I've been making Journal Quilts since 2003 and so in recent talks to quilt groups on this subject , I can speak from experience about all the ways they can be used, from samples for larger quilts, trying out techniques, to more personal records of events important in my life.
This small quilt from July 2005 falls in that category. It has at its centre a copy of my train ticket from 7/7 - I was travelling to a meeting in Peterborough and this was the last train out of Kings Cross just as the bombs went off. Our meeting was cut short as the horrific news broke and we were all frantically trying to contact family and friends. The next problem was how to get home - all the trains were terminating at Peterborough. In the end a colleague travelling back to Newbury took several of us in his car and then got a train to Ealing, arriving home very late. Ian also had a long journey, walking right across London to get a train from Paddington. But we were both home ,safe. I'd been taking a lot of photos from trains at speed using my new digital camera and happened to be travel the same train route just a week later so took photos of my journey, remembering the week before and my lucky escape - others were less fortunate.
We had tickets for the first night of the proms that year - a more sombre occasion than usual. Willard White singing in Tippet's 'A Child of Our Time' was particularly poignant, referring to man's inhumanity to man, and it still leaves a lump in my throat when I hear it. In memory of the victims and survivors of 7/7.
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