Welsh Quilts

Weekend Activites

2012-02-13T16:50:00.006Z

A book that I have been looking forward to reading arrived this weekend! It is Dorothy Osler's book, Amish Quilts and the Welsh Connection. This is a lovely book, nicely set out with some lovely illustrations.

I know Dorothy through my work with the British Quilt Study Group. This book has been in the making for over ten years... unfortunately, the original publisher closed down and so the process had to start again. But, it was well worth waiting for. I am looking forward to reading the entire book - there is much information on both Amish and Welsh quilts, of course, but also Amish and Welsh settlement patterns in the United States.

I also got my copy of Karin Hellaby's new book Sew Simple Pinwheels. Lots of ladies submitted quilts to illustrate this book. I had been asked to make a quilt in fabrics that Karin had given me, in Amish plains...

I finally (after several minutes) spotted my quilt on the back cover! It is the dark one at the bottom..... Lots of the little quilts have Suffolk Puffs or Yo-yo's which are a cute embellishment.

I also tried out the new Clover black and gold quilting needles this weekend . Just as advertised, they are sharp, glide through the fabric easily and are fairly stiff. I do like them - but the eye of the needle is very tiny (a bit difficult to thread, even with my thinner thread) and also very short - sometimes hard to pull through once I have picked up three or four stitches.

I taught a Saturday class at Quilters Haven, Karin's shop in Wickham Market. I put the ladies through their paces with machine quilting....luckily, I brought along my trusty Bernina as usual. Sometimes the machines the students bring along are unsuitable for various reasons - its always nice to know that my old machine can be relied upon to machine quilt if need be.

On Sunday we went for a walk at Sutton Hoo, which is not far away from where I live in Melton. This is of course the famous ship burial site of the Anglo Saxon king Raedwald....lovely view across the river Deben to Woodbridge - the tall church is St. Mary's.

Here is a typical view across the fields (growing turf for lawns in this case) - you can see the pine trees - the snow is just about gone...

On Saturday night we had the annual Pettistree dinner at the Melton Coach and Horses pub. It went well, and one of the Wickham Market bellringers, Derek Martin, won the plate for most improved ringer of the year. Well done Derek!

A Welsh Strippy

2012-02-08T11:34:00.001Z

This quilt was sold as a Durham strippy. But one look at the poor photos was enough to know that this was a Welsh strippy. How to tell the difference?

According to Dorothy Osler, British Quilts, Welsh strippies generally have wider strips than North Country strippies. In both, the strips are pieced by machine. Durham strippies have border designs quilted along the strips, whilst in Welsh strippies the strip quilting format was rare. Here the quilting disregards the strip piecing and the standard bordered layout with central and corner motifs with one or more borders is followed. Welsh quilts have broad even strips in contrasting colours, with odd numbers of strips.

Strip quilts were made in great numbers during the years 1869-1930 and seem to have been the “everyday” quilts. Fizrandolph indicated high proportions of strippies being made. Few survive, so it seems that they were more used and therefore more liable to destruction. Wholecloth quilts were the more valued “best” quilts, were more likely to be preserved and thus more survive. See also The Classic Strippy Quilt – D. Osler Quilt Studies Volume 1(1999).

This quilt has beautiful quilting and must have been “for best” as it seems little used. The strips are 9” wide, and there are an odd number which are reversible – i.e. the other side has the opposite colour. Strip quilts were easily put together by machine. Here a plain white cotton sateen is paired with a pink blue and green flowered print. The wadding is carded wool. The date is hard to guess as the fabric is not distinctive – it could date from the 1890’s. The quilting patterns are especially nice on this quilt – the central medallion is of lined hearts. In the corners there is a nice tulip motif and also a flower within a circle. Also seen are circles drawn from coins (too small for pennies – farthings?), spirals, and a lovely church window border. All closely quilted.

This quilt was on display at the summer 2008 Minerva exhibition of antique Welsh quilts in Llanidloes, along with my red and blue flannel quilt. Also, at the Quilters Haven exhibition over Easter 2008.

This quilt has no provenance but the seller did come from Carmarthen.

“In Wales, quilting was a cottage industry and quilts were made to be sold, quilters seldom signed them. Provenance is therefore a rarity. It was not false modesty that prevented the quilters from signing their work. Conceiving what they did as a utilitarian service, it would not have occurred to them to claim credit for their accomplishments. (Jen Jones)

Margaret Williams. Welsh Quilter 1877-1937

2012-01-30T09:42:00.000Z

I still have a few quilts that I have not posted about that I will share with you. However, from time to time I am going to republish some of the older posts about my "better" quilts, as I think that there are still some readers out there who may not have seen these quilts.

The quilting is very fine on this quilt and the designs are a bit out of the ususal.

Margaret was also known as Mrs James Williams. She was a well-known quilter from Gwaun-cae-Gurwen, South Wales near Landeilo. I bought this quilt from a dealer in 2006, and as it was bought at auction it had no provenance. The date was thought to be 1930’s. A number of my Welsh quilts toured with Grosvenor Exhibitions to their quilt fairs, and I was overjoyed when Claire Claridge saw the quilts at Malvern and identified this quilt as being one of Margaret’s, or to her design by one of her students.

The quilt measures 85 x 93” and is bright yellow on the reverse and a pale apple green on the right side ( a bit faded, this side). The wadding is carded wool. It is in good condition and not worn. There are some good patterns on this quilt and the quilting is lovely.

Margaret is featured on page 140 in the book Quilt Treasures, as is one of her quilts. And on page 102 of Making Welsh Quilts, you can see photos of another of her quilts (the pink and white quilt - not the grey one). The central motif, looking like a lovers knot but actually double hearts or a series of double loops, is very similar to the one shown on page 103 fig 88 in Quilt Treasures. And very characteristic are the asymmetric spirals in pairs - known as ram’s horns. She also favoured stars. In other quilts, she also used natural-looking leaves, and also not seen here, a vine with a single stem, simple leaves and a spirals for flowers (See MWQ). Also seen in this quilt are bent leaves, spirals, grids and simple leaf or fern patterns.

Margaret made and sold quilts to order, and she was proud that some went to the nobility. She also gave quilting demonstrations, taught quilting classes, was a home nurse and iced wedding cakes. She won numerous prizes for quilting at various Eisteddfodau in the 20’s and 30’s.

In Wales, quilting was generally a paid profession. Women made quilts for pay. These women did not generally sign their work and the quilts are now anonymous - so it is very interesting when you do know the quilter’s name. Clare is very interested in researching these quilters - some of my quilts do have provenance and some day I hope to be able to learn how to track down more detail about the quilters.

The Difference Between Welsh and Durham Quilts

2012-01-23T10:08:00.003Z

Welsh and Durham quilts are very different in many respects -I hope to take you through some of these differences. However, bear in mind that these are only generalisations, and of course there are always exceptions.

Firstly, the quilts were made in different geographical areas.

"Durham " quilts should more properly be termed North Country quilts, as they were made in the counties of Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire. This is an area of Carboniferous Coal Measures, and there were numerous mining communities in this area, along with other industries fuelled by the coal. There was also farming taking place in the countryside.

Welsh quilts were of course made in Wales, especially in South Wales. Again, coal measures are to be found here and there were many mining communities here as well, together with many other mining, chemical and industrial works. Wool and sheep rearing was another major source of income as much of the land is too mountanous for arable farming.

Due to the cultural differences and the geographical separation, each area had its own styles of quilting. Patchwork, applique and wool quilts were made, but I shall be illustrating the differences with the wholecloth quilts which the areas became famous for.

Durham quilts became well known for their impressive quilting designs - usually a large and elaborate centre design with flat irons, roses, feathers, leaves, ferns and much curlicue infill. This was surrounded by an area of infill and then an outer border.

Another example of a Durham quilt with a large centre motif of feathers.

This Weardale quilt has a feather wreath and a central rose.

Feathers were common in Durham quilts and running feather motifs were very common. Wadding in these quilts is usually of cotton.

By contrast, Welsh quilts usually had a central motif, either a circular "coin" or a diamond. This central area was enclosed by double or triple lines to form a "field". Fans or other motifs echoed the centre coin, and spirals were used as filling devices.

A further one, two or three borders, also enclosed by double or triple lines, surrounded the central field. Common border motifs include leaves, spirals, church windows, tulips and many geometrical designs. But feathers were not to be found on these quilts.

Leaves and spirals were very common motifs on Welsh quilts. The wool wadding made the designs stand out well in relief.

Chevrons, fans and twists were well liked...the fields were marked in chalk when the quilt was in the frame, then templates were used for the major motifs, with the rest being marked in freehand.

Strippy quilts were found in both areas but can easily be told apart. Durham strippies had quilting designs which followed the strips, with border motifs being used up each strip. These strippy quilts were economical to make in fabric, easy to seam together and also easy to mark in the frame. These were the everyday quilts, although this example is especially finely worked and was a wedding gift. Seen here are a running feather pattern and a scroll and daisy pattern. Strips were generally narrower than the Welsh strippies.

This Welsh strippy has wider strips than its Durham counterpart, and it is fillled with wool rather than cotton. More importantly, the quilting does not follow the strips, rather the top is treated as a wholecloth and the usual format of central field and surrounding borders is followed. Here we can see a central field of heart motifs surrounded by tulips, pennies and leaves.

Durham and Welsh quilts usually were finished with a butt or knife edge, where the edges are simply turned in and and sewn down. With Durham quilts, this was sometimes done by hand but more often it was sewn down with one or two lines of machine stitching. This gave a firm and durable edge, although it was not always carefully done!

Welsh quilts usually have a handsewn edge, and one or two lines of running stitch secure the edge.

Bindings are not the norm for antique British quilts, unless the edge had suffered wear and a binding had been applied to effect a repair.

Linen Union Quilt - Art Nouveau

2012-01-19T10:57:00.001Z

Here is a quilt made in about 1900-1910. It is made from furnishing offcuts in Linen Union (i.e. a cotton linen mix). The use of black fabrics in quilts is quite common in quilts of this date, and there do seem to be a lot of this particular pattern about. Black was evidently a fashionable colour at that time.

The fabrics are various floral furnishing fabrics, giving a cheerful appearance. It is quite a heavy quilt - and large, about 76 inches square.

The centre is a diamond in a square pattern. The whole is machine quilted in white thread.

The reverse of the quilt shows a similar pattern.

We can tell that this is the reverse as the quilting follows the front side of the quilt!

In one spot there is a tear, and we can see that the filling is a piece of light coloured woollen fabric (not an old blanket).

Some of the black fabric is ribbed - similar to the white dimity seen in other quilts - was dimity made in black? Dimity was used for womens' and childrens' clothes, also underclothes. Perhaps black was used for mourning clothes? or perhaps it was a practical colour to hide any smudges....

As is common with these scrap quilts, bolt ends have been used, and one can see lettering still remaining.

Another look at the floral fabrics used in this quilt. Originally bought at an auction house in Watlington - Jones & Jacob.

Indian Quilt from Sindh

2012-01-17T20:45:00.005Z

Here is a quilt that I bought before Christmas. It is a vintage Indian quilt but the seller knew very little about this quilt. It is rectangular (sort of) and the measurements are about 70 by 42 inches. It is at least 30 years old and is in purple, claret and yellow fabrics with embroidery in threads of various colours.

