Handmade Quilts

Few homewares are as precious as a handmade quilt. Warm, individual and deeply personal, they're easier to make than you think.

Photograph: Sophia Evans for the Guardian

Cassandra Ellis was contacted a few years ago by the widow of a man who had recently died. Would Ellis take her late husband's clothes to make quilts for their three children, she asked, to give them something precious to remember him by? So Ellis sat down with the kids, aged 11, nine and eight, to talk about what their dad meant to them and how they had spent their time together. Armed with stories and piles of his clothes, she went away and sewed three quilts, delivered to the grieving family on what would have been their father's 52nd birthday.

It's an emotional story, but one that reveals how a handmade quilt is more than a warm bedspread. It's a precious, deeply personal object, an heirloom and a teller of stories. Often filled with fabrics that have special meaning, from a cherished item of clothing to a hand-me-down tablecloth, quilts improve with age as fabrics soften and fade. Traditionally, they were a chance to sit with family and friends. Today, most of our downtime is spent online or in front of the TV...

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