Inspired? Get involved in patchwork right here in Lewisham

The People's Patchwork is now on display at the Brockley Rise Centre (Adult Learning Lewisham), where it has gone down very well. They thought that people might be inspired to want to take up patchwork (or improve their skills) and have launched a new course.

Patchwork and quilting beginners/improvers class at Adult Learning Lewisham

Starts Monday 10th October for 6 weeks

Grove Park Centre, 333/335 Baring Road, SE12 0DZ

19.00-21.00pm    Fee: £65, £35 (conc.)

Learn and sample a variety of traditional and contemporary patchwork & quilting techniques- using both machine and hand stitching. Learners with more experience will begin or develop personal projects of their choice.

 

For more information about this and other patchwork and quilting courses visit http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/myservices/education/adult/find-a-course/Pages/Adult-education-courses---Patchwork-and-quilting.aspx

 

For other creative courses held in the Textile & Floral Design area contact:

denise.darlow@lewisham.gov.uk or 0208 3147309

 

 

The People's Patchwork is going on tour!

Your chance to see all of our patches as part of the completed work. It looks and sounds amazing, with its accompanying soundscape composed from sounds around Lewisham by brilliant local sound artist Jay Harris.

Come and see it at:
Torridon Road Library
04 - 16/07/2016

Manor House Library
25/07/2016 - 06/08/2016

Forest Hill Library
15 - 27/08/2016

Bellingham Children's Centre
05 - 17/09/2016

ALL Brockley Rise
26/09/2016 - 08/10/2016

Civic Suite - Young Mayor's Team
17 - 29/10/2016

Lee Community Centre
07 - 19/11/2016

Lewisham Library
28/11/2016 - 31/12/2016

Showing at even more venues in 2017

Just showing off

...but isn't it beautiful?! Thanks to everyone who has contributed towards our wonderful patchwork.

The Lewisham People's Patchwork on display at Catford Library for Catford Tales

The People's Patchwork makes its debut at Catford Library as part of Catford Tales

The People's Patchwork is all sewn together and up at Catford Library and it looks - and sounds - fantastic! (Jay Harris' beautiful, slightly ethereal soundscape is playing almost from within the fabric of the patchwork).

It's making it's debut for Catford Tales a week of lovely, quirky installations and events celebrating Catford and culminating in three performances by Lewisham Youth Theatre on Friday and Saturday, 24th and 25th July. All well worth attending if you can get along.

The quilt is now sewn together, edged and has a handy sleeve for hanging, but isn't yet quilted - so there's still a chance to get involved in completing this beautiful 2 x 3m quilt. We'll be announcing three quilting sessions at three libraries very soon. Come and take part!

More "sewing together" sessions

If you haven't yet had a chance to come to one of our "Sewing Together" sessions, please feel free to. Equally if you've been to one or more, we'd love to see you again.

The sessions  are a chance for us to involve as many people as possible in turning the People's Patchwork patches into the People's Patchwork. They're also lovely, friendly, chatty (or contemplative - depending on your mood) occasions for people to come together and sew. No particular expertise required. Hope to see you there!

New Cross Learning - tomorrow (15th April), 2-4 pm and Wednesday 29th April, 2-4 pm
Catford Library - Friday 1st May, 1.30 - 3.30 pm
Torridon Road Library - Tuesdays 5th and 12th May, 10.30-12.30 am
Sydenham Library - Tuesday April 21st, 1.30 - 3.30
Deptford Lounge (tbc) - provisionally Friday 8th May, 1.30 - 3.30 pm

PLEASE NOTE: TODAY'S SESSION AT NEW CROSS LEARNING (29TH APRIL) POSTPONED, NEW DATE TO BE CONFIRMED SOON. SORRY FOR ANY DISAPPOINTMENT. 