A long quilt - so only one half shown here. The embroidery gives this quilt a very rich surface texture. In Patricia Ormsby Stoddard's book Ralli Quilts the quilts which most closely resemble this quilt are those on pages 80 - 82. These are embroidered ralli quilts, from the tribal group known as Jogi, Lower Sindh. Thick coloured thread defines the patterns, in a step stitch. The fabric is cotton.

The ends of the quilt are not square, giving a charming effect. These ralli quilts were made from recycled materials, however recent quilts are made from purchased fabrics.

There is an immense amount of work in this quilt. Also to be seen are small areas of satin stitch, used as accents.

The edge is turned in, and embroidered with a tent stitch.

The reverse of the quilt is in cream cotton.

Reverse of the quilt.Stoddard reports that Jogis are snakecharmers and entertainers, and are found on both sides of the Pakistan-India border. They were traditionally nomadic but have now settled down. The Jogis are well known for their small square rallis used for carrying snakes as well as embroidered quilts.

Sew Easy Pinwheels

2012-01-10T10:59:00.002Z

Last week, I finished this little lap quilt. It is a quilt for Karin Hellaby's new book, "Sew Easy Pinwheels". Karin gave me the fabric in Amish plains, and I made the quilt over Christmas. Of course, it had to be machine quilted.

I took the quilt into the shop and this is the only pinwheel quilt that was made in dark colours - the rest are all very bright and lively and looked much better in my opinion. The photographer will be doing his work today.

I have to confess, machine patchwork doesn't "do it" for me anymore and although the result was OK, I didn't really enjoy making this quilt. Ah well, at least it was finished by the deadline!

Three Cushions - Amy Emms??

2012-01-06T07:00:00.001Z

I have three cushions that are supposedly made by Amy Emms. I bought all of them from Owena, who lives in Newton Aycliffe and knew Amy herself. Owena and her husband had a shop 20 years ago, and Amy would come in for a cup of tea and a natter. She would not disclose the name of the family which sold these items but assured me that they were a well known family from the Teesdale area of Durham. There were quilts and eiderdowns also made by Amy for sale but I could only afford these cushions.

At a certain date (1980's?) Amy had labels made up - these cushions have no such labels - but of course earlier items will have no labels.

Of course Amy's daughter Olive quilted also, and there is a possibility that these might be Olive's.

Here is one cushion cover. It is in cream satin and shows a lovers knot with feathers. The quilting is fine and neatly done.

The reverse of this cushion has a central diamond, all filled with crosshatching. The cushion has a piped edge with a placket to the opening. There are three buttons - one of which is missing on this cushion - all are neatly thread covered using a button hole stitch. The style fits in with Amy's working methods of finishing cushions as set out in her book. The other two cushions are made up similarly. This cushion has been used but is in good condition.

This is another of the cushions. It is quilted with four large feather motifs. There is a band of 1" surrounding the cushion. There was a matching cushion (which I did not buy) which had a feather wreath. Lilian Hedley says this one is, in her opinion, most in Amy's style.

Again, the quilting is very neatly done.

The back has a basket weave pattern.

The third cushion is grey satin and has a feather wreath.

The back has a basket weave pattern.

A close up of the neat quilting.

There are other cushions to compare these with - all the items that Amy had in her house are shown in the Amy Emms book(1990). There are also two of Amy's cushions shown in Diana Lodge's Book Quilting (1995). These cushions are similar to the feather wreath cushion above, however, the crosshatching is larger. I also noticed recently that Jenny Barlow's new DVD shows two round "box" cushions - however these were more recently made and have labels!

One final wrinkle is that, as Lilian has told me, Amy often shared her quilting with others - her daughter Olive and her son knew how to quilt and , indeed, finished off her last quilt together when Amy was very ill. Lilian herself did a lot of Amy's quilting, as Amy preferred to talk rather than quilt as she got older.

The jury is out on this one! I would like to believe that these are Amy's work but have no direct proof that they are...however, they are in her style, and if not by Amy, may be by one of her students or family members.

Gardner Family Quilt

2012-01-03T09:30:00.000Z

I received some interesting information on the Durham basket quilt that I featured recently. Linda Gardner sent me some photos of the quilt's maker, Maud Mary Gardner from Crawcrook.

The quilt is a giant one, and is entirely hand sewn. It features 36 backet blocks, with a red zigzag border.

Here is a family photo showing a bus trip to Keswick, in the Lake District. Maud Mary is on the left, with a very young Linda next to her, then Linda's mum Florence. Maud Mary gave the quilt to Florence, then it was given to Linda and later to Maddie who sold it to me.

Here is another photo of a family christening at Ryton Church. Here we have Maud Mary on the left and then Florence and her Aunt Beatrice. The date is the early 60's.

And a final photo taken at the same christening outside Ryton church doors. In the middle we have Maud Mary in front of her eldest son Joseph, then to the right Anne his wife with two children including Anne, newly christened. To the left is Aunt Beatrice.

I love these photos - they are a real time piece of an England that has now vanished. Many thanks to Linda for sharing them with me.

Hmong Carrying Strap

2011-12-31T10:30:00.001Z

When I was first quilting, I went with a group of friends to Siripan Kidd's house in Colchester for a day workshop. Siripan sold beautiful Thai silk, and this piece that I made shows some of her techniques - hand drafted patterns, put together with hand piecing. You can see that some of the silk is "shot silk" and another of her techniques was to place the grain of the shot silk in varying directions so that the colour changed. You can see this clearly in the border and also some of the leaves.

Detail - the small quilt was hand quilted in a random pattern. That was fun to do. Siripan and her husband now live in Thailand and until recently, arranged textile themed holidays for quilters.

Recently, I was having a rummage amongst my stored patterns and found these small items. They were purchased many years ago from Siripan.

These are small sections of antique Hmong embroidery. I believe that they are parts of a "carrying strap". In any case, they are functional pieces which have been well used.

The stitching is very fine and it is interesting to see the reverse. The bobbin case has been placed to show the scale.

The second section - here with colourful bands.

The labels show that I bought them for £4.oo each. The stitching is much finer on these older pieces than the more modern made for tourist pieces.

Roker - Single Durham Quilt

2011-12-16T10:00:00.001Z

Here is a nicely quilted single quilt. I bought it as it had good provenance - this is always very important to me! I like to connect a piece of work with the maker. In this case, the quilter was Mary Jane Wilson who lived in Roker where she ran a boarding house. Roker is near to Sunderland - the mouth of the River Wear is nearby, as is the North Sea. I bought the quilt from her great granddaughter, Sandra Davies from Devon. Apparently Mary Jane was a keen quilter and always had something on the go. The family had several pieces of quilting by Mary Jane.

The quilt is single size and measures 82 by 42 inches. It is cream on one side and a pale pink on the other. Single quilts are more difficult to design, as there is not as much space as on a double quilt. Here is the foot end of the quilt - you can see a nice feather border and a central medallion.
The central medallion,which has a central rose surrounded by feathers and concentric circles. There is also neat crosshatching.

At the head of the bed is this large daisy motif - the border is also missing in this area(see lower edge in this photo).

The reason that I think it is the head of the bed , apart from the different design here, is the fact that this is the only side of the quilt where the edge is intact. The other sides are "unfinished" - but I think the other three sides were originally finished with a frill,which having got very tatty, has been cut off. The head of the quilt of course would not have had a frill.

The wadding is a thin cotton. From the raw edges, one can see that the pink has faded and was a darker pink when new.

Here you can see the two colours and the raw edge, I have not touched this and will leave it unfinished.

The border is well drawn - I wonder if it could be matched up with any RIB published pattern sheets...as the pattern looks very "perfect". The quilt is made of an artificial fibre. It has a small burn where the fabric has melted - a natural fibre would have created a dry ash.

This quilt was sold to me as being over 100 years old (ie pre 1907). Due to the artificial fibre of the fabric, I do not think it is that old. But it is a nice example of quilting, neatly done and well designed.

Red and White Durham Quilt - Crawcrook, Durham

2011-12-09T10:08:00.001Z

Here is a red and white basket quilt from Crawcrook, Co. Durham.This former mining village is now a part of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

This quilt must be the largest in my collection - it is 92 x 98 inches. It was too wide to photograph the whole of it in my lounge - you can see that I had to fold it on the RHS! There are 36 basket blocks - all surrounded by a zigzag border in red.

The border is pieced by hand. In fact, there is no machine stitching to be seen in this quilt. Perhaps the family did not have a sewing machine? Even the backing is hand seamed.

In the following photo, you can see that the basket handles are sewn on with a running stitch, not the usual whip stitch.

As the quilt was difficult to photograph in the lounge, I put the quilt on a double bed - you can see that the quilt almost touches the floor on both sides of the bed. The baskets are oriented in such a way that half face one side of the bed while the rest point in the opposite direction.

The quilt is entirely hand pieced. The fabrics are a turkey red twill and white fabrics, some of which are twill and some of which are a plain weave.

Quilting patterns are simple but varied - a flower or tulip-

Another flower - a braid is also seen -

One thing that was apparent when I put the quilt on the bed was that the four corners of the quilt stuck out-

--which may explain why the corners have all received a lot of wear. The rest of the quilt is in pretty good condition.

The quilt was made by Mary Maud Gardiner (the seller's great grandmother) helped by her mother. Maud lived in the small pit village of Crawcrook, where she lived all her life until her death in 1990 at the age of 97! Her husband Jack was a coal miner until his untimely death at the age of 40. Maud brought up her three sons on her own after her husband's death - Arthur, Joe and Robert. The quilt then went to the seller's grandfather (Robert) - she remembers her grandparents keeping it in their spare room mostly, only using it if it got really cold. It has been well looked after over the years.

If Mary Maud was born in 1893 then the quilt possibly dates from about 1910 - 1915. It is very difficult to date quilts made from plain fabrics and the turkey red fabrics were popular and manufactured over a long period.

Pettistree - 25th Anniversary of the Rehanging of the Bells

2011-12-05T11:40:00.001Z

Pettistree is a small village with a beautiful mediaeval country church - yesterday we had a special celebration during Evensong to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the rehanging of the bells. The bells had been unringable for many years and had only briefly been rung for VE Day.

With the help of local people and the Suffolk Guild of Bellringers, the money was raised in 1986 and the bells were rehung by Taylor's of Loughborough. A new band of learners was taught in the months before the work was completed - so the bells were rung by the local (and inexperienced) band at the rededication of the bells. Not many of the original band remain (only Chris and Mary) but the band has flourished and is one of the most successful in the area. Bellringing is finding it difficult to recruit new ringers and Pettistree is just the same, but for the moment, our band is doing well.

During the church service - taken by Bishop Clive - the new peal board was blessed. This shows three special peals rung over the years, where three new methods were rung and named. They are: Pettistree Delight Minor, Pettistree Bob Minor and Peter's Tree Surprise Minor.

A quarter peal of Pettistree Bob was rung prior to the service and there was also open ringing. Next week another peal will be rung, to include the three "Pettistree" methods, as well as the newly named Wickham Market Surprise and Schurr Surprise methods (Susan Schurr was a ringer who was very much loved and who passed away during the year).

In the newly refurbished church room, the ringers had prepared a "ringers' tea" with sandwiches, quiche, cakes and much other food. Of course, although over 50 people attended the reception, there was far too much food and much was taken away to be eaten later.

Mike Whitby has been the ringing master for the 25 years and it is largely due to him that the band is such an active one. A presentation was made at which he was presented with a tankard and a framed drawing of the church.

This is my 200th post and I thank everyone for their kind comments - I always enjoy these so do keep them coming. I taught Applique with Embellishments at Quilters Haven on Saturday. We played with Intense pencils and fabric paint - ruched fabric strips and made ribbon petals - did things with freezer paper - it was very enjoyable.

