If you are commenting on an existing craft, please select it here and skip the next two questions
Please enter the name of the craft you would like us to add here.
If this is a new craft type please select the most suitable category
Please identify country, region, county or town
Please identify an era/century/approximate historic period.
Heritage Crafts uses a system of four categories of risk to assess the viability of heritage crafts. A heritage craft is considered to be viable if there are sufficient craftspeople to transmit the craft skills to the next generation. For more information on definitions see http://heritagecrafts.org.uk/redlist/categories-of-risk/
People earning their main craft income from this craft (selling, commissions, conservation/ restoration and/or teaching).
People practicing this craft commercially (selling, commissions, conservation/restoration and/or teaching) but as less than half of their income.
People acquiring skills in order to become a professional in this craft, they probably have to work under supervision even if they are earning money while training.
People whose knowledge and ability is at a level of the most skilled practitioners of this craft.
People who do not intend to practice this craft professionally or at the highest level.
Training and recruitment issues: There is no qualification which supports the use of these techniques, the City and Guild Patchwork and Quilting award does not include hand quilting in a frame and does not teach this tool. There are no current training opportunities which address the use of a frame.
Training and recruitment issues: There are some teachers within the hobby sector who teach rocking stitch, using a hoop as a more commercially viable tool. These teachers tend to be older, and classes are skewed toward the needs of other older hobby makers.
Training and recruitment issues: There are no detailed published sources of reference with instruction about using the frame.
Market issues: Amongst art and fashion practitioners there is an untapped opportunity for training and the procurement of frames as tools, which is emerging as part of a wider desire to access traditional hand work skills in quilt making.
et issues: There is a potential unmet market amongst homeware and high-end craft consumers for hand quilted British sourced objects. Some brands source hand stitched quilts made overseas. There is no equivalent market in high quality authentic quilted items as are seen with other heritage crafts because there has been no supply. There is no reason to suspect that a market could not be developed as more commercial and professional makers adopt these skills.
Market issues: In the US, hand quilters using a frame also supply hand quilting as a finishing service to hobby makers. There is no similar service available here but there is potential for it to be developed.
Supply of raw materials, allied materials and tools: There is at least one maker of quilt frames in the UK. Makers mostly rely on the uncertain market for antique frames, and on imported American frames (which are different to traditional British flat frames),or on finding someone with the skills to make one to order.
Supply of raw materials, allied materials and tools: Wool wadding is currently not available in the size needed for quilting. However, the group WoolKeepers has recently developed a British wool wadding product which is currently only available through the high-end craft supplier Merchant and Mills in a narrow width (for dressmakers), but which could be made more widely available to makers using frames (in an appropriate bed sized width) if more demand were available.
Ageing workforce: The last revival of the formal teaching of these skills ended in the 1950s. Some continued teaching occurred within WI organisation and local adult education from this cohort into the early 1980s. In the 1980s women trained in this way were awarded the MBE for services to the skill but their trainees are now also reaching the end of their careers. There is little evidence that these skills have been sufficiently passed down further to a new generation of makers through hobby channels, and so the chain is in danger of breaking without urgent redress and revival.
e.g. lack of qualifications, funding for training etc.
If yes, please describe the issues below
e.g. lack of demand for products/skills etc.
Tick the box if there are difficulties with the supply of raw materials, allied materials or tools
i.e. issues around running any small business, not just crafts
Is the main workforce made up of people who are approaching retirement age?
e.g. legal restrictions on materials, health and safety etc.
e.g. Brexit, Covid-19, conflict
Please describe any other issues
Please describe any UK projects or schemes
Please list any known practitioners of this craft — add a row item for each person or business and complete the fields to the best of your knowledge. To get started click the `Add practitioner` button below.
It may include when and where the craft developed, how it has changed over time, etc.
e.g. festivals, religious celebrations, agricultural practices, music, dance etc.
e.g. religious, ethnic, social class. Please give an overview of the techniques involved in the craft.
This may involve different materials, techniques, styles or finished products.
e.g. books, websites etc.
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