Please come and join in the big joining together of our quilt

It's time to create a quilt from the beautiful patchwork squares that so many creative people made for us in 2014. We'd like the sewing together to involve the community and the original makers of the patches as much as possible, so we're holding four public "Putting together" sessions. Details below. Please come - all materials, plus a nice cup of tea provided. 

Pepys Community Library, 11-1, Wednesday 18th March

Lewisham Library, 1-3 pm, Friday 20th March

Downham Library, 1-3 pm, Tuesday 24th March

Sydenham Community Library, 1.30 - 3.30 pm, Tuesday 31st March

People's Day

Cllr Chris Best with the People's Patchwork
at People's Day 2014

We had a fantastic day at People's Day on Saturday - and it was very exciting to see most of the patches displayed together for the first time!

We were delighted to welcome old friends New Cross Learning and Eco Communities to our tent. We also had some new friends Amplified Robot with us. Their augmented reality wizardry really added to the Patchwork and drew in crowds of interested people.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to make it such an amazing day for us!

Thanks also to Katie Pekacar who gave us this lovely write-up on her blog.

Patchwork of Selfies - submit yours and be part of our live patchwork!

This year at People's Day, we are unveiling the People's Patchwork. To accompany it we will also be displaying a "Patchwork of Selfies". In the run up to the day, you can submit your selfie taken in your favourite place in Lewisham to our blog, and on 12th July you will be able to submit your selfie at People's Day. If you don’t want to submit your face, we would also like peoples’ messages or thoughts about Lewisham. You could even write it on your hand!

You can submit your selfie by using the hashtag #ppselfie on Instagram or Twitter, or by submitting directly onto the blog: http://ppselfie.tumblr.com/submit

Get posting!

Vote on the final design - how do you want the People's Patchwork to look?

Thank you to everyone who has sent in a patch for the People's Patchwork. We are now ready to put it together for display on People's Day at Mountsfield Park on Saturday 12th July, but there are many designs that we could use to create the finished patchwork and we would like you to choose the design. We would like you to vote on the final design and a survey is open from now until 1st July for you to place your vote. This will give us some time to create the final design for you to see on People's Day.

We want you to vote on 2 things - the layout of the patches and the background colour.

The options for the layout are -

Layout 1 - A random layout

Layout 2 - Similar colours grouped in vertical stripes

Layout 3 - All patches that mention Lewisham or feature the borough crest together in the middle  

Layout 4 - All patches with a white background together in the centre with coloured patches around the edge  

Layout 5 - All patches that have words as part of the design in the centre 

The colour choices are - 

1. Red
2. Yellow
3. Blue
4. Green
5. Purple
6. Brown
7. Black
8. White
9. Cream
10. Olive

Layouts

 Green background - random layout of patches

 Red background - patches with words in centre

 Blue background - colours in vertical stripes

Blue background - white patches in the centre

Some of the layouts we've been trying at our sessions in libraries. Why not join us next week at New Cross or Sydenham to see the patches and try some alternatives for yourself?

St Dunstan's Church

St Dunstan's Church was built in the early 1920s, when the Bellingham estate was being built.
On the 21st November 1925, the Bishop of Southwark opened the Church with a Dedicating Service.

The organ came from the Chapel Royal at St James'. This organ was built in 1837, but in 1891 six of the stops were removed and replaced by six stops from a much older organ, built for the Chapel Royal in 1699. In 1925 the organ came to St Dunstan's from St James's when they replaced it with a new one.

The font also has a history. It was dug up by workmen when excavating the foundations for the houses on this then new estate. No one is sure of its real age but it is very old.

The organ and the font are very old, but are still in use today.

Help design the People's Patchwork

The People's Patchwork is almost complete and we are holding layout sessions to decide on the final design. Come and join us to help layout our patches for the Peoples Patchwork.

