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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.













Monday 7 December 2015

Irish Strippy quilts


I have four quilts that are Irish - three are shown here. I have previously shown another Irish quilt which was made of shirting materials.


This quilt is a lavender and white strippy - it is made of offcuts of fabric, probably linen, and is unlined.
It measures 70 x 80 inches.


The quilting is a simple grid done on the machine.


Two other quilts are similar. The green and white quilt is 80 inches square, while the yellow and white quilt measures 60 x 72 ". Again, I think these two quilts are made of linen offcuts, or a mixture of linen and cotton fabrics.



All three quilts came from the same seller in Suffolk. His mother in law had lived in Ireland and had a stunning collection of quilts . These quilts were bought from a well known dealer (  but he could not remember the name).

The folowing information on Irish quilts  comes from Rosalind Shaw:

Traditionally, Irish quilts consist of two layers - the top and the backing stitched together. They could not afford to line the quilts with wool, which would have been needed for other purposes.

Some linen merchants had a day in the week when they sold pieces of linen to their workers, for the purpose of making patchwork quilts. These linen pieces were often made into frame quilts that were very fashionable in Northern Ireland.

Belfast and Londonderry had many shirt making factories; many shirt scraps were available. The workers made the patchworks in their spare time and sold them.

The quilts were referred to as Derry quilts, Shirt quilts, and  Belfast patchwork. Quilts seem to have been labelled according to their source and materials, rather than the patterns.