I am an American who has been living in England for thirty-eight years. I’ve tried to assimilate myself into
this culture, but there are certain things that I find somewhat mystifying. For example, you may have heard of cricket—that English game played on summer afternoons by men dressed all in white.
The rules are so arcane that you would have had to be born here to figure them out; just let me say that cricket is intently followed by (mostly) men in every Commonwealth country--
such as England, Australia and Pakistan to name a few.
this culture, but there are certain things that I find somewhat mystifying. For example, you may have heard of cricket—that English game played on summer afternoons by men dressed all in white.
The rules are so arcane that you would have had to be born here to figure them out; just let me say that cricket is intently followed by (mostly) men in every Commonwealth country--
such as England, Australia and Pakistan to name a few.
The Ted Dexter Cricket Quilt
Ted Dexter was Captain of the England cricket team from 1962–1965. In England, Ted could be compared to Micky Mantle—everyone has heard of him and thinks he is great. Though now retired, he holds a firm place in the hearts and minds of cricket fans all over the world. Ted also happens to be an old friend of my husband’s, but when the telephone call came, it was completely unexpected. Ted doesn’t waste words, so even though we hadn’t spoken for a few years, he came straight to the point. “I have a box of old cricket ties—think you could do something with them—maybe make a quilt?” Surprised by the phone call and his direct request, I couldn’t say anything but “sure!” Soon a big box arrived. One look inside revealed a jumble of ties in a riot of colors and confirmed that my job had begun.
I began sorting the ties by color: red, green, gray, yellow and navy blue. There were also about a
dozen others in wild colours. As I studied the ties, I noticed the most marvellous motifs: a pelican
holding a cricket bat, kangaroos, snakes, kiwi birds, trees, Big Ben, geese, lions, wickets, cricket balls--
each tie was unique. I then discovered words and phrases woven into the ties: England v Australia Edgbaston 1989, England v New Zealand 1990, National Cup Winners at Lords 1984, Calcutta Cricket Club—and many more. I was certain that these words and images would have great significance for anyone who had followed Ted’s career.
I spent a few weeks looking at the ties, thinking about cricket and how I could relate that sport to a patchwork quilt. I engaged the services of my 13-year-old daughter to take the ties apart, paying her 10 pence (about 6 cents) per tie. I now had 200 ties in every shape, colour and pattern ready for cutting.
Because ties are cut on the bias, they are extremely stretchy once taken apart, so must be sewn to a base.
I recalled seeing a log cabin arrangement that gave the impression of curves—called Off-Center Log Cabin. If four of these blocks are sewn together they create the impression of a circle: a cricket ball! There would be a total of 16 blocks, each with a navy background and four “cricket balls” in red, gray, green and yellow.
I cut plain cotton fabric for the bases and carefully marked them because it was essential that the piecing be extremely accurate.
I decided to only cut out areas that featured an eye-catching motif or woven words and phrases. Pieces were laid out on my worktop in piles according to color and length—shorter strips for the middle of the log cabin block, and long strips for the outer edges. In addition to the strips, 16 central squares were required, and for these I utilized the beautifully embroidered logos featured on the navy ties.
I constructed the red “cricket ball” first. First a navy square was sewn in its position onto the base, then each strip was sewn to the base in turn. Strips were pressed and trimmed with scissors as I went along. Working in a chain of four blocks at a time made the work go faster.
Some strips were used in more than one “cricket ball.” For instance, some ties were red and blue, or red and green, or green and yellow—I used these in more than one block to get variety and also because I didn’t have a huge amount of any one colour (except navy). In fact, I was quite short on yellow and nicked one of my husband’s ties to compensate. When I took it apart, I was thrilled to discover the back of the yellow tie was gray so I was able to use the same tie in reverse for the gray cricket ball! This led to my using the reverse of many of the ties to get additional variety.
When the blocks were finished, they were straightened with a rotary cutter and sewn together. The border needed to be simple yet striking and I was able to feature some of the wilder ties that hadn’t been used in the center of the quilt. The machine quilting was kept simple, with meandering lines crossing each cricket ball, curves on the navy areas and parallel wavy lines on the borders. The quilt was bound with strips cut from plain navy ties.
Ted seemed genuinely delighted with the finished quilt. He planned to auction it to raise money for the Lord’s Taverners, which is cricket's official charity. Ted contacted Mark Williams, the Chief Executive of The Lord's Taverners, who decided it would be a perfect auction prize for their next charity event, where it raised £7500/$15,000!
