French Paisley Quilt

Here is a rather strange quilt, which seems to have been made from a cast off wollen paisley shawl. It is French and I do not have much other information about it.

The colours are lovely in this woven shawl and it was probably too good to discard when shawls became unfashionable....hence transformed into a warm quilt.

I recently went to an exhibition of shawls at Norwich Cathedral... These shawls were exceedingly expensive for many years and were high fashion items. Later, the shawls did not sit so well over dresses with bustles and went out of fashion. Shawls were generally very large and were worn folded and draped over dresses. It looks as if the one has been cut in half, judging by the centre motif at one end...

The wool has a few holes...

The reverse is a red cotton...

It is amazing how much work went into weaving these shawls and I was rather amazed to see the shawls from different decades on display..

The quilting is French in style, with cross hatching in the centre and parallel bands around the outside...