GCHQ will be loaning a quilt created by its staff, and detailing aspects of its history and culture, to Bletchley Park as part of a Quilting Exhibition to be held at the Buckinghamshire site from 25-26th February 2012.
Called ‘From a Code-breaker to a Code-breaker’, to reflect the close bonds and the shared history between GCHQ in Cheltenham and Bletchley Park near Milton Keynes, this 70” (1.77800 metres) wide by 90” (2.28600 metres) long quilt consists of forty-seven individual patches, each representing a different aspect of the GCHQ story, from the work of those at Bletchley Park who were the forerunners of today’s GCHQ, through to the multimedia and internet world that we inhabit today.
The GCHQ quilt was the brainchild of Jenny, who when asked what inspired her to initiate this project said, “As a member of the Quilter’s Guild I read in their magazine in early 2011 that there was going to be a quilt exhibition at Bletchley Park called ‘Secret Messages’ in February 2012. Knowing that there were several other quilters at GCHQ, I thought it would be great to enter a quilt, particularly given that 2012 is the 100th Anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth. When I publicised the event internally and asked for volunteers who could make a square at home, I was overwhelmed to get responses from all over the Department.”
So what do the GCHQ contributors think of the finished product? Another contributor, Jan who created the ‘Alan Turing statue’ patch (Red column – patch number 3) says, “It was a lot of fun and there’s a great sense of pride and satisfaction when you look at what a wonderful thing we all produced. Individually the squares looked lovely; as a whole, it was breathtaking”.
The quilting won’t be ending with the Bletchley Park event, as some members of staff will be helping out in the Quilt4London project which is aiming to make a quilted or embroidered pennant for every athlete participating in the London 2012 Olympic Games. Longer term, the quilt will be given pride of place in the Doughnut.