Pink Durham Quilt

Here is a Durham quilt with very nice quilting patterns. A large quilt, this one measures 76 x 91 inches. It is in very good condition; the seller was from West Rainton, which is near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and said that this quilt came from a house clearance. The owner of the house had been a lecturer at either Durham or Newcastle Universty.

The patterns are very well stitched and the quilt is in good condition....there is an inner field with paired feather plumes,separated by a border with a twist, then an outer border with stouter feathers and a final narrow border with twist.

Daisies are found in each corner...

The edges are neatly sewn...all in all a well made quilt.

This quilt reminded me of another quilt, the one made by a WI group in Sunderland or Washington in the late 40's......again, we see pairs or feather plumes, but with a flower at the junction.

Hawick Quilt #3

Well, quite a saga accompanies this quilt! I bought this quilt on Ebay...then waited for it to arrive, via Hermes, a carrier......no quilt. After a week, I contacted the seller...the parcel tracking said that it had been delivered, and signed for, the previous week. As I go out to work each day, I knew that this wasn't possible.....and so sent a message back to the seller. In the meantime, I walked around to two other houses on the estate with the same house number......no luck. But, the seller had contacted Hermes and had found out that it had been misaddressed and delivered to another house.......I immediately walked there...though the house number was just one different, it is not a near neighbour...and of course they didnt know me or where I lived. BUT...the parcel and quilt were there!

I am not impressed with Hermes (second time that I have had a mishap.....a previous parcel went to Inverness not Ipswich and never arrived..fortunately an inexpensive item). I will be paying extra for another carrier in the future.... I should point out that none of this was in any way the fault of the seller!

Anyhow....here is the quilt...does not photograph too well as it is a pale pink colour with a white reverse. It dates from the 1920's and measures 80 x 84 inches. The fabric is a nice cotton sateen.

My other two Hawick quilts have the usual Hawick patterns...this one does not...but this one was bought with another quilt with the typical spikey heart motifs, so is a true Hawick quilt...you can see the usual scale filing pattern. The border pattern is a fan or scallop pattern. Inserted into the scales is a floral wreath pattern, rather difficult to make out...

Here, a better photo of the floral wreath pattern, enclosed in an octogon shape...these quiltst were made by church groups as fund raisers in the 1920s...there is an article in Quilt Studies which gives much more information.....

The edges are neatly sewn by machine, rather unusual for these type of quilt...in blue thread....

The seller wrote to me "I bought two quilts at a car boot sale in Denholm [ a Borders village near Hawick]. I just happened to be passing a charity stall when I saw the two quilts being laid out. I did not know what they were at the time. I thought they did look old but was not sure. I purchased them as we have an old white  and brass bedstead and I thought that they would look good on that. Then another stallholder called me over and told me that they were, in fact, Hawick quits. I later did a quick browse online and saw the iconic patterns (the other one had the lovely heart design in lemon and white). Hope that helps."

I am so pleased that this quilt arrived safely! And very pleased that it is so different to my other two....