City & Guilds Courses

Patchwork & Quilting

About the certificate:

City & Guilds is a qualification of international standing. Level Three Certificate will give you a thorough grounding in many forms of patchwork and quilting from around the world. It will increase your technical skills and to develop a good set of design tools. It will give you the basis for developing your own style and interests as well as your own working methods.  The course runs over two years.

There are two parts to each C&G qualification—Design and Craft. Both parts must be completed to gain the qualification. The two parts are linked, with the design part supporting and informing the craft of patchwork and quilting.

The design side helps you explore ideas. These ideas can come from historic or contemporary sources, from your own environment or from other cultures. There are five strands to the design part of the course:

1. Colour
2. Shape
3. Line
4. Texture
5. Form

The craft side of the course has six projects or ‘outcomes’ for assessment:

1. An item for interior décor
2. An accessory
3. A wall hanging
4. A container
5. A final quilt, drawing on all you have learned in the course

One of these objects must showcase your patchwork skills, a second your appliqué skills and a third your quilting skills. The other two projects can be as you choose. In addition, you are required to create a portfolio of samples, covering the whole course.

Throughout the course, we will link the design strands to the projects.

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About the diploma:

City & Guilds is a qualification of international standing. Level Three Diploma will give you the knowledge and skill to extend and develop in many directions. It will give you the basis for developing your own style and interests as well as your own working methods. It will also give you an understanding of the history of the craft in the UK and the methods used by other contemporary practitioners. Much emphasis is placed on evaluating your own and other completed work, processes and techniques, which can then be used to inform future work.

The course runs over two years and 12 modules online or 16 sessions in the studio.

There are two parts to each C&G qualification—Design and Craft. Both parts must be completed to gain the qualification. The two parts are linked, with the design part supporting and informing the craft of patchwork and quilting.

The design side helps you explore ideas. During the Diploma course, you will select your own research topic, enabling you to focus on ideas that are important to you. These ideas can come from historic and contemporary sources, from your own environment and from other cultures, but you must be able to explore the theme through primary research, along with historical and cultural influences. You will work on this research topic throughout the course, developing and evaluating as you go. This topic will be agreed with the tutors at the start of the course.

The design part of the course will be underpinned by the design principles of colour, texture, line, shape, form and the design elements of balance, rhythm, contrast, dominance, harmony, scale and proportion. These will be applied to all your work created as part of the craft side of the course.

The craft strand of the course gives you the opportunity to explore in depth the designing and making of finished items. Items will be made based on your own personal approach to innovative and traditional techniques, but will require advanced practical skills in their creation.

Again, learning to evaluate your finished work and your processes plays an important part of the course.

Your patchwork and quilting skills will be assessed across the following projects:

1. A quilt for a wall, bed or a throw, with a minimum size of 150 x 150cm or equivalent area
2. A 3D item: a garment, item for interior décor, container or similar item. It can be decorative, ornamental, sculptural, theatrical or practical.
3. A miniature quilt, where the scale of design is fully considered. Maximum size 12 x 12 inches.
The design of at least one of these must be based on your research project and at least one based on the design work of mathematical sequences and progressions.
4. Experimental patchwork and quilting techniques: a portfolio of experimental patchwork and quilting techniques, including fabric manipulation, application of colour onto cloth, miniature patchwork, quick piecing, free machine quilting, embellishment and mixed media
5. Design work based on mathematical progressions and sequences: a series of design work experimenting with mathematical progressions and sequences, including Fibonacci, tessellations and grid based exercises.
6. A collection of fabrics and materials suitable for patchwork and quilting including all those detailed in the syllabus, showing an imaginative and innovative range of materials, both sourced and created.
7. A two part illustrated study of developments within patchwork and quilting as detailed in the syllabus. Part I will outline the history and practises of quilting in the UK during the last 200 years. Part II will explore the work, methods and techniques of four leading designer makers from the UK and around the world.

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Creative Sketchbooks

Level Two Creative Sketchbooks will give you the knowledge and skill to extend and develop in many directions. It will give you the basis for developing your own style and interests as well as your own working methods.  As well as making beautiful sketchbooks, you will leave with lots of design ideas for future projects. There are two part to each C&G qualification—Design and Craft.  Both parts must be completed to gain the qualification.  The two parts are linked, with the design part supporting and informing the craft of creative sketchbooks.

The course runs over a year, with 8 modules online or 8 two-day sessions in the studio.

The design side helps you explore ideas as you work with a variety of different mediums.  The design part of the course will be underpinned by the design principles of colour, mark-making, shape, form and texture.  These will be applied to all your work created as part of the craft side of the course. The craft strand of the course has four projects or ‘outcomes:

1. A customised purchased sketchbook
2. A freestanding handmade book
3. A portfolio of samples
4. A folder of work

Items 1 and 2 are to be produced from different sources of inspiration and involve a range of art mediums. Throughout the course we will link the design strands to the projects.

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The next start dates will be:

Certificate (online or face to face) September 2022
Diploma (online or face to face) January 2023
Creative Sketchbooks (online only) September 2022.

Please note the courses are either online or face to face.  Given the small class sizes, it is not possible to switch between them.