You can help us to design our quilt over tea and biscuits at the following sessions -
Wednesday 28th May 2-4pm at Deptford Lounge
Friday 30th May 2-4pm at Downham Library
Tuesday 3rd June - 2-4pm at New Cross Learning
Saturday 7th June - 10-12am at Sydenham Community Library

You can see the patches at http://www.pinterest.com/lewishamlibs/lewisham-peoples-patchwork/

Craft Collective

This patch was created by Pinky from the Telegraph Hill Craft Collective. They've also been making their own beautiful patchwork celebrating how people feel when involved in creative activity.

New Cross Learning

This patch was created by Gill Hart - one of the volunteers who runs New Cross Learning.

Leegate Knitters

These squares are from our thriving knitting group at Lee Green Community Centre run by a volunteer, Julia Gemie. Women of different backgrounds, ages and experience from across the Borough of Lewisham are brought together every Wednesday afternoon. Knitting and chatting together each week brings shared expertise, creativity, laughter, friendship and support. Women attend this group to relax, to be inspired and to be encouraged to progress by the group leader. We knit for ourselves, for friends, for family near and far and for each other.

Community Conversations

These patches pick up on some comments made by Lewisham parents during a recent consultation with the community called "Community Conversations": Dialogue & research by the community for the community.

Release the Peace - 10,000 Hands

This patch showing Margaret Mizen's handprint was finished as the following report appeared in the Newshopper paper:

PM gets hands-on with campaign

Youngsters from every Lewisham secondary school have taken their peace campaign to the very top - 10 Downing Street.

The trip was part of the 10,000 Hands project - an anti-violence campaign backed by the Jimmy Mizen Foundation that has been supported by children, police and politicians.

It was launched in January last year by Prendergast Ladywell Fields College pupil Camilla Yahaya, 17, who came up with the idea of asking people to add their handprints to a giant "peace cloth" - a symbol of working together for positive change.

And on April 24 she was joined by representatives from all the borough's senior schools in a pilgrimage through central London, via Trafalgar Square, to meet Prime Minister David Cameron.

She said: "This is not about 'young people', this is just about people. It is about us, the very vast majority - good, kind and hopeful people who all want the same thing - safe streets, strong communities and opportunities for all. Our cloth is just a simple way for us all to publicly claim this for ourselves."

Mr Cameron, who gave them an award for the project and added his own handprint to the cloth, told them "Camilla and her team are doing phenomenal work to make the changes they want to see in Lewisham. I am proud to add my hand print to the campaign's peace cloth today. This Big Society Award is for all the inspirational young people across Lewisham who are making a difference with the 10,000 Hands campaign."

Margaret Mizen, whose teenage son Jimmy was murdered at a Lee bakery in 2008, said "Today was a real celebration of all that is good in our young people, we are so proud of them and how all the young people of Lewisham are making a stand for peace led by Camilla."

Camilla and her team have now set a target to reach 100,000 prints by the end of the year and 1,000,000 virtual handprints worldwide.


Lewisham 10,000 Hands project

Lewisham Market - Fruit and Veg

I was inspired to make this patch because it symbolises to me how Lewisham has changed over the years. Lewisham Market now sells exotic fruits and vegetables that they did not sell some twenty or thirty years back when I was younger.

The variety of fruits and vegetables being sold side by side with more traditional items represents to me how people in Lewisham from different cultures and backgrounds live side by side.

Horniman Gardens

It's a place of pleasure for all the family. The flower garden is full of colour and a joy to behold. There is an animal farm for the children to enjoy and handle the animals if they so wish.
I have enjoyed walking around the gardens for some years - in all weathers and seasons, and a cup of tea in the cafe is always nice to look forward to.

A parachute floating through the air

I worked in Lewisham for six years and witnessed much devastation of the main streets and the market place.

On one occasion, the air raid sirens sounded and as usual we evacuated the store.

Our immediate attention was centered on the sky over Blackheath where a dog fight was occurring between two planes. One was disabled and a parachute was seen to be floating through the air.

We had to get over the road to the brick built overground shelter. On one occasion, the shelter wall shook badly enough to injure a member of our staff.