VIDEO: Woman behind Wisbech library’s patchwork quilts thrilled they will be re-hung

Alison Sutton, Area Library Manager, holding a quilt. (Image: Archant)

Former lecturer Peggy Mason, of Downham Market, taught quilting, patchwork and appliqué at the Isle College in Wisbech.

Mrs Mason and her class worked for 18 months on the three 6ft by 4ft patchwork quilts, which were completed in November 1991.

The quilts had pride of place in the library for 18 years until they were taken down when it was refurbished four years ago.

They have remained in the attic because the library has not had the funds to have them re-installed.

But library regular Glyn Jones has stepped in and donated £1,000, which will be spent on mounting the quilts behind perspex to preserve them.

Mrs Mason said: 'It was a lovely project to be a part of and the quilts are beautiful.

'I'm so glad that they are going to be re-hung. There is nowhere else with high enough ceilings to hang them out of reach of people touching them.'

International quilter Deirdre Amsden attended an unveiling ceremony on November 3, 1991.

Wisbech library was not meant to be the quilts' permanent home, Mrs Mason said.

She said: 'The plan was that they would be hung in different libraries but they ended up staying in Wisbech.'

Mrs Mason can still remember the majority of the ladies who worked on the quilts with her, including former Mayor of Wisbech Ann Purt, and the patches they knitted.

She said: 'Pam Jones and Edith Palmer worked on the Brink, Veronica Marston did the coat of arms, Betty West did the reflection of the Brink, Dorothy Redmayne did the kestrel and Heather Pallant, Ann Purt and Audrey Clifton worked on the tractors.

'Dorothy Rose did the apple, Rosalund Staveley the church, Ann Rose and Sylvia Matthews the ducks, Amanda Rumbelow the pumping station and Jean Nottingham was responsible for the beautiful Thomas Clarkson memorial.'