1914-18 Commemorative Quilts and textiles exhibition by local quilters and embroiderers

THE images are extraordinary. A First World War biplane, the tips of its wings decorated with the English roundel, flits above a patchwork of fields far below. A troop of Tommies, silhouetted against the sky, march wearily across a Flanders field, while blood-red poppies spill into the foreground. A ship is engulfed by a towering crescent wave, while shocked figures watch from the shoreline.

What makes these images even more remarkable is that they are not daubed onto canvas or etched into charcoal. They have been painstakingly hand-stitched onto swatches of fabric, to create stunning quilts and embroideries commemorating the loss and waste and poignant courage of the First World War.

From tomorrow, dozens of these wonderful quilts and embroideries will be on show at Pickering Library. They're part of a touring exhibition of work by local quilters and embroiderers that, over the past few months, has visited libraries in Scarborough, Filey, Whitby and Malton, as well as the York Cemetery Trust.

It will be in Pickering for at least a couple of weeks before heading to Kirkbymoorside, Helmsley, Norton and, next year, the Royal Armouries in Leeds and the Castle Museum in York.

The exhibition was the idea of Scarborough-based Annie Parkinson, a retired lecturer who has been sewing as a hobby for years.

She went to visit friends in the US, where she saw some commemorative quilt shows. "And I came back with the idea of making one or two quilts to commemorate the centenary of the First World War," she says.

She persuaded a few friends to join her to make half a dozen quilts to be exhibited locally. A local library was contacted. "And suddenly we had a series of dates offered around the North Yorkshire coast throughout 2014."

The project quickly snowballed. Realising she'd need to get more people involved to make enough quilts and textiles, Annie and her group set up a website – 1914-18commemorativequilts.com – and printed posters and fliers inviting more quilters and sewers to get involved.

"We quickly found a huge amount of imagination, family memories and skills we could tap into," Annie says.

"The project moved from quilts and hangings to include anything with fabric, wool or thread and this list got longer as the range of ideas and techniques grew."

Local textile artists Marion Atkinson, Christine Heath and Judith Clarke are among those who have created work for the exhibition, as are the Textile Experimental Group and Leavening Embroidery Group.

"Members of local quilting groups made quilts and hangings and suggested other possible venues," Annie says. "A day centre for adults with learning disabilities in Malton produced a vibrant felt hanging about sadness and war. In Filey a group mixed their First World War textiles with family memorabilia from the Great War to create an interesting and original exhibition."

In total there have been more than 40 contributors – both groups and individuals – and a total of about 70 works for display. The result is an 'open exhibition' that is constantly changing: one tailored to fit each exhibition space.

Apart from the theme of commemorating the First World war, a more personal theme has run through the various incarnations of the exhibition, Annie says: a "strand of personal loss and family memories, of grandfathers and great uncles and aunts simply doing their duty".

Roberta Harte's design 'Remember', for example, was based on her own grandfather's experience of going 'over the top'.

“It caused him such stress that he shouted in his sleep," Roberta says. "My father was convinced everyone’s dad must have done that.”

This is an an exhibition that isn't about exploiting the First World War, in other words. It is about remembering and respecting the men and women whose lives were turned inside out by the war 100 years ago – those grandfathers, great-uncles and aunts who were 'just doing their duty'.

It is often very personal. And it is all the more powerful for it.

• The 1914-18 Commemorative Quilts and textiles exhibition will run at Pickering Library from tomorrow for the next couple of weeks at least, before moving on to Kirkbymoorside, Helmsley and Norton.

To find out more, visit www.1914-18commemorativequilts.com