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The Museum opened almost exactly three years ago with a Museum Director as its first staff member. A short time later, we heard that an application to the Lottery Heritage Fund had been successful. The project was named 'Unfolding the Quilts' and its aim was to introduce as many people as possible to what the Museum could offer. We have had about 7,000 participants in the education and outreach programmes. The funding finished October 2011.
An example of one of the current projects is working with patients undergoing kidney dialysis at York Hospital. It is really boring being tied to a machine for hours at a time and the patients are designing appliqué panels which are then being quilted by our volunteers. The finished work will be displayed at the hospital. A great combination of education and volunteering. The Museum is the only one of its kind in the UK where many museums are currently disposing of textile items or mothballing them. |
 St Anthony's Hall - home of the Quilter's Guild of the British Isles
and the Quilt Museum  View of the Great Hall - one of the exhibition areas |
Message from Liz Whitehouse following the initial voting which saw the project into the finals:
I would like to pass on a huge “thank you” to everyone who voted for 'Unfolding the Quilts' in the National Lottery Awards. We made it into the top three in the Best Heritage Project section and will now go through to the final, with voting starting (again...) on 2 September. This will give the Quilt Museum and Gallery much-needed publicity on national TV in the autumn, when the results will be announced. My contact at the National Lottery said that our vote was “phenomenal”! Thanks again to everyone - we could not have done it without you!
Sadly we did not win the award but the publicity for Quilting and The Museum has been great.
Two of the activities covered by the Lottery funding.
 Education - Son and Dad in a workshop |
 Hanging quilts for an exhibition in the Great Hall |
