Yellow Weardale Quilt

Here is a yellow Weardale quilt which I bought as it was similar to one of my other quilts shown in an earlier post (thanks to Liz N for pointing it out to me).See my post of April 27th 2011 "White Weardale Quilt" to compare. The quilting designs are similar but not exactly the same on the two quilts.

In the centre of the quilt is a round medallion with a central star surrounded by twists and semicircular motifs. The whole surrounded by a feather wreath. This is very similar to the white quilt.

Another photo of the centre of the quilt. The stitching is neat and the crosshatching very well done. The top is a golden yellow cotton sateen.

The borders are running feathers in bellows pattern with stars in a circle and daisies.

On this quilt, the edges on two ends are neatly turned under, presumably as they were becoming worn.

Here the yellow quilt is compared with the white quilt - you can see that the borders are similar but not the same. In the white quilt the feathers are much wider and also larger in size.

The white quilt had had a hard life (being used to wrap furniture in a moving van) yet because it had been little used and perhaps because the fabric was of a better quality, it is still in very good condition. In the yellow quilt, the fabric is worn and the edges frayed a bit. This is especially evident on the back of the quilt. Colourful printed fabric has now faded badly, and the back shows a lot of wear. Surely a lesser quality or cheaper fabric was used on the back and has not stood the test of time very well.

The fabric is very rubbed - unlike the front which is generally in good condition. I wish we could still buy the old fashioned cotton sateen! Unfortunately it was discontinued with the advent of WWII as it was very labour intensive to make.

This yellow Weardale is a large quilt - it is 80 x 92 inches in size. The age is about 1900. Wadding is a medium weight cotton. This was a family quilt and came from the Rowlands Gill area of Durham. This is a village between Consett and Newcastle on the River Derwent.