I also talked to Karin Hellaby briefly before the class - I think that I have arranged an informal quilt study day to be held at Quilters Haven on a Sunday - will let you know the date when I have confirmed it - I also arranged to exhibit some of my Durham quilts over the spring half term at Q H - again will let you know the dates. Several years ago now, I showed some Welsh quilts at QH - now I reckon it is the the Durham quilts' turn.

Annie Penrith - 1939 - Chester-le-Street Durham

2011-11-29T08:10:00.000Z

Here is a quilt that I bought recently (an early Xmas present). It has a label which states that it was made by Annie Penrith of Chester-le-Street for Mrs Whaley of Lanchester in 1939, and that the quilt cost £10.

The size of the quilt is 78 x 92 inches. The right side is of sage green taffeta and the reverse is a lime green cotton sateen. Taffeta is a smooth, crisp plain woven fabric that is made from silk or synthetic fibres. It has a nice shine which is why it was used for quilting.

The design is neatly drawn and the quilting is good.

The front of the quilt in the sage green taffeta. This is a stamped quilt although there are no markings to be seen. There is a large central rose, surrounded by large scrolls and leaves. Crosshatching separates the border of hammocks.

Central area with the four large scrolls.

There is a corner area of scrolls and leaves that is nicely arranged. The edge is neatly handsewn.

The lime green cotton sateen reverse. You can see that this side has some sun fading along the folds but the quilt appears unused.

Central area of the reverse.

Here are the labels - a paper one which states the size and "Green Taffeta" and a hand written one (in Pigma pen, so recent?) with the quilter's and owner's names.

Lilian Hedley wrote - I haven't heard of her, £10 was a lot for a quilt at that time and I do query that amount. A number of years ago I discovered that a lady who had given a quilt to Beamish was still alive ( see page 101 of Quits and Coverlets) .....she told me both herself and her sister were engaged to be married but the war broke out and the men were called up, they decided to bring the weddings forward and asked Mary Potts if she would make a quilt for each of them. They cost 3 guineas (£3.3s) and she paid a shilling a week until paid for. She went to the Co-op to pick the fabric, but I have no idea if it was "all in" or the fabric separate, it didn't occur to me to ask. Even if the fabric was separate, it wouldn't come to £10, that was a fortune then."

And later Lilian also wrote - "By the way, I have an old newspaper piece about Florence Fletcher around 1960 who quoted quilts as being made for about £20, the wages in 1960 were vastly different from 1939, I still cannot get my head around that £10 quilt."

Red Quilt Update

2011-11-26T07:40:00.000Z

Update on the red Durham quilt that I showed in a recent post. I had an email from Lilian Hedley, who wrote "I love the red quilt. It is very much a stamped quilt but not in the normal style. Lots of stampers' templates used and beautifully drawn with a very practiced hand. It reminds me very much of one at Beamish. Quilts and Coverlets page 101 has a lot of the same templates and I am convinced it was not drawn by the quilter in Chester-le-Street unless she lived in the Allan or Weardale valley before she married. The more I look at it, the more I see how very similar they are. Lilian."

Here is a photo of that quilt shown on page 101 of Quilts and Coverlets - it would be better if you got out your own copy to look at! It is very similar in the borders and feathers, although the centre is very different. Quilted by Mary Potts of Chester-le-Street in 1939.

I wrote back "I was amazed to see the quilt in the book - thanks for spotting it - the centre is different but the borders and especially the feathers look by the same hand. Yes, I can see that the marker and the quilter could well be different people - it could have been marked by someone else and then quilted by Mary Potts. "

Interesting to see the date - 1939-I knew that it felt later in date and that is interesting to know.

Here you can see the border which is the same as the Beamish quilt.

The feathers look the same, as well.

Lilian wrote back - "You have got an amazing bargain with the red quilt. I am going to the archives with my sister next week to check up on both the Chester-le-Street quilters, my sister teaches genealogy and will point me in the right directions, will let you know what I find out."

In my next post, I will show you another quilt (early xmas present to myself) made in 1939 by Annie Penrith of Chester-le-Street for Mrs Whaley of Lanchester. Lilian (who lives in Chester-le-Street)had not heard of this quilter.

Welsh Wool Patchwork Quilt

2011-11-23T10:44:00.002Z

Here is the other quilt that was found in the loft in Llanelli. It is a Welsh patchwork quilt made of woollen offcuts. It is very heavy and was undoubtedly a very warm bedcover. It is a large quilt too, at 72 by 68 inches.

Various offcuts of wool including suitings have been hand stitched together to form a geometric pattern. The red square in the middle is cotton that has been pieced together by machine.

You can see that the white wool fabric was a coarse weave and has pulled loose at one side, revealing some black wool blanket underneath. Other areas of the quilt show white and grey blankets as wadding so the stuffing is a real mix.

The pieces are all roughly sewn by hand.

To the left, grey pieces of twill suiting, and to the right, tartan, I think this is used in the traditional Welsh costume as shirt material. It is a very cheerful fabric.

Some of the wools have slubs, either this is homespun, but more likely, a decorative effect.

The reverse of the quilt is two pieces of the same woollen fabric, one is 45 inches in width, the other 24. You can see the traditional central circle and spirals. The quilting was done from this side in the frame.

Much of the quilting is done in this chevron pattern.

A utility quilt, made of offcuts and hand quilted. Poverty meant that fabric was saved and laboriously hand quilted - labour was very cheap at the time and materials were few.

Turkey Red and White Quilt from Llanelli

2011-11-21T08:34:00.000Z

Here is a red and white quilt from Llanelli, Wales. Apart from the hand quilting, it is entirely sewn by machine. Someone was either an expert seamstress, or very proud of their sewing machine!

The quilt measures 82 x 76 inches, and has various sized stars and blocks on the front.

The quilt is worn and was rather musty and grubby. It had been stored in a loft for many years. I did wash it but some stains and dirt remain. The edges are frayed in places.

The interesting thing to note is that the stars are machine applique, done by top stitching the shapes, layering one star atop another.

The edge is machine sewn. The hand quilting is just chevrons and could be from anywhere.

The back of the quilt is all machine pieced and is the typical Welsh pinwheel design surrounded with squares and rectangles.

Some of the fabric here was of a lesser quality and has worn through in places. Better fabric alongside has lasted well.

It is difficult to date this quilt - the plain fabrics could be from any date - but I rather think that it is older, about 1900. It has seen a great amount of use.

This quilt was found in a loft by the decorator when a house was being cleared prior to renovation. The house had been left to a relative who had no interest or knowledge of the items. Two quilts were found in a old blanket box amongst other old items. The family that once lived there had lived in Llanelli for the past 70 years, and before that, in rural Llanelli.

In the next post, I will show you a heavy wool quilt that was found with this one, made from locally-made woollen offcuts.

Red Durham Quilt

2011-11-18T09:20:00.000Z

Here is a quilt that I bought recently. It is a well marked Durham quilt in a mid-red colour cotton sateen. It is a large quilt at 104 x 80 inches. It has only light wear, but there were a few stains and it was generally grubby, having been in store for a number of years. So I did the washing-in-the-bathtub-with-Synthrapol thing. It came out fresher - and although the stains had not disappeared, they were much smaller.

The centre of the quilt has cross hatching with swags forming a central area - this is surrounded by feathers, leaves and swirls. Can you see the rather semicircular feathers? You can just imagine someone drawing these in with chalk or blue pencil.

The border is an attractive scroll design . Double lines hold it apart from the rest of the quilting designs. You can see that the quilter has not tried to turn the corner! but has put a separate scroll motif in the corners.

The attractive border design. This quilt is obviously drawn out on the quilt - it is not a "stamped" quilt but has been marked out by an experienced quilter. Because of the plain fabric, it is hard to assign a date to the quilt. The seller thought 1880's but I don't think it is that old. Perhaps 1920's?

One of the odd things about this quilt is the fact that at each corner there is a tie sewn in place- not very long. Was it used as a mattress cover or on a settee? Or were the ties used to create a bundle of bedding that could be easily stored? suggestions welcomed!! The ties do not seem long enough to secure the quilt to a four poster bed...

This quilt was bought many years ago by the seller in Leominster, Worcestershire for £80. Of course this is another of my Ebay finds and needless to say, I did not pay anything like that amount. I am going to have a go at tracing the motifs on this quilt as they are really attractive.A very serviceable quilt with some nice quilting designs.

"Comfy" Quilts

2011-11-16T10:16:00.002Z

I have two "Comfy" quilts - this is the very-much-used one. These quilts came in a great variety of colours, but this diamond shape was the standard variety. You still see a lot of these about - they were factory-made quilts and they did supplant the hand sewn quilts although they were not cheap to buy.

Jan Rae's article will give a lot of detailed information on these quilts. Her talk was fascinating but unfortunately I did not take notes. Comfy quilts were made by the British Quilting Company in Holt Holme Mill, Waterfoot, Rawtenstall, Rossendale. The company was difficult to track down, it was no longer registered with Companies House - but cleverly, Jan was able to check the registered logo and discover the company details that way. She was then able to access local records and archives. Also, through day exhibits in two local libraries, Jan was able to meet former employees. The company was a relatively large and prosperous company in its heyday, but the company closed in 1970 after sales fell off.

The two sides of the quilt are reversed plain and print fabric - that is because the diamond shape was cut out from the (already quilted) quilt sandwich and the shape turned over. Then the cut edges were covered with a tape and the edges sewn down. The quilting was always done in a zigzag pattern by a special quilting machine imported from America.

Here is my better "Comfy" quilt - it is unused, but it is a wholecloth type in a green print - no diamond shape here.

And here is the fabric Comfy label. Sometimes there is a paper label as well. Most of the quilts have long since lost their labels. Quite a few people grew up sleeping under one of these quilts!

What I brought back from Gregynog...

2011-11-14T09:51:00.002Z

Of course I made some purchases while I was in Wales... I bought some repro fabric from the little quilt shop in Lampeter and another thimble...

Then while at Gregynog I bought two of Kathryn Berenson's books - one on the Guicciardini Tristan Quilt in the Bargello Museum in Italy - the other on Marseille work. Both are very well researched.

Susan L. lent me a copy of Emiah Jones's diary - now out of print - I shall have to make a copy, as it is an interesting read -

There was a table with books and other things (including old quilts) that members had brought to sell - BQSG received 20% of the sale price. Via Pauline Adams I bought two quilting frames -this one is of very traditional design, and formerly belonged to Angela Brocklebank. This frame is smaller (not full size) and I have plans to use a special length of fabric to make a cot quilt to try this frame out.

The other frame is more modern, formerly belonging to Madeleine Howard who lives in Essex. This is a larger frame with folding legs. I shall have to try and use these for some of my quilting projects. As you may remember, I use a plastic Q-Snap quilting frame which has served me well for many years. But it will be nice to try these two quilting frames out. I'll let you know how I get on, in due course.

Next few posts - back to old quilts!!

Gregynog nr Newtown, Wales

2011-11-12T19:00:00.000Z

Our BQSG seminar was held at Gregynog - it was formerly the grand house of two sisters, but is now a teaching, seminar and conference centre for the University of Wales. It must have been a large estate, as it was a long drive to the house from the main road.

The view from my bedroom!

I was cold during the first night - I got up to search for some blankets - here is what I found in the wardrobe - two tapestry blankets! Very warm!

