Mary Jenkins fondly recalls sleeping underneath a patchwork bedcover as a child growing up in Pembrokeshire, so she supposes she always had some awareness of quilts. But, until her thirties, it was embroidery that interested her. When Mary took up quilting in the late 1970s, there were limited resources for beginners. She says, “There were very few magazines and tutors, so I taught myself using books. But in 1979, The Quilters’ Guild formed – which I joined early on – and things began to change.”
The resurgence of interest in quilting in the UK was in part a result of a nostalgic interest in handicrafts generated by the American Bicentennial in 1976. “I’m ashamed to say that it was American block patterns that excited us back then, with British quilt-making traditions largely overlooked. Later, by Jinny Beyer [an American quilt designer, teacher and author] became my bible for a while,” Mary tells
