Landscape challenge set for quilters

The Wicked Quilters group meets weekly at Wick Hall on a Wednesday afternoon and chairman Sue Tripp wanted to encourage members to try something new. She set the landscape challenge in June and gave members until the end of October to produce a quilted picture. Sue explained: “It is nice to challenge people sometimes because you can get a bit complacent, making the same thing old things. A lot of our group had never made a landscape miniature quilt before. “About half the group took part, including a lot of the newer members, which is good. “It was just to challenge them a bit to think outside the box with no rules, except it had to be no bigger than A4 and it had to be something in the local area.” An exhibition was mounted at the November 1 meeting and Jonathan Black, a volunteer at Wick Information Centre, agreed to be the judge. Sue said: “We didn’t want it decided on technique or technical elements, we wanted it chosen on what appeals to the eye of the average person on the street.” The challenge was won by Lynn Freeman with her quilted picture of East Beach In Littlehampton. Wick Quilters meet every week on a Wednesday afternoon at Wick Hall and there are currently just over 20 members. Sue said: “We are a group of patchwork quilters, some of us are more experienced than others. We have a couple of new people who have started who have never done it before and we are taking time to help them do patchwork and quilting. You do need to be able to sew, though. “We have a stall at the Littlehampton Town Show every year to raise money for a chosen charity. This year was the Ladybirds Nursery School minibus fund. “Members make and donate various items for the stall every year and we do a raffle to raise money for our chosen charity. It is difficult to price the items, so we decided a raffle was the best way to do it and we usually make about £300. “We also have a couple of trips to places of interest every year.”