THE residents of Hutton Rudby are tapping into the great community spirit in their village to create something positive out of their collective experiences of lockdown during the Covid pandemic, which will be a lasting memorial of how the village coped during the crisis.

The Hutton Rudby Lockdown Quilt will be made from patches, each representing the personal experience of the individual villager during this testing time. When completed, the quilt will hang in the village hall as an archive to this unique period in our history.

The Quilt Project is the idea of Hutton Rudby resident Dileas Turner who came across the idea on a visit to Culbokie in Scotland during the summer of 2020. A craft group in Culbokie was already in the process of creating their quilt, and Dileas made a patch for it to reflect her stay there.

When the second lockdown was announced in November, Dileas thought that making a quilt as a community project would give Hutton Rudby a focus during the dark winter days, to reflect on the way the village had dealt with the Covid crisis by supporting each other and the NHS, learning new skills, enjoying their hobbies, coping with separation from family and friends .

Dileas enlisted fellow resident Tricia Mancina, and together they set about launching the project with posters and flyers around the village, personal contact with friends and neighbours, the primary school, the Scouts, and associations like the WI, the Garden Club and the Hutton Rudby Hub. There is also a Facebook group, the Hutton Rudby Lockdown Quilt Project.

Clear guidance for making the patches is provided, and Dileas and Tricia are available to provide socially distant help. Finished patches should be submitted by the end of February. Several have already been received, each very different and showing great imagination.

Anyone with a connection to Hutton Rudby who is interested in participating in the project can contact the organisers via the Facebook page or by email at dileas.huttonrudbyquilt@gmail.com or tricia.huttonrudbyquilt@gmail.com