The Power of Patches

Mrs Baird was the Vice Chair of the committee for the “Talking Quilts” a Heritage Lottery Funded Project and a former chair and current committee member of the Scarborough Heirloom Quilter's group.

This group has over 50 members, meets up regularly and raises thousands of pounds for local charities. The current charity supported by this group is the RNLI of Scarborough and Filey.

Mrs Baird was formerly a speech and language therapist in paediatrics and is married to Mr Ian Baird a teacher by profession.

Welcome to Talking Quilts

Every quilter has a story to tell about the quilts they make. Quilts are made to celebrate, remember, for healing or therapy, as art or simply for pleasure. 

Talking Quilts was an oral history project that recorded, preserved and shared the stories of today’s UK quiltmakers. The project, which ran from April 2014 to March 2017, recorded over 180 interviews with quilters from across the UK. It was a project of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles and was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Talking Quilts saved the stories of present day quilters by recording their narratives, practices and experiences, creating a national collection of quilters’ stories, including sound and video recordings, photographs and transcripts.

Talking Quilts was led by volunteers (Quilters’ Guild members and non-members) who were trained and supported to conduct and transcribe interviews with quilters. The stories focused on a ‘touchstone object’, one quilt or quilted object made by the interviewee, and exploring the story behind it.

The interview then broadened out to explore the quilter’s relationship with quilt making and the role quilt making plays in their life. Over 70 volunteers were involved in recording and transcribing interviews.  Digital audio recordings and transcripts of the interviews, along with accompanying photographs, are being shared here: http://www.talkingquilts.org.uk/about