As we head into November, the month of Remembrance, let’s take a moment to focus on a piece from our collection which comments on the effects of the First and Second World Wars on rural life.

This piece is a patchwork quilt in squares and rectangles of green, brown and purple coloured fabrics, to represent an aerial view of hillsides and fields, with embroidered words on some of the pieces.

A Bomber’s Moon, 2014-2017, 156cm x 182cm. The Quilters’ Guild Collection.

The quilt has an outer border of a purple velvet ribbon and long rectangular pieces with more embroidery. It is tie quilted with a quick wadding. It was made as part of a two year collaboration between older people in Derbyshire and the arts organisation arthur+martha, led by artist Lois Blackburn as part of a reminiscence community project.

The project made two quilts, A Bomber’s Moon and Fresh Air and Poverty, which is also held within The Quilters’ Guild Museum Collection.

This piece describes the transforming effect of the First and Second World Wars on rural life, where horses and humans were invaded by machines. The quilt is the bomber’s view of life from the sky.

Into the landscape the sewn words link to a book of stories and poems of peoples experiences during this time.