Over 1200 people visited the region’s first ever Quilt Festival held at Shambellie House over Easter. Organised by the local Quilting Groups throughout the region they managed to display almost 400 quilts made by local people and joined by the innovative World Wide Whispers series of quilts. These quilts all drew inspiration from each other and sparked off by an image taken by local quilting expert Ann Hill’s husband.
Ann Hill, whose work with Alzheimer’s Scotland also featured in the Festival commented
“This exhibition has proved to be so popular that we are already planning next year’s Festival in September and another event in May. We managed to book time in the programme for World Wide Whispers between exhibitions in Holland and it is now off to Sweden. Next year the exhibition will tour America proving that quilting is one of the best ways of bringing people together”
The Festival at Shambellie brought all of the local quilting groups together and Elain Milven of Sorbie Quilters added
“This was great fun helping people new to quilting to be able to see at first-hand how it is possible to be creative with a sewing machine. Travelling through every day from Whauphill was tiring but worth every mile to see how people reacted to the displays.”
As a result of this hard work the Quilters were able to hand over a cheque to Shambellie House Trust for £3,735.93 to help with their work to develop the house and grounds as a centre for teaching arts and crafts including quilting.
Gordon Mann Chair of the Shambellie House Trust
“It was great to see the House full of people enjoying the displays and helps us in our quest to establish the House and grounds as a centre for day and residential courses in all of the things that we do so well here and make this area special. This cash is also a great boost to the project having received a knock back last year on a major grant application we are having to make significant changes to the designs to help secure the capital funding we need.”
