Amanda Jane Ogden presented six quilts in the 2023 annual art exhibition at St George the Martyr in Ramsgate.
The exhibition raised funds for the repair and restoration of the 19th-century church, whose illuminated lantern tower remains a landmark for the town and nearby shipping.
Quilts occupying the church architecture
Most of Ogden’s works were too large for the display boards used for paintings, so they were suspended from the balcony rails.
The group included Diamonds for Days, India, Heart-felt, Joy and Bright Garden Borders.
Bright Garden Borders was assembled and quilted entirely by hand.
A smaller embroidered work, Oranges, was displayed beside paintings on the exhibition boards.
Textile art beside an older community tradition
The church also held two distinctive double-sided quilts made by the Canon Quilters during an intensive fundraising period between 1998 and 2004.
Their red-on-white designs connected Ogden’s contemporary works with an established local history of textile making and collective support for the building.
The annual exhibition usually focused mainly on painting. Including large quilts expanded the visual range of the display and changed how the church’s balconies and open interior were used.
The setting also altered the quilts. Suspended above the floor, they could be encountered as architectural hangings rather than only as domestic or functional objects.
Ogden’s six works demonstrated the range available within one medium, from precise hand-piecing and embroidery to colour, pattern and large-scale composition.
The exhibition showed how a community fundraiser could provide serious public space for textile art while allowing the building itself to become part of the presentation.