More Books on Textiles & Quilts

Here are some more books that I have been reading recently. Christmas is a good time for catching up on reading and also ordering books online that you had been wanting.

Here is the catalog to a recent exhibition at the York Quilt Museum on Red Cross and Bundles for Britain quilts. I have seen one of these quilts locally at one of my WI talks and was able to give the owner a photocopy of the Quilt Treasures pages on Red Cross quilts. Unfortunately, I am too far from York to go to the exhibits of quilts.

Here is another book that I located recently - it documents the Roger Warner collection of textiles at Temple Newsam House near Leeds. Warner was an antique dealer after WWII; he was able to buy many textiles at auction when many stately homes were being broken up after the war. He sold on the most valuable textiles, but kept the rest for his personal collection of household fabrics. These were not considered to be of much interest at that time. He also inherited textiles from his father. The collection falls into three parts: silks, cottons and woollen fabrics. Woollen furnishing fabrics were ubiquitous but are not well known now as few have survived. This book has lovely clear photos (not usual in books on fabrics)with a brief description of each piece.

I waited awhile before buying my hardback copy - the price has now fallen to £20 at the Book Repository - this book accompanied the V & A Quilt exhibition. The photos are superb and the text is interesting - although much is cobbled together from the usual sources, there is much new information on the quilts themselves. Of course the V & A is the premier textile museum in England, so expect blockbuster quilts. Traditional quilts do not get much of a look in - but there are some new photos of the RIB period that I had not seen before. Having had a quick read through, I am settling down for a more careful read.

Here is a book that I have found most helpful -Vintage Fabrics - although the book mostly concerns American textiles, it has descriptions of the many named fabric types and also gives illustrations of the items of clothing or furnishings which they would have been used for. Quite an eye opener and I am now clearer on the many different fabric types. To the rear of the book is a brief section on microscopic analysis of fabric types, which I found useful in examining fabrics and waddings with my microscope.

Finally, the Beamish book on Quilts and Coverlets - a beautiful book and one which I go back to regularly. Good photos and well written text - what more could one ask for.

Yesterday, I was going through my collection of quilts, listing which ones had been blogged about and which ones I had traced onto polythene. I am glad to say that there are still quite a few quilts to show you...