An amusing sign - I had to investigate -- the other language is obviously Welsh.....

More explanation- not in Welsh this time ...

A Victorian W.C. with a manual pump, all hidden under a neat wooden flap...the same in any language...

Now to the real business....we had some excellent papers. They were all very interesting and well presented. I am looking forward to seeing the next volume of Quilt Studies where the papers will be published.

Kathryn Berenson, who lives in Paris (lucky woman!) gave a paper on Quilted Works of Naples - the French and Italian context of the Tristan Quilts. Very scholarly and lovely illustrations.

Maxine March gave a paper on a red cross quilt now in the Imperial War Museum- The Marchant Grove Quilt. This was a very moving talk in which Maxine related how she tracked down a no longer extant village in Saskatchewan, Canada and made contact with people living in the area. The quilt is embroidered with the names of servicemen, and she was able to track down amay of the families. Many photos were shown, very interesting, this talk was many people's favorite as it was so evocative of the times in which it was made.

Anita Loscalzo gave a talk on two bedcovers which had images of Charlotte Princess of Wales. These are in the New England Quilt Museum.

After tea (excellent food throughout, by the way) we had a talk by Roger Clive-Powell (Jen Jones other half) on quilt photography. I took several photography courses at Smith and I am glad to say that this made me dust off the old brain cells and chimed with what I had learnt all those years ago. Roger photographs the quilts himself. This takes place outside - there was an amusing drawing of a wicked looking cloud emerging over a hill, headed towards the photography set up - an angled board holds the quilt while a tall scaffold holds the photographer and camera. Roger uses a film camera and an instant or light received setting. Later the film images are scanned to digital. I too find that natural light seems to bring up the quilting better than artificial light.

An after dinner talk by Jen Jones was very enjoyable and we saw some wonderful images of Jen's quilt collection.Of course she related the story of the conversion of old Town Hall to Quilt Museum. I was interested to see photos of the quilt storage area - all the quilts are folded flat, as Jen feels that rolling the quilts places stress on the quilting stitches.

Jan Rae gave a very interesting talk on the "Comfy" brand quilt - now known to have been manufactured in Rawtenstall, Lancashire by the British Quilt Company. She investigated records and spoke to former employees. There are still many of these quilts around, I have two myself!

And finally Geoff Crumplin gave a talk on quilt blocks - paper folding was an easy and accurate way of drafting quilt blocks in the days before photographs and .pdfs.

The venue for next years seminar has yet to be fixed - it was to be York, in conjunction with the BQSG exhibition at the Quilt Museum, but as that has been postponed, an alternative has to be found. As there were so many textile producing areas and as there are so many museum collections, it really comes down to finding suitable accommodation, but wherever it may be, I am looking forward to it....

Quilt Association, Minerva Centre, Llanidloes

2011-11-08T10:00:00.000Z

After my visit to the Quilt Museum, I retraced my steps, back to Llanidloes, where there was a special display of quilts put on for the members of the British Quilt Study Group. I am a member of the Quilt Association and had been here twice before, most notably, for the workshop on fabric dating with Philip Sykas.

There were some great quilts on display.

Quilt made of suiting samples - made by Mrs Gethin of Cwm Belan near Llanidloes. there were several woollen mills in and around Llanidloes.
I think this was my favorite!!

Detail of centre, wholecloth quilt - in boxy Carmarthenshire style.

This quilt is faded and a brown colour now, but would originally been a mauve colour.

Military quilt, made from army uniform fabrics. From the Thomas family in S Wales. It was made by a relative in the Talgarth area, where there was a convalescent home for soldiers. No backing, these were often used as tablecloths or throws.

Applique quilt in red and white, made near Llanidloes. This quilt is all in standard applique, there is no reverse applique.

Bowtie quilt made in woollen fabrics - made mid 19th c in Mid Wales.

Tracing of the Starfish quilt. This quilt was bought at auction and came from the Haverfordwest area. It is much older than previously thought (possibly 1840s) and is a high status object. The fabrics include worsted wools for the front, some callendered and moireed, with linen as the backing. Very elaborate quilting designs, including baskets of flowers. This photo shows the tracing hanging in front of the quilt. Led by Pauline Adams, it took three ladies a weekend to complete the tracing, and is on medium weight polythene (horticultural grade) with a permanent marker. See an earlier post for more details if you are interested in this technique of tracing quilt patterns.

Susan Levett is currently writing a paper on this quilt, which will be presented to the BQSG next year.

The Quilt Association has a summer exhibition, which combines antique quilts with modern quilt makers' work. It runs from July through to September. Next year I will be lending quilts from my collection and am pleased to be able to do this. All I have to do next is to decide which ones!

Welsh Woven Blankets at the Quilt Museum

2011-11-07T09:51:00.000Z

Before I show you the quilts from the Minerva Centre, I just thought that I would show you the woven woollen blankets that were on display in a side room of Jen Jones' Quilt Museum. The shop has been selling A LOT of blankets recently - more than quilts - and Hazel from the shop thought that some of the blankets from the collection should also be on display. Some of these blankets have clear similarities with the Welsh quilts. Or is it that the quilts mimic the blankets? At one time, there were many, many local mills in Wales producing woollen fabrics and woven blankets. A few still survive.

Woven blanket commemorating Canaervon Castle and the University of Wales. Notice the woven leeks in the border!!

A woven blanket that has similar borders and patches to a quilt - and also looks rather Amish, if you ignore the brown colour (not a favorite colour in the conservative communities) .

Woven coverlet - looks like the patterns that my grandmother used to weave on her loom - and notice the borders again.

Stack of older woven blankets - these were woven on narrow looms, thus have a seam down the middle where two widths were joined together. Very collectible now.

The price of these Welsh blankets has shot up recently - they are nice to have on a bed and do look very cosy. As long as you use them and keep moving them, moths shouldn't be a problem.

Quilt Museum at Lampeter - 3

2011-11-04T09:34:00.001Z

The final lot of photos taken at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre, Old Town Hall, Lampeter. As before, I am not including too much information. I would strongly encourage you to buy the catalog (available in English or Welsh), which contains more information on these quilts, from http://www.jen-jones.com/. There will also be a DVD available soon, which will have photos of all three exhibitions, together with more detailed commentary on a few of the quilts.

Here is my favorite quilt of the show - a stunning yellow wholecloth with just beautiful quilting. Both sides were available for inspection.

A closer look at the quilting, which includes "coins" spirals, fans, chevrons and more. Made by Anna Davies of Whitland, Carmarthenshire.

Scalloped edge cot quilt circa 1930.

I found these photos in the hall. The quilters in the larger photo were from Solva and the photographer was Margaret Wright. I wonder who the man in the other photo is?

Here he is in another photo, talking to Jen and Roger.

I was interested to see this quilting frame, with part of a quilt still attached and the quilt backing.

The quilting shows the traditional Welsh leaves and spirals

Applique quilt which doesn't seem to be in the catalog!!

Beautiful array of red and white quilts. The one on the bed is from Llanybydder, late 19th C - the one on the wall is from the 1890's.

Well, that is the end of my photos from Jen's exhibition - next, photos from The Quilt Association at the Minerva Centre.

Quilt Museum at Lampeter - 2

2011-11-01T10:45:00.003Z

Here are some more photos taken at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre, Old Town Hall, Lampeter. As before, I am not including too much information. I would strongly encourage you to buy the catalog (available in English or Welsh), which contains more information on these quilts, from http://www.jen-jones.com/. There will also be a DVD available soon, which will have photos of all three exhibitions, together with more detailed commentary on a few of the quilts.

Patchwork quilt from Ammanford, dated 1893.

Handkerchief quilt, Carmarthenshire about 1900.

Display which includes a pink and blue patchwork from the Lampeter area, 1920's.

A beautiful red and white strippy - it won a prize for May Thomas of Llanelli in 1901. This quilt was another that had to be sent off to a conservator for cleaning - Jen said that it was returned with a little packet containing the removed dirt and grime.

The Treaga family immigrated to Pennsylvania, so this quilt has definite American overtones although the quilting is pure Welsh.

Patchwork quilt with appliqued hearts.

Basket quilt, mid Wales.

Applique quilt made in 1890's by Catherine James.

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-29T16:30:00.007+01:00

Here are some pumpkin and squash blocks; the patterns were taken from Ruth McDowell's book "Pieced Vegetables".

Head over to the Passionpatchwork blog at http://passionpatchwork.wordpress.com/ to see another version of this pumpkin block. I was impressed to find out that the book has been translated into French - "Legumes en Patchwork" - as in all my years of teaching I have only ever met one other person who had bought this book! It's an odd book but I love it.....

Here is a Turk's Head squash block - I love choosing the colours for these blocks and playing around with them - "auditioning them " - to see what happens, before sewing the pieces together - its amazing how the most unlikely fabrics seem to "work" in this type of design.

I have ALL of Ruth's books and enjoy looking at her work.

I never used to buy fat quarters of fabric - only yardage - but of course small pieces are ideal for this type of work as you only need a small amount of each. And Ruth likes the rather outrageous fabrics - they work very well for her - I could never bring myself to buy very much of some of these fabrics - but after a trip up to Kisco in Leicester several years ago, I came away with an arm full of fat quarters in "loud" fabrics with large prints that were great fun. There are some hand dyed fabrics in here as well.

Happy Halloween!

More photos from Lampeter, Minerva and Gregynog soon.

Quilt Museum at Lampeter - 1

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000+01:00

Having gone to Jen Jones' shop, I headed over to Jen Jones' Quilt Museum - this was much easier to find! Lampeter is a smallish town and the quilt museum is in the former Town Hall. It is easy to park and walk to the museum.

The Town Hall building renovation was meant to be a joint venture between the town council and Jen and her husband. But the council funding did not materialise and Jen and Roger had to make the brave decision to go ahead on their own. The numbers of visitors have been building up over three years - the lighting is now where they want it to be - and this third exhibition is just right in my opinion. "Less is More" but there seemed to be plenty of quilts hanging in the main room!

I include some photos but I am not including too much information. I would strongly encourage you to buy the catalog (available in English or Welsh) from www.jen-jones.com. There will also be a DVD available soon, which will have photos of all three exhibitions, together with more detailed commentary on a few of the quilts.

Jen Jones in front of an amazing blue and white quilt from Oakford - this quilt was sent off to the conservators for cleaning and looks amazing now.
I enjoyed meeting Jen and really enjoyed her talk to the BQSG group at Gregynog on Saturday evening.

A zany yellow and blue quilt from Rhuddlan near Llanybbder, which features on the cover of the catalog.

Another photo of the blue and white quilt.

A log cabin quilt from North Wales, where the quilting tradition seems to have been similar to the Cumbrian quilts, rather than the South Wales quilts we are accustomed to.

A Welsh strippy in blue and white, laid out on a bed form.

This was my favourite - a quilt from Pembrokeshire with spots!!

A lovely quilt from Merthyr Tydfil. A very early quilt.

Lovely quilting on a blue and white print quilt, probably from near Brecon.

I have more photos to share. Next year's exhibition at Lampeter will showcase the Amish-Welsh connection and will be in conjunction with the publication of Dorothy Osler's new book. This book is due to be available in December, and has been ten years in the making. Not only will there be quilts from Jen's collection in next year's show, but it will also feature a selection of Amish quilts from the American Museum's collection at Staverton Manor near Bath - should be a "must see" exhibition!!

