North Country Cot Quilt with Page Bank Pattern

Here is a little North Country cot quilt, from the 1920's or 30's. It is very nicely quilted, and is of better quality than those usually seen.

 

The cot quilt is made of cotton sateen; the top is a green/blue and the reverse is white.

 

I traced the design onto polythene - twice - once for the publishers, but this was not returned to me - so I have traced it a second time. Fortunately, these small quilts do not take as long to trace as the larger quilts. This central design with paired feathers is the classic "Page Bank Feathers" - typical of the quilters in and around one small Durham mining village. The design is also known as "Festoon Feathers". You can see that there are two feathers with a distinct vein.

Also to be seen, a plant in a pot - very similar to a motif used in the commissioned RIB quilt made by Mrs Pirt and now in the V & A Museum.

This pattern is known as Sheaf of Corn.

Notice how the corner has been turned - with a separate rose motif. Also, how the twist has a diamond in its centre....

The original pattern does not divide nicely into four quarters, and the Thames and Hudson editors were presented with a problem, how to fit the quilt pattern onto a small page of a book. To present templates or, as some part of the design? This .pdf shows  how the designer modified the quilt pattern so that the quarters are all the same. You can see the central feathers, the central rose, the twists and the smaller motifs have been changed from the original designs so that there is four-fold symmetry.

However, this is what appeared in the book - not a complete pattern! the central paired feathers, especially, are not complete.

When I make the pattern, it will probably need to be one half the design.....and I hope that it fits onto one A3 photocopy page!