The Acton Top
Image credit: © Gunnersbury CIC (2026).
Gunnersbury Park and Museum, West London, is celebrating a special piece from its collection, The Acton Top, with a free exhibition running until January and a series of quilting activities this weekend, the Great Gunnersbury Quilting Bee, 2-3 November.
Treasured Threads: Unpicking Gunnersbury’s Quilts, takes the Acton Top as its starting point. A highly decorative fabric quilt top created by a local Acton family in around 1825, the quilt is thought to have been intended as a bed covering. It demonstrates a wide range of complex quilting, patchwork and appliqué skills and depicts contemporary figures in Regency dress, Biblical scenes, animals and plants. Comparing the Acton Top with other historic quilts from the museum collection, the exhibition investigates how quilting developed from the late 1780s to the 1850s and explores associated technological and social changes.
Image credit: © Gunnersbury CIC (2026).
During the exhibition the museum will host a programme of events inspired by the quilt, including workshops, talks and activities. At the Great Gunnersbury Quilting Bee, textile artist Ruth Singer, historic quilt expert Bridget Long and Curator of the Quilters’ Guild Collection, Heather Audin will present talks. Pop-up displays include Canadian Red Cross quilts, a selection of work by contemporary quilter Janet Clare, and Criminal Quilts, an art and heritage project by Ruth Singer.
The Criminal Quilts project is inspired by photographs and documents relating to women held in Stafford Prison 1877 – 1916. It was developed by Ruth in partnership with Staffordshire Record Office, following a period as Artist in Residence at Staffordshire Record Office.
Criminal Quilts - Ruth Singer from R&A Collaborations on Vimeo.
Visitors to the Quilting Bee can support charity crafting activities by creating a patchwork block with Project Linus or a blanket square for Cats Protection or gain new ideas for embellishing old clothes at upcycling workshops.
For more information and to book, visit the Gunnersbury Park and Museum.
Read more about Criminal Quilts in a previous Selvedge blog post.