Cottage Shop in Llanybydder nr Lampeter

2011-10-24T17:50:00.000+01:00

I am back from Wales where I had a very enjoyable weekend. My little car did a total of 675 miles; she got up the steep hills even if she was surprised to have to drop down to second gear (not usual in flat Suffolk!!)

I left Woodbridge about 10 am and did not arrive in Lampeter until 6.00. I headed off to the approximate area of the B & B I had booked - got out the instructions that I had carefully printed off - but was shocked to find that I had printed off the wrong ones (it turns out that there is a similarly named and addressed B & B in North Wales). I had to get the telephone number from Mike in Suffolk - made contact with the owners - then managed to take the wrong road! By this time I was very tired and was glad when the owner met me in his car at the now very-familiar crossroads. Two and a half miles up a small track!! Very pretty, but too dark now to see the scenery...

I had intended to have a walk down the lane the next morning, but it was showery so after breakfast and a play with a very cute British shorthair ginger kitten I set off for Jen Jones' quilt shop in Llanybydder. Thank goodness for mobile phones - I had to be (again) talked in by Hazel at the shop - and even then, ended up at the local cattle market, having taken the wrong left hand turn.

Finally! the Cottage shop, which is a listed building. Jen lives nearby. All the photography of the quilts is done outside here - I was interested to see "the gate".

The better quilts are kept upstairs - a very narrow flight of stairs has to be negotiated- there are several beds with layers of quilts on them.

Beds with quilts. The ceiling was low, a good impression of how houses may have been in former times...

Here is a nice patchwork quilt with some good quilting designs, Hazel says this will probably sell quickly once she has time to put it up on the website...I had not realised the fact that frills are not liked by buyers - the frills look a bit silly and stick out, apparently, if the quilt is not the right size for the bed. Thus the frills are often removed from the quilts to make them more saleable.

Some stacks of red and paisley quilts....

Stacks of quilts...

The more rustic quilts and the blankets are kept downstairs. Blankets are selling very well at the moment. They used to be sourced very cheaply, and resold at a reasonable price - however, supplies are fewer these days and prices are rising steeply. The older blankets are especially collectable now. I was interested to see a moth trap - pheromones lure in any male moths that are present, to alert of any moth infestation.

More blankets in the downstairs room.

The window downstairs, with its Staffordshire dogs....

A quick visit here - then it was off to Jen's Quilt Museum in Lampeter.

Off to Lampeter and Gregynog

2011-10-19T08:21:00.002+01:00

I am off to Wales tomorrow. I have been working like fury to get everything done at work! I plan to drive to Lampeter to see the Jen Jones collection there. It was difficult to book a B & B near Lampeter- apparently there is a large construction project going on and workmen have booked all the places - but managed to find one - I'll post some photos when I get back!

Perhaps there will be time to go to Jen's shop at Llanbydder. Also if time allows, I'll go to the Quilt Association at Llanidloes. We'll see - I just have very little idea of driving times in Wales - I seem to recall that it took much longer than expected to get around!

Then on Friday evening its the BQSG seminar at Gregynog. There's been a lot of preparation work gone into this so I'm hoping it goes smoothly.

Yesterday I bought one of the Frixion pens, to test for marking quilting. Any opinions as to how good these are? Last night I gave in and ordered some Inktense pencils online - I couldn't find any locally - I also ordered the embellishment and applique book by Vaine online. I also have two old Welsh quilts arriving from Llanelli soon - so it will seem like Christmas for me next week!

More photos to follow next week with a report.

Request for Help - Sanderson Star Quilts

2011-10-16T10:35:00.002+01:00

Request for help - do you own a Sanderson Star quilt or know of one? Would you be willing to take some simple measurements and briefly describe the quilting patterns on it? I need more measurements for my research on these quilts! If you would be willing to do this, please send me an email (click on my profile photo for the email icon) and I will send you an attachment of what measurements I need by return.

Margaret Nichol has already offered to go to Beamish Museum to measure the Sanderson Star there. I believe this may be the one made by Sanderson herself. If so, it would be rather like the "type specimen" one finds in botany - a reference specimen....will be very interesting.

All offers of help welcomed.

Bell Quilt Goes to New Zealand!

2011-10-10T10:01:00.001+01:00

I was very pleased to visit with Karen R and Guy on Wednesday - they are visiting the UK from Christchurch New Zealand for a few weeks. On their way from Kent to Yorkshire, they stopped over in Suffolk and took the Christchurch Bell Quilt away on the first leg of its journey to New Zealand!

We had a meal together at the Greyhound and then went for a ring at Pettistree Church before again retiring to the pub for our "Theory Session". It sounds as if it may be many years yet before the bells are ringing again and the cathedral rebuilt.

I would like to say once again how much I appreciate all the people who contributed blocks for this quilt - I very much enjoyed receiving them and was pleased to put the quilt together. Bellringing has a rich history and I am pleased to be part of its worldwide community.

Here is a photo of the Bell Quilt hanging at the Festival of Quilts at the NEC in August. I know that many people enjoyed seeing the quilt and looking for "their" block. I thought the blocks worked well as a group quilt and it got good marks from the judges on their score sheet. Many thanks to all those who helped with this quilt.

On Saturday I taught machine quilting at Quilters Haven in Wickham Market, which went well. Talking to Karin Hellaby afterwards, I also agreed to make a small quilt, in Amish plain colours, for Karin's next book! Luckily, it seems an easy technique.

On Sunday, we took advantage of the fair weather for a walk - from Edwardstone to Groton and back. Edwardstone was the first major bell restoration project for the Suffolk Guild of Ringers. Its a church that sits outside the village in a lovely rural setting.

We walked on footpaths, field paths and quiet roads to Groton - you can see the church just peeking out behind one of the old farmhouses there. No bells here...

We walked as far as Groton Woods. I used to take my environmental science students to nearby Bradfield Woods every year on a field trip to see the coppicing techniques - but I had never visited this wood. It is known for containing good amounts of the small leaved lime - Tilia cordata. This was formerly very common in the early stages of woodland in prehistoric Britain but it is now unusual to find a lime woodland in Britain.

There were some lovely wild plums along the route, but the tree leaves are beginning to fall...

Indian Quilts

2011-10-06T10:00:00.000+01:00

Recently, I have been reading up on Indian quilts. I have had the book on Ralli Quilts for some time, but recently I bought John Gillow's book on Indian textiles and also Crill's book on the V & A collection of Chintz fabrics. I was able to speak to John at the FOQ. He felt that Rosemary Crill at University of East Anglia in Norwich might be a good person to approach.

As you may remember, I discovered that one of my quilts is the one featured in Plate 49 in Hakes book. John felt that the "Himalayan" of the description would be one of the ten hill towns, and that the quilt was probably the product of missionary work. Apparently there was a magazine at the time for Missionary workers, which could be an interesting archive to look at. Another researcher has also found, in the Rose archives in Farnborough, that this quilt came from Muriel Rose's "Little Shop" in London; also that it was dyed blue in order that it photographed more clearly for the plate in Hake's book. I shall have to follow this lead up as well.

I do have two Ralli quilts, both purchased very inexpensively. This one is made with commercial cottons in bright colours. It measures about 58 x 80 inches. John Gillow states in his book that "they are most probably the influence of British or more likely American female missionaries in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Many of the patterns, such as flying geese, found on Anglo-American quilts are included in Sindhi patchwork quilts."

The edge has a dog tooth edging. The quilting is a straight running stitch. No provenance on this quilt, of course.

Mostly plain cottons but there are one or two prints. The patchwork is a bit hit or miss...the quilt does not lie flat......

...and the quilt is far from square......

I have a second Ralli quilt - this one is a bit more elaborate and in more muted colours...it is a long quilt, and this photo shows just one half of the quilt - the seller said that it was vegetable dyed but somehow I doubt it...

Again, mostly squares and triangles, with some dog tooth edging.

The edge has been repaired in some places and the back is worn - a quilt that has seen use....

The dog tooth edging is applied, simply made by clipping a long strip at regular intervals and then turning under the edges and securing with a stitch or two. The quilt seems to have been much brighter originally and has faded with use and exposure to the light....this does not look like a vegetable red dye to me...

The next quilt history occasion is the seminar at Gregynog at the end of the month - then I will hope to get to the V & A to look at the Hake archive. I was also pleased to see a small collection of Canadian Red Cross Quilts at our local quilt show at the weekend - and surprised to learn that Jackie Maxwell has recently moved to Woodbridge. She is part of the Canadian Red Cross Quilt Research Group.

More Corded Cushions

2011-10-03T18:15:00.003+01:00

I had the chance to buy some more of these corded cushion covers which
were made by Ann Fairburn's Father's Aunt and her mother, who lived all their lives in Ammanford. Great Aunt died about 20 years ago at the age of 86 and her name was May Davies -auntie's mother died at the age of 107 and was called Phoebe Hugh. These cushions with flowers and a zigzag border look decidedly Welsh.

This cushion has a bunch of tulips and daffodils on it.

And this cushion has a star pattern - as Fitzrandolph says in her book, some patterns were made for embroidery and weren't really suitable for quilting...its a bit hard to see the detail here...

The star is filled with a flower surrounded by leaves but hard to see....

I also have a quilt made by another member of the same family - Catherine Phillips - Ann was pleased to know that it was being enjoyed and that it went on tour with the Quilt Fairs...a very lovely quilt with some great quilting designs on it.

Woodbridge Ladies Circle Quilt 1980

2011-09-29T18:26:00.000+01:00

I don't often go for recent quilts, but as this quilt was made by a group that was very local to where I live, I made an exception. It was made as a fundraising effort in 1980.

The quilt is not wadded but has a top and a backing. The design is Grandmothers flower garden and it has been made by oversewing papers (English patchwork technique). It is a large quilt at 96 x 104 inches.

The colours are typically 1980 and I think I know just where the fabrics came from - in Gobbits Yard in Woodbridge, there was a small remnant shop which sold all sorts of fabrics, including similar cottons and furnishing fabric pieces (I moved to the area in 1985).

The centre - it has an air of Averil Colby about it as various floral cottons and plains have been used.

The top is unquilted. The backing is a rather heavy natural coloured cotton.

The quilt was made by the Woodbridge Ladies Circle for the Suffolk Scanner Appeal in 1980. The quilt was evidently raffled and won by someone living in Essex as it came from an auction in Colchester along with other items of needlework.

I have tried to make contact with this group but cannot find out whether it still exists locally and there don't seem to be any contact names. Perhaps I need to go to Ipswich Library and look at the EADT archives. I'll keep on trying to find out more about it, as it is a good example of what the tastes of the day were.

Some of the basting threads are still in place, so the quilt doesn't seem to have been used on a bed.

The rather heavy backing cloth. This quilt was probably a group effort by the club and involved a number of women.

Hollesley Ringing Outing 2011

2011-09-25T17:12:00.001+01:00

Last year we went to Norfolk (and ate lunch at a brewery!) but this year the Hollesley ringers went south, towards London into deepest Essex....

We went down the A12 and rang at Galleywood (eight bells) and then at this nice little church,Downham which had six bells... and a dovecot outside the church with real doves......

Then it was onto Basildon and its famous, or should we say infamous, bell tower. It was built as a Millennium project - but it turned out that, although the tower had been built, there was no money to pay for the project, despite what the then vicar had said. The vicar retired in shame and the builders sued for their money, leaving the tower unused. The parishioners had to work very hard to raise the money owed! However, it is now in use...

