This quilt has been produced by pupils from five schools within Monmouthshire: King Henry VIII and Cantref Primary, Abergavenny; Osbaston CW School, Monmouth; Usk CW School and Caldicot Secondary. 130 pupils took part in 10 funded school-based, artist-led workshops, through the Young Arts Programme of Monmouthshire Decorative and Fine Arts Society to commemorate WW1.

90 pupils were of primary school age, in Year 6 (11 years old) and 40 pupils were of secondary age, in Year 9 (14 years old). A second quilt, produced at the same time, was sewn together in December 2015.

The quilt materials and workshops have been funded by Monmouthshire Decorative and Fine Art Society with contributions from an educational grant by our parent society NADFAS, as well as a raffle. It took eighteen months to raise the money for this project. Other MDFAS funded school art workshops run alongside this.

All the schools were given an introduction to First World War themes and the significant contribution that the 3rd Monmouthshire Regiment made to the War and their heavy losses at Ypres in 1915. The pupils are really proud of their achievements and see the quilts as their legacy to the next generation.

The 140 quilt squares (including panels) were made by the pupils within three weeks at the end of the Summer Term 2015. The panels were designed by the 7 artists involved; two artists worked intensively alongside teachers, teaching assistants and some parents due to the nature of the textile work and given that many pupils had not sewn before. This quilt consists of 70 squares of nine inches each (quilters traditionally work in inches).

Methods taught and used were: drawing their own design based on given themes, design methods, applique, bondaweb, drawing with sharpies, tie-dye, embroidery techniques, screen printing, hand printing with screen ink using pre-cut stencils, cutting out fabric using pre-cut stencils for patterns, selecting and free-hand cutting of fabric, sewing on of buttons, using measuring techniques to scale up drawings, felting and making couture poppies.

Themes of the quilts were: WW1 poets, WW1 animals and their role in the war; these included carrier pigeons, war dogs, glow worms in jars used as a light on the battlefield, life in the trenches, ‘over the top’, WW1 nurses, the Abergavenny War Memorial and couture poppies with a couture designer.

It is intended for the Quilts to travel around key venues within Monmouthshire.

For further enquiries please contact us: enquiries@monmouthshiredfas.org.uk