Anne Crampton Award

Anne Crampton was one of the founding members of the Nelson Quilters' Guild. She was deeply involved in teaching patchwork and quilting and is remembered as a warm and enthusiastic mentor and tutor, always willing to share her knowledge and expertise. She also exhibited her own work, both locally and nationally.

Initially Anne had been teaching from Nelson Polytechnic. However, when the Government funding for craft classes was discontinued in the early 1990s, Anne, with Juliet Neale, set up Calico Crafts and continued to teach patchwork and quilting classes from a room in the Founders complex.

After her death, at an early age in 2007, the Guild was keen to initiate the Anne Crampton Award Quilt in recognition of her enormous contribution to the Nelson Quilters' Guild in particular and to patchwork and quilting in general.

She and her husband, Mac, were also known for their love of tramping and keenly explored many back country areas in Nelson and beyond. Discussions around the design of an award quilt were fully supportive of a quilted award in her name which also reflected her love of NZ's bush, beaches, rivers, lakes and mountains.

With the design group's brief in mind, the initial work setting up the dyed forest background was undertaken by Lyn McCullough and Lyn Trolove. The detailed motif stages, the design and sewing of the borders and the quilting was performed by Marj Toker, Carla Wardrop and 'The Monaco Madams' quilting group.

In the 2008 Nelson Quilters' Guild's Festival of Quilts, the Anne Crampton Award Quilt was proudly used for the first time and given as an award to the Guild member who won the "Members' Choice" vote.