You can see the ringing room (darkened room with sunshades) and in the uppermost room below the canopy, the ring of eight bells. We had a good practice here...the tower does sway rather alarmingly when the bells ring in certain combinations ...it was 26 C even with several fans going - and I imagine it can get very cold in the winter, judging from the number of heaters seen. I suspect that the best place for bells is in a sturdy church tower or other structure...

Here are two of our ringers - you can see the reinforcement ties.

After lunch, we went to Prittlewell, a lovely ten rehung recently by Whitechapel, and also used as a ringing centre (school).

With the light fading, the last tower was Great Baddow, an easy going eight.

Close to home, Helmingham have just been rehung by Whitechapel - looking forward to a first ring on these bells which used to be a handful to ring properly. The bells were first installed to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo in 1812 - the idea was to rehang them in time for 2012, the 200th anniversary. The bells are now back in and the bellhangers have finished thier work. The dedication service will be in October.

A photo of Mike and me - the discarded bell fittings are behind us at the rear of the church.

Beamish Strippy Quilt

2011-09-21T16:57:00.000+01:00

This is a quilt with a special story. It is a north country strippy quilt dating to the turn of the century, made in turkey red and paisley fabrics. The strips are 7" wide and the quilt measures 82 x 91 inches.

The quilting is a bit crude but this is a good example of the quilts that were to be found in most households. The quilt was sold by a lady called Carol, on behalf of her 96 year old neighbor Peggy, both living at Stanley near Beamish in County Durham.

Here you can see running feather, bellows and a twist pattern.

Also to be seen are daisies and a worm pattern.

The reverse is a paisley fabric in a different colourway.

The edges are very crudely done, even by Durham standards where edges were often an afterthought...

Another very wonky edge - this might be a "club" quilt...

Now Peggy thought that the quilt was made by her grandmother for her mother when she was married. I asked Carol to try and find out more details and received this long email...

"Hello I have some updates on the quilt. The family were called Madden and lived in Beamish. The maiden name of Mrs Madden was Watkins. There were - as far as I can determine - 8 Madden offspring - one of whom was Peggy. It took ages to get to this! When I thought that part was sorted she kept saying there were ten of them including 'poor Peggy' - I can only assume this was an aunt as there surely cannot be two Peggys in the same family. Something dreadful must have happened because in 1919-1920 the whole family were split up - including the baby - whatever it was must have been pretty final because Peggy never really knew her mum and dad. She went to live at No Place - a small mining village about 1 mile away with another branch on the Madden family - she also lived with a family called Morton who had a daughter called Joan - and they lived then at Andrews Houses near Sunniside [RA miners housing - now derelict] - next field to the current Tanfield steam railway. I presume after that she was married because she never (email stops here)

Sorry, cont. I cannot find out much more but in delving into this I have discovered that in some way there is a connection to my family - I never thought along these lines before - I asked my cousin if she knew anything and she told me that another Peggy - a Madden - married my father's brother - so - distant as it may be - but there it is - Peggy has always been around and we love her dearly - it is so sad she is losing her memory - or her marbles as she puts it - and worse she knows it. These snippets of info took lots of laughs and tea and biscuits but it was worth it. I am glad that you asked about the background to the quilt because although the family link is very questionable is it nice to know Peggy is ours properly if you know what I mean. Regards Carol

Another view of the quilting patterns, which follow the strips in the north country tradition. I was very touched by this story and was glad that the quilt had found a good home.

Autumn Walk at Worlingworth Suffolk

2011-09-19T18:49:00.005+01:00

Mike and I usually try to take a walk on Sundays. Recently we have been using the Ordnance Survey maps to invent our own walks along the many footpaths of the area. Footpaths are protected by law and were the way most people used to get to their place of work in the days prior to modern transport. There are also bridleways, cart tracks and my favourite,"green ways" (old sunken roads).

Yesterdays walk was at Worlingworth, a small village near to Framlingham.

First we had lunch at the Dennington Queen, a pub which does good food. There was a village cricket match going on behind the pub (as someone who did not grow up in this country, I readily admit that I know little about the game and even less as to how it is scored). It was too cool to sit outside on the pleasant patio yesterday.

But we could see Dennington church through the pub windows - pubs and churches are often found side by side! Dennington has a heavy ring of six bells which has recently been rehung so that they are easier to ring.

We started our walk at Worlingworth church. The fields have mostly been ploughed now, ready for the next crop. There were plenty of fluffy white and sometimes dark clouds, but we didn't get any rain, luckily.

The walking was along footpaths and quiet country lanes.

This has been a good year for blackberries.

And apples, pears and plums.

Its good to get out and get some fresh air as well as some exercise. We also occasionally get to see some wildlife - we saw a stoat (or was it a weasel?) but only for an instant. Still, good to see.

Turkey Red Panel Quilt

2011-09-16T11:38:00.000+01:00

I am very interested in Turkey red paisley fabrics - especially the printed panels that were sometimes used in quilt tops.

Here is one of the fabric panels that I salvaged from a throw that I bought on EBay for very little (the seller didn't think that they were vintage, as they were so colourful!)

Well, here is a Durham quilt that has also been made using preprinted red paisley panels. This quilt is rectangular and measures 78 x 96 inches. It is a rather worn quilt, as it was in regular use by the owners family until I bought it, having been in the family for many years. You can see that the centre is a printed panel, surrounded by more printed borders and plain turkey red fabric.

The quilting in the centre follows the lines of the printed panel - nothing new in what we do today, then...

The edges of the mitred corner has been top stitched using a sewing machine - it was probably easier to do it this way!

The quilting surrounding the central panel is cross hatching, then a twist, then a border design with a square enclosing a four petaled motif.

The reverse is a red paisley print.

The back is very colourful.

Notice that the mitre does not go directly into the corner!!

The quilt is worn and through one hole, you can see that the filling is cotton ( as is usual for north country quilts).

This quilt has had a lot of use in its days, and one end is particularly rubbed.

This quilt was bought from its owners, the Beveridge family who live at Mains Farm House in Ebchester near Consett, County Durham - two sisters who, to the delight of their husbands, were clearing their lofts after the children had flown the nest. The quilt probably dates from the 1900's but as the red fabrics were manufactured for some time it is difficult to tell.

Green Floral Welsh Wholecloth Quilt

2011-09-13T10:00:00.000+01:00

This is a typical Welsh wholecloth - plain pink on one side and a handsome green floral on the other side. It was purchased in North Wales at auction so no history.

The quilt, which dates from the 1900's, measures 70 x 79 inches. The floral side is a bit whiskered and the pink side, though in better condition, is faded in places. Otherwise in good condition, with wool wadding inside

The central medallion has beech leaves surrounded by a twist.

The reverse and the floral side. Patterns seen include a four leaf pattern and lined squares.

The pink side of the quilt. You can see a three leaf design has been used to frame the central medallion.

Detail of the stitching - in the centre of this photo you can see where one line of stitching has come loose.

The edge of the quilt with its hand sewn edge. Can you see how the quilter had to adapt the size of the quilting motif to fit the space? Definitely getting smaller and smaller....

A typical Welsh wholecloth with an attractive print fabric and some nice stitching.

Brown and Pink Paisley Welsh Wholecloth Quilt

2011-09-10T15:00:00.001+01:00

Here is a Welsh wholecloth in paisley fabrics. One side is mostly browns, while the other is a matching fabric in pinks.

The whole of the quilt has been quilted with a fan pattern - of course with this pattern (it being directional), you know that the quilt was loaded into the frame at one end (here on the bottom side of the photo) and the quilting proceeded towards the back of the quilt (on the top of this photo). Thus the sides of this photo were the sides of the quilt as it was in the frame.

This quilt was sold as a modern and non vintage item - however when it arrived it was apparent that it was an antique quilt. The fabric has a lovely softness and sheen that modern fabrics cannot reproduce.

Brown versus pink sides of the quilt.

The quilter did not have enough of the brown fabric and had to eke it out with some of the pink paisley fabric along one side.

I bought this quilt for only £15 - I felt guilty once I found out that it was an old quilt and offered to pay the seller more. She emailed back that she had bought it at a boot sale or charity shop for £7 and as it was her first EBay sale, she was satisfied with the amount. I steered her towards some web sites showing a variety of Welsh quilts so that she knew what to look out for in the Swansea area in the future!

This quilt measures 72 x 72 inches and is filled with wool wadding. It is from the Swansea area.

Small Welsh patchwork quilt

2011-09-07T10:30:00.000+01:00

Here is a small patchwork quilt by a known maker. It was made by Margaret Jesse Barnett (nee Jones), who died in 1992 when she was in her 80's. She was born on a farm in the South Wales valleys at Llantrisant. At age 14 she was apprenticed as a seamstress. She later married and they bought a farm at LLantrisant - Rhiwfelin Fach Farm. Margaret sewed by hand and also her trusty Singer treadle sewing machine. This quilt was bought from her granddaughter, Eira Edwards. Margaret was her Nain (North Wales Welsh for Grandmother).

The quilt measures 46 x 65 inches and is a utility quilt. I don't know the date of this quilt. Margaret made other, grander quilts - I was sent a photo of another green and red applique quilt that she made. This quilt seems to be made of all sorts of offcuts and was made for her family to use.

The quilting is an allover crosshatch pattern. Although made of remnants, Margaret has made an attempt to make the patches symmetrical.

The other side of the quilt, another frame pattern.

On this quilt, the binding appears to be a simple turned over binding. Not sure if this is the original binding - it could have been added when the quilt became worn. You can also see that one edge has a sewn binding in green added.

This quilt is very worn and the thinner woven fabrics have shredded. You can see here that there is a worn blanket inside the quilt - very common for Welsh utility quilts.

Most of Margaret's brothers worked in the mines, however one brother, Richard Jones ("Dic Dyffryn") was a carpenter and wheelwright, supposedly the last wheelwright in Wales. He was very pleased to have met the Prince of Wales at a special exhibition held at St Fagan's (Welsh equivalent of Beamish Museum).

Welsh patchwork Quilt

2011-09-05T10:00:00.000+01:00

Here is a patchwork quilt that was bought at auction in Cross Hands near Llanelli. It measures 79 x 70 inches, and is a heavy quilt,weighing over 2 kilos.

One side has this large triangular pattern. The dark blue fabric was not colour fast and has bled onto the adjacent fabrics.

A wide variety of sateen offcuts have been used, together with some furnishing fabrics.

The other side - you can see that the dark blue dye has bled through onto the lighter fabrics.

The centre of the quilt where the bleeding can be seen. Some good welsh quilting can be seen here.

A close up of the sateen fabrics and the quilting patterns.

The outer borders have an angular twist and straight lines of stitching.

Bought from a seller in Pembroke Dock, who had had this quilt for a while.

Welsh Quilt with Art Deco Fabric

2011-09-02T09:13:00.000+01:00

Here is a Welsh quilt in Art Deco fabric - the background is a bronze/salmon colour and it is covered with lively roses and sprays of flowers.

It never ceases to amaze me that each Welsh quilt can be quilted in such an individual style - no two seem to be the same. This quilt is no exception - the quilt is covered with spirals with a chevron border, unlike any of my other quilts. And, the corners have large "Baptist fans".

A closer look at the colourful fabric, which is the same on both sides.You can also see the chevron or zigzag pattern on the border. This quilt dates from the 1920's or 30's and measures 75 by 72 inches. It is a very heavy quilt (it weighs nearly 3.5 kg) and probably has an old woolen blanket inside - perfect for chilly winter nights.

