friend. It’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? More kind, compassionate people than I ever imagined existed. xo