It’s almost five years since Dr Pauline Macaulay brought together a group of passionate quilters to brainstorm the idea of an oral history project to record the stories of people who quilt. Here, our Features Editor, Jane Rae, who has been involved with the project since those early days, shares some reflections on the value of oral history and discovers that Project Manager, Vicky Martin, has been doing more than just talking about 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. Inspired by Quilters’ Save Our Stories (QSOS) project in the USA, which has been running for 11 years, Talking Quilts aims to preserve the experiences of present-day quilters by building their narratives and practices into a national archive of quilters’ stories.