The surface is covered with spirals densely quilted. A good example of what happens when some areas are quilted and other areas are not - the unquilted areas puff up a bit. And can you see that the maker has not bothered to match up the motifs on the lengths of fabric? This is the usual case - Welsh quilters were very frugal and could not afford to buy the extra cloth that would have been required to match up the motifs. This is sometimes not so obvious with smaller patterns but can be very obvious when fabrics with the largest patterns are used in a quilt.

The corners are neatly finished by hand in the usual Welsh style.
Here you can see the fan or elbow quilting in the corner.

This is the top side of the quilt as it went in the frame and seems well done. You can see that the spirals are not marked but just freehand sewn in the frame.

But the reverse or underside has some very odd stitching - perhaps it was made very quickly or by an inexperienced quilter?

Another view of the stitching on the underside of the quilt.

No provenance on this quilt. Other colourways of this fabric have ben seen in other quilts.

Welsh Quilt with Yellow and Striped Fabrics

2011-08-31T09:00:00.004+01:00

Here is a Welsh quilt with yellow fabric on the top and a striped fabric on the reverse. This quilt measures 68 x 92 inches and is therefor a rectangular and not square quilt. The quilter thus had some modifications to make to the quilting design to ensure that it was longer in one direction than the other.

The wholecloth side is a pale lemon colour. The centre has hearts and a flower while the sideborders have leaves and a corner device. There is a diamond infill around the outside.

Along the longer side is this pair of leaves with a heart in the centre. Hearts were a popular motif but the story goes that they were used on wedding quilts. It is hard to tell if this was so, now.

Notice how the quilter has place extra hearts on two sides to make the design longer.

And the shorter side has just a single leaf! You can see the corner device which is a branch with six spirals. Very attractive and lively.

The central area with its flower and four hearts, with infill cross hatching to complete. All the motifs are double outlined, giving a single raised band - a characteristic of Welsh quilts.

The reverse of the quilt in a striped fabric. Can you see that the maker has run out of fabric and pieced the last strip, and not been able to match up the stripes? Welsh quilters were very frugal - this quilter had no more fabric to use.

The whole of the reverse.

Lovely leaves and spirals seen on the reverse of the quilt. Nicely stitched, probably made by a professional quilter. quite a heavy quilt, with a carded wool filling.

The edge of the quilt - a hand sewn edge as is usual with Welsh quilts.

No provenance on this quilt - it was bought for £6o at the Newark textiles fair - failed to sell in a shop for £125 - I bought it for £25 on Ebay. I guess no one liked the muted colours. Once again it was sold as a Durham quilt, but I think everyone can see that this is a Welsh, not a Durham, quilt.

FOQ More photos 2

2011-08-24T12:45:00.001+01:00

More photos from the Festival of Quilts...

I think this is "Fantastic Fossil Fish" a wholecloth quilt, machine quilted by Harriet Watson of Cambridge. The free machine embroidery and quilting was interesting to see, and reminded me of the marine ceramics I saw while in Greece

This was a late entry, and did not have a proper entry in the catalog. It is by Pam Holland, who will be replicating the ENTIRE Bayeaux Tapestry as a sponsored project next year. The workmanship was staggering on these - having seen the originals, I was interested to see these quilts.

FOQ More Photos 1

2011-08-22T18:00:00.000+01:00

More photos from the Festival of Quilts...

I think this is Hare by Linzi Upton, who is an expert long arm quilter.

This quilt looked much better in real life than in a photograph, it is by Ruth Parker and is called "To Feel the Tingle in your Fingers". Bonded applique, machine pieced and quilted, this quilt showed a very clever use of colour. It shows her "Singlive" group's performance

A quilt by Veronika Chambers, London, "Class of '99" a kantha style quilt with hand embroidery- it shows the diversity of ethnicity in the UK.

This was a striking quilt by Bente Kulthorp Andreson of Norway "Dassehra". Hand dyed and commercial fabrics, raw applique, free motion quilted on a domestic machine. Men in Rajasthan wear their saffron turbans at two occasions, weddings and the Dessehra festival.

It was fascinating to look at the detail and how the colour had been built up through the use of the raw edge applique.

This seemingly simple quilt attracted much attention. It was in the two person category, and is Regatta by Bernadette Mayr and Angie Gibbins of Wadebridge. Hand quilted by Angie on a frame. Highly Commended.
I liked the repetition of a single motif in varying colours.

A quilt by Jennifer Mogridge of Bromely, Cross Hatched in Cumbria. Another quilt that saw its beginnings at one of Lilian Hedley's Sedbergh 5 day courses on wholecloths, it took two years to complete. In white cotton, so difficult to photograph.

Quilt by Robyn Fahy of Drumquin, N. Ireland - "Melinda's Zinnia's" - Raw edge applique and then thread play using a variety of threads. Inspired by Melinda Bhula. Again, I liked the detail and colour in this quilt!

Winners at FOQ

2011-08-20T16:19:00.000+01:00

Here are just some of the winners at the Festival of Quilts:

" Hot Africa" winner of Pictorial Quilts by Janneke de Vries-Bodzinga. Hand dyed (but not painted) cotton and silk which were free motion quilted. A very large quilt of which this is only one portion. Inspired by a photo taken in Kenya during the dry season. A spectacular quilt, with lovely workmanship.

Best in Show and winning Contemporary Quilt - "Octopussy"again by Janneke de Vries-Bodzing who had a very good show!! Hand dyed cotton and silks with fabulous free machine quilting. A very attractive quilt.

The first prize miniature - Blue Like a Wedgewood by Kumiko Frydll of Texas. Kumiko also made last years best of show but unlike last years quilt, this one is not pieced but entirely machine quilted, with trapunto. The blue background is formed by the blue quilting thread. The thread and quilting stitches were exceedingly fine, making me wonder exactly what needles and thread she used!

Kumiko being interviewed by Bonny McCaffrey. Look out for Bonnie's free vidcasts on her website.

The winning Traditional Quilt - Hearts Desire by Deborah Kemball of London. Hand applique, hand quilting and hand embroidery. Last year, none of the winners in the traditional class were hand sewn - this year the tables were turned. This one is all hand sewn - beautiful colours and beautiful workmanship.

A detail of the quilt,

Winner of the group quilt class - Mere Kats, had everyone in stitches with its references to the "Compare the market" television ad.

Andrea Stracke's strippy quilt - Anglesit. A beautiful strippy with lovely designs and very small quilting stitches. Perhaps Andrea will tell us how she achieves such small stitches? In a soft butter yellow fabric with cream, and very thin wadding.

Detail of Andrea's quilt which won third prize in the Traditional section.

More lovely quilting patterns on Andrea's quilt.

I have more photos to show, just a random selection of quilts that caught my eye at the Festival of Quilts.

Group Quilts at FOQ

2011-08-19T16:45:00.000+01:00

Here is the winning group quilt at FOQ - Mere Kats. Everyone loved this quilt, which had references to a well known advertising campaign here in the UK, Comparethemarket.com -e.g. comparethequilt.com. Made by a group of eight from Chester.

This quilt constantly had crowds surounding it and was very popular. I enjoyed seeing the group march up to receive their award from Kaffe Fasset ( who didn't do a very good job of the prize giving - why do they go for these "names" when it could have been done so much better by someone else?)

Another interesting group quilt made after the"Quilt of Crosses" by Lucy Boston. Made by the Allington Quilters, Durham from Liberty fabrics using paper piecing. Silk wadding!! Very colourful.

Stree Shaki (Women's Power) hand applique, made by group of seven from Tiverton, Devon - a quilt on Village Life inspired by the Madhubani art style. This is only one portion of the quilt. I liked the blue background and the lively figures.

A quilt by the East Surrey Branch Embroiderers Guild, Reigate Surrey - "Indian Inspiration". Hand dyed background stitched in kantha style with applied elephant motifs, lavishly decorated in hand and machine stitch. Very colourful.

FOQ - Tentmakers of Cairo

2011-08-18T17:52:00.001+01:00

The Tentmakers were the centre of attention at the Festival of Quilts. Jenny Bowker from Australia was in charge and gave two talks on the craft.

The tentmakers work very fast, making large applique hangings that were formerly used as awnings at weddings, funerals and other occasions. Considered rather old fashioned by Egyptians and largely replaced by printed fabrics, the pieces are now mainly sold to tourists. Everyone was fascinated to see their working techniques. Surprisingly, there is a base under layer beneath the background fabric that is very coarse although the applique fabrics are of cotton/polycotton. The designs are made on pricked paper and then traced with pen on to the background fabric. The shears were huge, the stitchwork very fast. The applique was not the finest but the result was stunning.

Two tentmakers had flown in from Cairo with works to sell at quite reasonable prices. These sold quickly and all had been sold by the end of the show.

I liked the hangings with birds - especially a large one in shades of green.

Sorry these are blurred - the area was teeming and the lighting not good. This is one of the larger hangings with geometrical patterns.

Another larger hanging with floral patterns. Bonnie MacCaffrey was due to go to Cairo to film the tentmakers in February but had to cancel her ticket in the wake of the disturbances. She was able to film them at the NEC. She posts free Vidcasts on her website - so watch out for her film on this craft when it is posted.

Find her website at http://www.bonniemccaffery.com/

There will also be futher vidcasts taken at the FOQ - but only on subjects that would appeal to her American audience!!

Coventry Quilt Exhibition

2011-08-17T17:03:00.001+01:00

On Saturday, I took the opportunity to make the short drive from the NEC to Coventry to see an exhibition of antique quilts in the Herbert Museum, Coventry. This was quite a straightforward drive.

This is a Jacquard loom for making ribbons. Coventry was at one time the world's largest manufacturer of ribbons. This loom is set up for making five red, white and blue ribbons. There is a large set of punch cards at the top which control the process.

The owners of this private collection of quilts had a stall at FOQ to publicise the exhibition. Of course, I was interested to find out how they had managed to arrange this exhibition at their local museum (the museum at Ipswich has a lovely display room!!) They told me that it had taken five years of effort - plus some personal connections amongst the museum curators! The exhibition runs until October and is well worth seeing. Only a quarter of the collection is on show - a good mix of British and American quilts, some old, some newer. Some are hung on the walls while others are draped over bed forms, much more attractive than laying flat on a board. Of course when I turned up, others in the BQSG had the same idea, so we were able to share ideas.

Unfortunately, no photos allowed of the quilts.

You will not be surprised to hear that the museum has been amazed at the numbers of people viewing this exhibition - the usual story! I don't think museum staff fully realise how much the general public connect with textiles and quilts.

The new wing of the Herbert Museum - directly across from Coventry Cathedral and next door to Coventry University. Entry to the museum is free.

The Cathedral - bombed during the Second World War, the ruins still stand, with a modern and very moving new cathedral built next door. Well worth seeing.

As I left I could hear the tenor bell being rung up! I hurried over to see if it was a visiting band and if I could get a "grab". Unfortunately, it was just the tower captain adjusting the height of the ropes.....

I had been worrying about how to manage the return of my Welsh quilts from Jane Rollason in France - how would I get the three bags of heavy quilts plus the two new quilts back up the hill to the car park? A builders merchant provided the answer - a small handcart or trolley. It worked extremely well on Sunday afternoon.

What I bought at FOQ....

2011-08-16T16:12:00.001+01:00

Well, of course I had to buy various things at the Festival of Quilts - where else can you find such an assortment of traders?

I looked hard for repro fabric but there was not very much to be seen. Of course I wanted to try the chintz from Den Haan - rather expensive so I just bought a yellow print and a central tree of life panel to try it out - also found a small packet of "Lately Arrived from London" which will be released in October.

