BLOG 55

It has been such a busy week with my involvement in the Festival of Crafts in All Saint’s Church in Gresford.

Putting up on Monday took most of the day, from the practiced procedures of receiving and labelling of the exhibits, to the displaying of them to their best advantage. Each member of the team has her own allocated job and it may come as no surprise to learn that I do the quilts! The group owns 8 large quilt frames so we can hang 16 quilts back-to-back, to be displayed on the vertical. These are such an important part of the exhibition (and that’s not because I am biased!) because they draw the eyes from pew level towards the ceiling and fill the aisles with colour. They give immediate and expansive impact to the whole show. …And yes I managed to get all my exhibits ready; I actually finished about 7:30 on Sunday night.

Kansas Troubles

My Kansas Troubles quilt had the privilege of resting on a sculpture of a 14^th Century Judge, just one of the many artefacts housed in this ancient and fascinating church. The windows in the Lady Chapel are over 500 years old and the christening font is said to date from the 15^th century. In St Catherine’s Chapel, there are interesting images in the ancient glass. One shows the figure of St Appollonia holding a pair of pincers with a large tooth. She had her teeth extracted during her martyrdom and is now the patron saint of dentists and toothache sufferers … not a lot of people know that! Another interesting snippet is that St Catherine was martyred on a wheel, giving rise to the expression "Catherine’s Wheel".

Two-fabric sampler

My two-fabric sampler was draped over the choir stall fronted by a decorative tiled floor and backed by dark heavily carved choir stalls. Underneath the individual seats of these stalls are ornately carved misericords, depicting some quite irreligious images!

My quilts

My quilts for twin beds, which have been quilted by chequebook, (i.e. I paid someone else to do it on a long arm machine!) were finished and exhibited together mid way down the church.

View 1

View 2

I hope you get a general impression of the variety of the displays and the wonderful surroundings of the fabric and structure of the church. It really is a privilege to display one’s work amongst the crafts and skills of ancient carvers, stonemasons and stained glass artists.

View 3

You can just see my Hollyhocks wall hanging at the back of the church along side a friend’s wrought iron gate.

View 4

Outside, in the churchyard, there are many ancient yew trees, carved gargoyles and funny faces. It’s a fascinating place!

Yew tree

Gargoyle

Funny face

PS This picturesque village, with its ancient church and duck pond was catapulted dramatically onto the national stage on September 22^nd 1934. On that fateful date, 266 miners were killed in a huge explosion that ripped through one section of a local mine. Such was the force of the explosion and the ferocity of the resulting fire that the decision was made to seal off the pit and entomb the miners where they lay. It was reported that 160 widows and over 200 children lost husbands and fathers.