People in Shifnal are literally to make a stitch in time by creating a huge patchwork that will sew together their memories of the town.
As part of the town’s first arts festival local people are being asked to put their memories of Shifnal onto squares of cloth which will be stitched together to make a giant patchwork. The piece of community art will be one of the centrepieces of the festival, which is being held in September.
Local artist Rachel Lambourne, who is running a series of workshops to create the patchwork, said: “The festival is mainly about getting local people involved and bringing out the wealth of hidden artistic talent that we know is there.
“We want people to embroider, stitch, paint, print or even glue their memories of the town onto a square of cloth. It’s a unique way of recording how they feel about Shifnal, and what it really means to them. It can be about anything – my contribution is of my memories of fishing in the local brook as a child, while my sister Bex’s is of Shifnal’s old pubs.
“We’ve already got great interest from locals who want to take part – in just one day I had requests for 35 patches from people who want to record their recollections and impressions of Shifnal.”
The first of three free workshops – open to all adults and accompanied children – is being held at St Andrew’s Church, Shifnal, at 7pm on Monday. It will be followed by workshops at Shifnal Village Hall at 5.30pm on Tuesday, July 27 and August 10. Rachel will provide the 15cm patches for people who want to contribute but cannot make the workshops. Rachel can be contacted on craftyshropshirelass@hotmail.com.
Shifnal Festival runs from September 18 to 26. The programme of events already includes street performances, a day of dance, a Shifnal’s Got Talent competition, poetry recitals, a rock night, craft fair, a choirs’ evening and a classical concert. There will also be arts and photographic exhibitions, creative workshops and films.