I began sorting the ties by color: red, green, gray, yellow and navy blue. There were also about a
dozen others in wild colours. As I studied the ties, I noticed the most marvellous motifs: a pelican
holding a cricket bat, kangaroos, snakes, kiwi birds, trees, Big Ben, geese, lions, wickets, cricket balls--
each tie was unique. I then discovered words and phrases woven into the ties: England v Australia Edgbaston 1989, England v New Zealand 1990, National Cup Winners at Lords 1984, Calcutta Cricket Club—and many more. I was certain that these words and images would have great significance for anyone who had followed Ted’s career.
I spent a few weeks looking at the ties, thinking about cricket and how I could relate that sport to a patchwork quilt. I engaged the services of my 13-year-old daughter to take the ties apart, paying her 10 pence (about 6 cents) per tie. I now had 200 ties in every shape, colour and pattern ready for cutting.
Because ties are cut on the bias, they are extremely stretchy once taken apart, so must be sewn to a base.
I recalled seeing a log cabin arrangement that gave the impression of curves—called Off-Center Log Cabin. If four of these blocks are sewn together they create the impression of a circle: a cricket ball! There would be a total of 16 blocks, each with a navy background and four “cricket balls” in red, gray, green and yellow.
I cut plain cotton fabric for the bases and carefully marked them because it was essential that the piecing be extremely accurate.
I decided to only cut out areas that featured an eye-catching motif or woven words and phrases. Pieces were laid out on my worktop in piles according to color and length—shorter strips for the middle of the log cabin block, and long strips for the outer edges. In addition to the strips, 16 central squares were required, and for these I utilized the beautifully embroidered logos featured on the navy ties.
I constructed the red “cricket ball” first. First a navy square was sewn in its position onto the base, then each strip was sewn to the base in turn. Strips were pressed and trimmed with scissors as I went along. Working in a chain of four blocks at a time made the work go faster.
Some strips were used in more than one “cricket ball.” For instance, some ties were red and blue, or red and green, or green and yellow—I used these in more than one block to get variety and also because I didn’t have a huge amount of any one colour (except navy). In fact, I was quite short on yellow and nicked one of my husband’s ties to compensate. When I took it apart, I was thrilled to discover the back of the yellow tie was gray so I was able to use the same tie in reverse for the gray cricket ball! This led to my using the reverse of many of the ties to get additional variety.
When the blocks were finished, they were straightened with a rotary cutter and sewn together. The border needed to be simple yet striking and I was able to feature some of the wilder ties that hadn’t been used in the center of the quilt. The machine quilting was kept simple, with meandering lines crossing each cricket ball, curves on the navy areas and parallel wavy lines on the borders. The quilt was bound with strips cut from plain navy ties.
Ted seemed genuinely delighted with the finished quilt. He planned to auction it to raise money for the Lord’s Taverners, which is cricket's official charity. Ted contacted Mark Williams, the Chief Executive of The Lord's Taverners, who decided it would be a perfect auction prize for their next charity event, where it raised £7500/$15,000!
Ted Dexter died on 25 August 2021. Here is an article I wrote for my local newspaper, The Henley Standard.
Jim Laker Quilt
About a year later, Mark contacted me to say that he had found another box of ties stashed away. These belonged to Jim Laker, who was also well known in the cricket world. He had bowled a nearly perfect “19 for 90” game in 1956. Because 2006 was the 50th anniversary of that game, the Taverners were having a charity lunch to honor his achievement. I accepted the challenge and designed that quilt to replicate the score of Jim Laker’s game. This quilt was also auctioned and raised an impressive £5000/$10,000 and was bought by a former Rolling Stone, Ronnie Wood.
Mike Gatting Quilt
4 years later, Lord's contacted me again, as cricketer Mike Gatting had donated his ties to make a charity quilt in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Lord's Taverners Charity. I decided to interprete their “diamond” logo in fabric. The finished quilt had two emeralds, two topazes, two rubies and two diamonds, in addition to the central image which replicated the exact colors of their logo.
The quilt was auctioned on August 7th, 2010 at a Lady Taverners lunch. It made only £700/$1100, which was a huge disappointment as I had spent over 350 hours making it. It's interesting to me that the male Taverners valued cricket quilts more than the female members.
The quilt was auctioned on August 7th, 2010 at a Lady Taverners lunch. It made only £700/$1100, which was a huge disappointment as I had spent over 350 hours making it. It's interesting to me that the male Taverners valued cricket quilts more than the female members.
Ted's Ties
Ted Dexter died on 25 August 2021. His widow contacted me to ask if I would make a quilt from his ties for the man who helped to arrange his funeral. This is the result.