YOUNG care-leavers moving out into the world with limited support and few possessions will have the ability to decide on a patchwork quilt to brighten up their recent home: a “quilted hug” made by 75 quilters from everywhere in the country, and represented in an event last week by the Friends of St Andrew’s, Little Massingham, in Norfolk.
The quilts were on exhibition on the church from 10 to 12 May, attracting many visitors and raising funds towards the estimated £122,000 now needed to re-roof the Grade I listed constructing after lead was stolen in 2017. The church is on the Historic England “At Risk” register.
On 13 May, nationally designated “Let’s Give a Hug Day”, the church and village community and quilters encircled the church with 50 of the quilts in a vibrant embrace of the constructing. “The quilters loved the concept that the quilts — generally known as ‘hugs’ — could help this ancient constructing, by drawing attention to its plight,” said Rosemary Jewers, the organiser of the event, a patron of the church and certainly one of the founding Friends.
“But they were equally delighted to know that, afterwards, the finished quilts could be given to most of the young individuals who leave the care system every 12 months, providing comfort and heat.” The quilts have now temporarily gone back to their makers to have the wadding, backing, and topstitching accomplished. They will return to St Andrew’s for a final exhibition, from 19 to twenty July, after which be distributed to recipients.
It was Mrs Jewers, who was born and brought up within the village, and christened and married on the church, who discovered the charity Quilts for Carers, inspired by the poet and up to date Chancellor of the University of Manchester, Lemn Sissay. At the age of 12, he returned to local-authority care from the long-term foster placement that he had been in since he was a baby, and what he had really wanted in that situation, he has told audiences previously, was a hug.
She has already done an eight-day, 90-mile sponsored walk on the Roman Road from Colchester to the North Norfolk coast to lift funds. The Friends, arrange during lockdown, have raised about £21,000, but they are saying that it should take far more than fund-raising events to realize the quantity needed for the brand new roof.
“It’s going be a giant job, and we’re going to must go for grants,” Mrs Jewers said. “But we’ve been overwhelmed by all of the interest shown, and the number of people that have been to see the quilts. It’s been wonderful: we’ve involved the entire community, and so many individuals have come out to assist us. I really like that.”
