The Jessie Chorley friendship quilt kit

This is my social and
interactive embroidery, applique and
patchwork project
that I have been developing since
2015 and which was launched in summer 2017
This Quilt kit celebrates my work as a social artist and
the main focus of this kit is creating friendships through stitch and our mutual love of making things with our hands combined with our shared passion for collecting and repurposing fabric

I was home schooled, by my Mother and textile artist Primmy Chorley. I was educated with creativity at the fore front of my learning. Stitching, printing, woodwork, cooking and making things with my hands was part of my daily education from an early age. we have always been a family of makers. I learnt many of the skills that I am sharing with you today from the like-minded others that contributed to my education, both my Mum and my Grandma both inspirations today as they carry on making daily.

It is this passion for the hand-made that inspires my work as an artist, and my life as a shop owner and traveling stitcher and tutor. It also fires my need and desire to teach my skills to like minded others through my workshops and social craft groups that have formed through my workshops and travels over the years.

Sharing skills, techniques, fabrics and ideas are all things that happen regularly during my workshops. It is sharing of ideas and inspiration, and the strong friendships that are created through simply sitting and making together that have inspired my friendship quilt kit. Inevitably, by the end of any of my workshops, threads, buttons, fabrics and phone numbers are swapped. And thus the stories that our “needles and threads create” continue to create new friendships, strengthening our narratives through a shared love of making things together.

I’m aware that I am not the first or definitely not the only person to recognize and be inspired by this communal and mindful way of working. For generations, people have gathered in similar circles, chatting and creating friendships and memories through the process of making things with their hands. It is with this tradition in mind that I developed the Jessie Chorley Friendship Quilt Kit

My friendship quilt kits include six hand-illustrated and screen printed templates. These are designed to be stitched into, using the threads provided. The threads are six of my favorite colours that I work with every day. I have also provided you with a base fabric and some small fabric scraps to get you started on the appliqué. Applique and simple hand stitching are the main techniques used for creating these quilts

Pre-worn and pre-used fabric is essential in my work as a maker, the deeply embedded narrative inspires each stitch that creates my final stories, therfore I encourage you to do the same when construction your quilt

The design itself is based on a coverlet. A coverlet is a two-layer quilt or a quilt with out a middle layer. My finished “friendship quilts” are designed to be quite small: 35cm/59cm. This way, they remain quite precious with lots of detailed stitching; a perfect piece of art for your own home or for a gift for a memorable event

Once you have joined my Friendship quilt project I will keep in touch with you via my Instagram feed @jessiechorley where I ask you to regularly tag me and keep me updated. I will then invite you through this feed and through www.jessiechorley.com to social meet ups. There will also be opportunities to exhibit your finished quilts here at my shop or out and about at other locations in the future

I look forward to welcoming you in joining me and all the other other makers who will be part of this project, celebrating and making friendships through stitch

Each quilt kit contains:
x 6 hand illustrated templates
X 5 skeins of DMC embroidery threads in my favorite colours
A packet of assorted fabric scraps
A simple cotton base fabric
Full paper printed colour instructions booklet
A5 postcard of my favourite stitch techniques
All of the above will come tucked inside a hand screen printed natural 100% cotton tote bag, so you can carry your ongoing project around with you while it is in progress or when out and about stitching with friends

After the popular launch of this kit in August 2017 there are now over 800 fellow stitches taking part in this project

I will be exhibiting just x 4 of the completed art quilts this summer here at my shop at my Annual summer party on Saturday August 11th 2018 11-5 on the day you are all invites so please do join me here at 158a Columbia Rd London E2 7RG