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I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Tuesday 21 June 2011

White Allendale with Star Centre

A white Allendale quilt which was stamped with a large star pattern enclosing the central design.

This quilt came from a house clearance on Tyneside, so no real provenance. It is worn along the sides, but has some nice stitching to see. The size is a double bed size, 78 x 90 inches. The earlier quilts were square but gradually the quilts became rectangular in size.


This quilt is white on both sides, but one side may have originally been light blue as one side has a definate blueish cast.







The central dedign has a central rose surrounded by flat iron motifs, the whole surrounded by two triple lined squares forming a star effect.

The quilt is rather worn and the cotton sateen has gone very soft; the edges are worn.






The border is a typical swag border, with trefoils at the junction of the swags.The diamond infill is neatly quilted.







Another view of the swag border and the triple lined star of the centre.


One interesting detail on this quilt is that it has "the edge" as set out by Pauline Adams, whereby one edge was seamed together ( ie back and front sewn together along one end) before the quilt was set into the frame. This edge does look different than the other three (as it lacks the neat hand stitiching of the other three) , and you can see that along this side the wadding does not reach the edge of the quilt as it does on the other sides. Although not recorded in the literature, this must have been a widespread technique as I have found it on several of my quilts. There is a fuller explanation of this edge treatment in my "Hawick Quilt" post of 27 April 2010.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Amazing whole cloth quilts with such meticulous work! And your Pink Allendale is so lovely. Thanks for sharing these. I'm repairing my grandmother's quilts and so have a deep appreciation for old quilts. I'll stop by again.
    best, nadia

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  2. I had to enlarge the picture to see the star. I like the 3 rows of quilting to outline the star and then it is repeated on the outside edge.

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  3. There is a picture of a quilt with a similar center star in Avril Colby's book "Quilting". The infill is different (scrollwork) and it's indicated to be marked by Elizabeth Sanderson. I really love the design and will use it in a quilt someday.

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