Out & About: Chinese Whispers at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show

Sheena Norquay 'Seapinks at Sandwick', 9th in her chain

I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s final Loch Lomond Quilt Show.  It is a shame that it had to be the final one, but I do understand why it had to end and I’m so pleased that the last one was a success.

Dorothy Deane 'Dutch Elm Disease', 6th in her chain

I had a great time talking to lots of quilters – over the nine Loch Lomond Quilt Shows I’ve been to I seem to have got to know a lot of people; eating good cakes and soup and, of course, seeing some fabulous quilts.  There were many highlights this year and the biggest exhibit by far was Chinese Whispers. 

Marjory McKinven, 'View from the Newsroom Window', 1st in her chain

For Chinese Whispers, 22 different groups of quilters took part, each with between 8 and 14 members.  The first person was given a photo of a pedestrian bridge across the river Clyde in Glasgow (if you watch BBC ‘Reporting Scotland’ you will know the iconic view), and was asked to make a quilt inspired by it, in a limited amount of time, within certain size restrictions.  This quilt, but not the photo was passed to the second person in the chain and so on.  There was great speculation over the past 18 months as to what the photo could be of, but the first quilters in the chain were sworn to secrecy.  

Mairi Wheeler 'West Coast North America', 2nd in her chain

The end results were predictably mixed but this did not lessen the enjoyment or the hilarity at trying to work out the jumps from one quilt to another.  One group very quickly moved from Glasgow to Edinburgh and had the Forth Road Bridge in a number of quilts.  There were chickens, elephant and peacocks and none of the final quilts bore any resemblance at all to the starting image.  It was fascinating.  I wasn’t able to take photos of all 250-odd quilts, but here is a small selection of them.

Diana Brown 'The Last Leaf', 10th in her chain