Designer profile lynne edwards

‘Cathedral Window on the Small Side’ by Lynne Edwards MBE, 1998: Inspired by her large quilt ‘Dawn Windows’ (see page 55), this small piece presented the challenge of working with a similar design on a smaller scale. It is part of The Quilters’ Guild Nineties Collection, which comprises quilts commissioned from quilt-makers working during the 1990s

Image © The Quilt Collection The Quilters’ Guild

We’re sure readers will be delighted to hear that, commencing in the next issue, one of our favourite designers, Lynne Edwards MBE, will be presenting our latest Block of the Month (BOM) series. This exciting news gave us the perfect excuse to catch up with Lynne, whom we last spoke to in Spring 2020 when we were in a national lockdown.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

“That was such a strange period,” Lynne reflects. “On the weekend I’d been away teaching and by the end of the following week we’d been ordered to stay at home. But, like many others, I didn’t think it would last long and viewed it as a useful breathing space to get ahead with preparations for my regular local classes.”

However, by Summer, despite the easing of restrictions, Lynne was mulling over what she was going to do next. Face-to-face teaching didn’t look like it would be an option for some time, especially as Lynne was classified as vulnerable and needed to take extra care. “I’m very practical and, lockdown or not, I needed to generate an income,” she states. A light-bulb moment came when a friend was round for a meetup in her garden. “My friend, a textile artist, was telling me about the filmed talks she was planning. I was aware of Zoom video conferencing and that some quilters were using it to give live lectures and workshops, though I’d discounted doing it myself as I knew I didn’t have the computer skills required. But making pre-recorded classes did appeal to me and was something I believed I could do.”

Lynne knew that another friend’s grown-up granddaughter, Alice, was technologically savvy and an occasional quilter. So, Lynne floated her idea for video classes past Alice, who was happy to give filming them a go. They decided to record four tutorials initially, each approximately one-hour long. One video would be posted every month from September to December 2020 on the video-sharing platform Vimeo, which gave Lynne and Alice control over the tutorials and enabled them to make money from the content.

With preparations underway, Lynne emai