Cambridge Quilters hold evening meetings on the second Wednesday of the month from 7.30pm for a 7.45pm start at Histon and Impington Recreation Ground.
Visitors are welcome to attend meetings for £6 per visit.
See the 2023 Programme for details.
Tag: Quilting
Cambridge Quilters Summer Party
Cambridge Quilters will be holding their bring and share Summer Party on Wednesday 13th July at an open air venue in Impington (TBC).
Local meetings in Impington take place on the second Wednesday of the month at Histon and Impington Recreation Ground.
Email moira@moiraneal.com for more information.
Patchwork and Quilting
Cambridge Quilters holds monthly meetings on the second Wednesday of the month at the hall on the Recreation Ground in Impington from 7.15pm.
If you would like to join and say hello you would be very welcome. Come along and pick up a programme and join in a cup of tea or coffee and perhaps bring something you have been working on to show and tell us about.
Annual Membership for Wednesday and Friday monthly meetings is £30.00 or £5.00 a meeting. The group also meets in Grantchester Village Hall on the third Friday of the month.
Email moira@moiraneal.com for more information.
Graffiti Granny has it all sewn up
With a little help from her friend Kilo, Histon & Impington’s Graffiti Granny, Moira Neal, has her entry for this year’s Festival of Quilts all sewn up. Amanda Borrill asked her about how it all began and the challenges she has faced getting to the finish line.
Never has the saying ‘you are never too old to try something new’ been truer than in the case of Moira Neal whose visit to an event organised by local graffiti artist Kilo (aka William Pengelly), back in the summer of 2017, would introduce her to a whole new art form and assign her with the tag ‘Graffiti Granny’.
As part of a public art collaboration between our Parish and County councils, aimed at encouraging engagement with the youth of our villages, artist Kilo had arranged for a television film crew to watch as they set about transforming a concrete underpass along the guided busway into a colourful wall of graffiti art.
The Bridge project in action July 2017. Where Moira first met Kilo. Photo Aga Cahn. Moira takes up the story: “My meeting Kilo, at the Graffiti Dabble day in 2017, inspired me immensely. I went home and bought £100 worth of spray paints and had fun creating my own wall at home. I was tagged the ‘graffiti granny’ on our local community Facebook page, with people finding it highly amusing to see a woman of my more advanced years having a go at this hip young art form.
Left to right, Kilo, Penelope Keith and Moira during filming of Village of the Year. Photo Moira’s own. “Then, when our village featured in Channel 4’s Village of the Year with Penelope Keith, my involvement with the graffiti wall was picked up by the producers and I was invited for an interview. Our village made it all the way to the semi-finals and it was an incredible achievement to get that far.
Original sheet sprayed with Kilo’s tag. Photo Moira Neal. “Having loved the experience so much, I commissioned Kilo to spray an old white sheet for me and, this year, I finally got round to making it into a quilt which will be entered into an exhibition at The Festival of Quilts. Kilo sprayed his tag and some fluorescent pink paint around it. I love to re-use and up-cycle and the entire quilt is made from old cotton sheeting which has been either painted or dyed in lovely bright colours.
“I painted the sky, wall and pavement and then had fun adding the appliqué and free machine embroidery to it, stitched at speed with black thread to really make the colours pop. I added the graffiti granny with her purple hair in a bun, spraying flowers on the wall. Beside her is a basket containing her spray paints and mobile phone and on her other side, her flask of earl grey tea.
Graffiti Granny’s basket with her spray paints. Photo Moira Neal. 
Graffiti Granny adorned with purple bun. Photo Moira Neal. 
Discarded chips and cigarette butts. Photo Moira Neal. “In her bag, which has been stitched on separately, is a letter with the story of the quilt and what happened while I was making it. All my quilts are journal quilts and document my life.
“The pavement is littered with cigarette butts and chewing gum all made using pelmet Vilene and free machine stitch. There is a bag of discarded chips and a tomato sauce sachet stitched into it. On the right is a dog peeing against the water and in the foreground there are other things to find! (A dog poo and slug, ladybirds, worms and a snail!)”
Dog and wall. Photo Moira Neal. While working on this quilt for the competition, Moira unfortunately became acutely ill and was diagnosed with a devastating condition called Polymyalgia Rhematica. This condition causes intense pain and weakness in the shoulders and rendered Moira unable to finish the quilting.
Moira continued: “As it had been entered in the ‘two person’ category, the only person who could help me was Kilo, although my daughter Claire also kindly offered her help. A quick call to Kilo and, to my amazement, he agreed to come and help me free machine the graffiti areas of the quilt. I had left them until the end as was unsure how to quilt them without imposing my design on his original work. After all, Kilo is the true graffiti artist… I was just there to have fun.
“In the end, I decided echo quilting would work well. Kilo was brilliant! As an artist, he took to the free machining really quickly and came over for two afternoons to finish the quilt for me. I took some time lapse film of him at work. He is a natural”
Moira and Kilo’s finished quilt is on exhibition in the Two Person category at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC from 29th July until 1st August.
Greetings cards of the whole design as well as three close ups are currently awaited from the printers. Moira will post news when available on local social media or, alternatively, you can email her personally at moira@moiraneal.com
