2018 Pluckley Exhibition
Pluckley Exhibition - by Jackie S
I visited my son in Sutton Valence, Kent at the weekend and took the opportunity to visit nearby Pluckley for their 5th annual Quilt and Craft Show.
Pluckley is a little village in the Ashford area of Kent - it's reputed to be the most haunted village in England. The exhibition was in the Village Hall, which isn't in the village, nor anywhere near the station, which is in the middle of nowhere with no staff on a weekend, no toilets and no taxis, as I discovered. Luckily, a kind woman gave me a lift from the station - I shouldn't venture into unknown places without better research!
Anyway, the exhibition was in quite a small hall, which made it difficult to get around and to see the quilts properly. Apparently there isn't a Pluckley quilt group but each year the quilts and other crafts come from exhibitors drawn from the South East and anyone can enter, so perhaps that's why the standard was variable. There were four traders - possibly too many for such a small place - but, of course, I had to support all of them.
There was a collection of quilts by Louise Jessop made during several years recovering from depression, which I found quite "dark", both in colour and design. But her most recent fun quilt was displayed at the Festival of Quilts and portrayed a pair of very pink flamingoes stepping out, entitled "Marjorie Always Liked Bling" - Marjorie wearing a flowery hat and red shoes, whilst her partner sported a back-to-front baseball cap and boots!
Another quilt that caught my eye was "Town and Country" by Sheila Stojsavljevic who made a block a day for a year 11 September 2016 to 10 September 2017 - 365 blocks - in the style of a medallion quilt. Sheila started in the middle with town buildings at night working out towards the edge through the suburbs and the country on the outside in the daytime. All the blocks were about 4" square - so a large quilt.
Also on display was a bed-sized grandmother's flower garden quilt made of 1" hexagons, probably made over 100 years ago by the maternal grandmother of one of the exhibitors. The maker, Elizabeth Albenia Woodburn, was born in 1864 and died in 1943, and she and her husband were landlords of The Stag's Head public house in Wellbourne, Warwickshire. The quilt looked so fresh, the colours were strong and there was no noticeable wear-and-tear, so it may not have been used.
The refreshment tent was outside in the garden, which would have been very nice on a sunny day, but it was raining heavily and cold so a hot coffee and chunk of home-made marble cake was welcome. When I was there on Saturday the exhibition was well attended and continued on Sunday. There was also a raffle quilt in aid of the Village Hall.