UWTSD to Exhibit Bicentennial Cwilt 200 at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham

21 July 2023

2022 was UWTSD’s 200th anniversary year, and to mark such a significant achievement, the BA(Hons) Surface Pattern and Textiles programme initiated a collaborative, community, 200 block quilt – ‘Cwilt 200’.

Article by Niamh Morgan, BA Surface Pattern and Textiles, at Swansea College of Art.

A section of the large quilt showing off many colourful squares of patterned fabric.

Quilting is an act of assembly that originated in medieval times. It has a lengthy cultural history, including lesser-known applications such as use as armour - protecting individuals against arrows. This protective notion is relevant to Cwilt 200 through the project’s utilisation of the Welsh term “Cwilt” which in translation means a weighted covering that provides warmth and security. “Cwilt” also explores another Welsh connotation “Cwtch” an act of love and invitation for individuals to move nearer.

The quilt was completed at the end of 2022 but has recently sparked interest from the Festival of Quilts - the acclaimed international event which will exhibit over 1200 quilts and takes place in Birmingham every summer. The ambitious community project has resonated with the festival team, and they have offered to display the piece this summer, which coincides with their own 20th birthday anniversary. The 4 x 5 metre scale of UWTSD’s Cwilt 200 will stand it apart from the competition quilts at the event. Find Cwilt 200 on Stand E23!

Elements of the Cwilt have explored working with a sustainable ethos, for example where the Swansea College of Art Artists in Residence and 1st year Surface Pattern and Textiles students were tasked in sourcing pre-used cotton fabrics from home or charity shops, making it accessible for everyone.

Programme Manager Georgia McKie says: “We have certainly sparked joy through the workshops via shared experiences of conversation, pieced material, making and stitch. The spirit of collaboration has been a defining feature of the project – from working with our own students to engaging with learners from approximately 10 different feeder colleges and schools. All participants have been keen to embrace the ethos of the project, coming to it with a breadth of differing patchwork experience and skill levels.”

The UWTSD Cwilt 200 team ran workshops with 10 different schools and colleges – on campus and at New Designers 22, the graduate showcase which takes place in the Business Design Centre Islington. The Surface Pattern and Textiles team delivered the Cwilt 200 sessions to over 100 students, each creating their own element of the quilt. The workshops introduced innovative methods, using paper collaged Cwilt blocks, which the students of Surface Pattern and Textiles then transformed into digitally printed textile blocks. Each block was then sewn into the epic 200 block piece.

Susan Down who is studying Surface Pattern and Textiles at UWTSD says: “The project was a great experience, it allowed new designers such as ourselves to practice and learn the traditional techniques of quilting together. It was great to see the progress of our work, being able to feel proud accomplishing this as a collective.’’

The Surface Pattern and Textiles team challenged BA Photography students to capture the quilt in a variety of local, Welsh locations. UWTSD Photography student Katie Nia Davies says: “The concept behind the Cwilt is social unity, it’s large scale visually emphasises this idea. To capture the Cwilt, I was keen to see it in the Swansea landscape to show how this community goes beyond university walls.” To express the ideology of the quilt and its ability to unify individuals, Katie also photographed a group of students holding either end of the piece exploring the term ‘’hiraeth,’’ a Welsh word referring to a particular longing for a home location.

The Cwilt 200 team are proud of the impact that the project has made and has many plans for it after the Festival of Quilts. In September 2023 it will be exhibited in the foyer of Swansea College of Art’s Dynevor Campus for “Swansea’s Got Textiles Talent” a schools and colleges liaison project celebrating the great GSCE, AS and A Level Textile work happening at feeder route level in South and West Wales. After this exhibition, Cwilt 200 then goes on tour.

Georgia says: “The Cwilt will journey to some of the schools around the country that helped to design it – from Bishop Gore Swansea to Blessed William Howard Staffordshire with many in-between. We are keen to enable everyone to share in our collective outcome. It is important that the Cwilt is used, handled, explored, celebrated, and seen by all those that played their part in making it.”