I didn't buy any traditional books but did buy Mary Jenkins' Little Welsh Quilts ebook, as well as Jenny Barlow's set of two DVDs on quilting and quilt patterns. I will let you know more when I have had leisure time to look at these.

Some books and magazines as well as Rosemary Muntus' book on computer graphic design - I think the user manual will be more helpful but just thought there might be some useful tips in there...

The American Museum were displaying several of their lovely antique quilts including the lovely red and white Hawaiian quilt that was used for the publicity for FOQ....a very interesting and unusual wool quilt was also shown ...an Amish quilt - A white work quilt -a Lone Star - in all, about eight or ten quilts -no photos allowed there...

More thread to replace that used on the sawtooth quilt - some thumb thimbles - a new pair of scissors. I have misplaced my Ginghers and cannot find them - I fully expect them to pop up, now that I have replaced them. I also measured Jenny Barlow's Sanderson Star quilt - had to buy a measuring tape to do so....

Festival of Quilts 2011- 1

2011-08-15T18:30:00.001+01:00

I returned from the Festival of Quilts late last night, having stayed for all four days....a much nicer hotel this year, near Solihull. The traffic was busier this year, and I didn't arrive until Thursday lunchtime.

The Christchurch Bell quilt looked well and was hanging on one of the solid walls. The judges thought the colours were "well balanced" and that it was a "lovely unusual design idea". One judge liked the quilting around the edge but the other didn't think the green rayon thread worked as a colour.

Here is the sawtooth quilt - again hung against a solid wall. The judges remarks - good variety of quilting designs well executed - well done -lovely quilt. But one judge didn't like the originality or design and gave low marks. It just shows that the modern sensibility is quite different from that prevailing when the top was made. I made a decision not to amend the design, colours or quilting motifs and although I could have "improved" it, it was simply a recreation of an older quilt.

Here is a lovely North Country quilt that was hanging behind our BQSG stand. The quilt was found at a textile fair and had no provenance - we guessed the date to be 20's or 30's. It attracted lots of attention. The quilting patterns are unusual and the quilting unusually fine and dense. One morning a member of BQSG said that she was familiar with the patterns, as they came from a pattern sheet published by the Durham Womens' institute. If one could find out when these patterns were first published, it would give a rough idea of the date of the quilt. Pauline thought that one edge had no wadding and had "the edge" although a hand sewn one, not a machine sewn one. The piecing on the quilt is all by hand. It may be a WI quilting class item - the WI was very persnickety about hand sewing and this is all hand sewn, even the edge. However it seems that the quilter was not very experienced - what we assumed to be seams in the outer border were in fact large 1/2" pleats on the far side, where fullness of the fabric had been quilted over - there was some puckering on the far edge as well.

This was probably meant to be a wedding quilt, as it has a true lovers knot at the centre plus lots of hearts. There are some rather unusual pots of flowers as well. Presumably the Durham WI copied patterns from local quilters, some of which might have been passed down and were therefor quite old.

Considering that we originally knew nothing about this quilt, close inspection and the knowledge of a quilter have raised some interesting leads.

I have more photos of the FOQ quilts to share in further posts.

Red Print Welsh quilt

2011-08-10T12:31:00.000+01:00

Here is a pretty wholecloth Welsh quilt in a red print fabric with roses. Both sides of the quilt are made in the same fabric - the colour is not a bright red, but a pinky red as a background, with floral sprays in yellow blue and pink. The quilting is good but not elaborate and the quilt dates from about 1900. No provenance but the quilt probably comes from South Wales.

The size is 83 x 93 inches, and the filling is carded wool. No fading to the quilt so it has been lightly used if at all.

The stitching is not very visible but does follow the traditional Welsh format of central medallion and borders. Here, you can see the central medallion - a pitwheel device (spoked circle).

The quilting is mostly crosshatching with some spirals.

Here, you can see a four lobed flower design...

Another view of the neat stitching. These quilts were ususally made by professional quilters.

The edges are neatly finished off by hand in the Welsh manner.

New Purchase - Corded Cushion

2011-08-08T18:20:00.004+01:00

Here is a recent purchase, a cushion cover from Ammanford in Wales. This item features corded or "Italian" quilting, where stitched channels are stuffed with wool to make a raised pattern.

The cover is 21 x 21 inches and is of a rose or dusty bronze colour. The design shows a pot of flowers, and the whole is surrounded by a frill.

According to the Quilters Guild book "Quilt Treasures" corded quilting is of Middle Eastern origin and was very popular in the 17th century. There was a revival of corded quilting in the 1920's and 30's and a number of cushions were seen at the documentation days, including some made from kits. This pattern looks a bit more homegrown, featuring roses (perhaps from a template?) with some stems and foliage, atop a rather Welsh-looking fan.

On the back, you can see how the wool has been inserted in the channels of stitching between the "satin" and a backing cloth to form the ridges. I wonder if this is an artificial fibre - there were artifical silks and satins from this time...

Pots of flowers as a design have been a talking point - urns or pots of flowers were of course popular in applique - I'm thinking of Baltimore Album quilts...but were also a popular quilting pattern in the earlier, elaborate Welsh quilts. Jen Jones has several early quilts with urns of flowers and Susan L. has been looking at the quilting designs on the Starfish Quilt (owned by the Quilt Assocaiation in Llanidloes) which features pots of flowers. My quilting samples from Devon also include one which has a pot of flowers, seemingly part of the revival from the 20's and 30's.

The seller said that this cushion cover was over 100 years old, dating it to about 1910. The seller said that the maker was her father's aunt who had lived all her life in Ammanford. Both the maker and her mother were keen needlewomen (amateur). Under this cover she discovered more covers! but those were embroidered on crepe, not quilted. There are three or four other corded cushion covers in the sellers possession, with different designs but not all in good condition. I am trying to find out the name of the maker.

An interesting item, and the first I have of this type of quilting.

Pink and Yellow Welsh Quilt

2011-08-06T10:00:00.000+01:00

Here is a nice cotton sateen Welsh quilt in yellow/light gold and pale pink. In this case, the quilt was stitched from the yellow side. Looking at the stitches of the quilting, the yellow side is flatter and the stitches neater although very small and widely spaced. The pink side was the lower side in the frame as the stitches are a bit more irregular and the fabric is more puffy on this side. However the thread used is pink, so perhaps the pink side was meant to be the best side ? - or perhaps, pink thread was just what thread the quilter had to hand.

This quilt measures 80 x 86 inches and has wool wadding inside. This is a very heavy quilt. It is in very good condition with no signs of wear. It dates to the 1900's and probably comes from South Wales although there is no provenance.

Lots of spirals on this quilt - you can see that the centre medallion is a very large spiral surrounded by a star device with more spirals infilling the areas. Also seen are welsh hearts which are usually taken to mean a wedding quilt - I wonder if this is true in this case?

There is a border of triangles with spirals and then an outer border of diamond crosshatching.

Another view of the heart and outer borders.

The yellow or light gold side of the quilt....

Fans with a spiral infill in corners of the central field.....

Comparison of back and front - the edges are neatly hand stitched in the Welsh manner.The quilt was probably made by a professional quilter. A lovely wholecloth quilt.

Green and Russet Welsh Quilt

2011-08-03T10:17:00.000+01:00

Here is a nice Welsh quilt that dates from about 1900.No provenance for this quilt, as it was bought at auction. The size is 80 x 87 inches. The stitching is of good quality but a bit difficult to see due to the lively print fabrics, which are in a matching russet print on the front and a green print on the back. The filling is carded wool, and the thread used is a dark pink to match the front fabric.

You can see that the Welsh format is followed with a central medallion surrounded by corner fans and further borders.

The central medallion is a star surrounded by leaves and a border of stars, with infill and fans in the central field.

Here is the russet side in a matching print - art deco with bows and garlands of pink roses and blue forget-me-nots.

The corners repeat the leaf motif and there are more stars in the outer borders.

There is a border with stars surrounded by lined squares - simple but effective.

Another view of the centre with its leaves and border of stars.

Even though it was undoubtedly a special quilt, it is interesting to see that the quilter had to piece one part of the back to make it just large enough - haven't we all had to do this at one time or another?

The edges are neatly hand sewn in the Welsh manner.

Thinking Ahead

2011-07-30T08:20:00.005+01:00

Now that the two quilts have gone off, I have been thinking about projects for the coming year.

Molokama has come out of its storage bag - its about 1/2 finished (applique). You can see how crumpled it looks!

I have also put Pilani back in the frame and will resume quilting on this.

I would also like to start on another wholecloth - a Welsh one this time. The program Inkscape has been loaded onto my old computer and I am going to start preparing some patterns with that. I can use my light table to trace the patterns onto the cloth - not how the old time quilters did it (they drew with chalk in the frame) but it works for me.

I have also been thinking about making a frame quilt. I have very little patchwork in my collection of old quilts and I think a frame quilt is out of my league money-wise - so perhaps I will just have to make one. The V & A was an inspiration of course.

This quilt looks very jolly and colourful...

and this quilt had some beautiful Welsh quilting on it - the light was very subdued so hard to see....

So with that in mind, I am going to start buying a few repro fabrics - here is a start - Maison de Garance squares. I am also going to look out for "Lately Arrived from London". Not overly impressed with the quality of the cloth - sigh....does anyone have any favorite repro lines that they could suggest to me?

Finally, I did some baking yesterday - this is a coffee cake from a blog that I follow, Mennonite Girls Can Cook at http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com . As you know, my great grandmother Maria Dalke was a Mennonite and this type of food was what I grew up with (although nothing so fancy!) so I enjoy this blog.
This coffeecake got taken into one of my jobs in Ipswich where it didn't last very long....

Mike and I are off to Northamptonshire for the weekend for some walking. I will set out soon and hope that the traffic, especially the bottleneck around Cambridge, isn't too bad.

Quilts Sent Off!!

2011-07-26T22:22:00.004+01:00

The two quilts were sent off today on 48 hour post - they had to arrive by Friday so I thought I'd better play it safe. With so much work on the quilts to get them ready, I was glad to see the back of them - I always get that "fed up" feeling...

Safely packed - the quilts had to be "defurred". Although I keep the quilts under a sheet while in the frame, inevitably there are a lot of cat hairs and fibres on them - a few pieces of sticky tape really help to clean them up and look sharp.

The bell quilt had been stitched in the ditch for the bell blocks...using invisible thread....

You stitch on the low side of the seam, as near as possible to the seam line - if the seam allowance changes sides, you sometimes have to change slightly...

My template for the machine quilted border - does anyone recognise the cover of Dove? It was just the right size to make a template from...
I find the Karismacolor by Berol artists pencils the best for marking as long as you keep them sharp - they come in all sorts of colours, light and dark, and go on easily and are very distinct.

The Bell motif was connected with a ribbon and curving tendrils which are the most fun part to do....

The bells were placed one way and then the other, rather like a cross stitch border....

I now have 100 followers - many thanks to you all! I also found out a few days ago that I am the British Patchwork and Quilting Magazine's "Blog of the Month" for September - more information when I see what was said about me...I trust that it is good.....

I am looking forward to the Festival of Quilts in August very much and will be going for all four days - staying at the St Johns Hotel in Solihull with the Quilters Haven lot...I will be doing duties at the BQSG table for Saturday and Sunday but haven't got anything else planned -so am "up" for meeting up with quilters if they are attending too- if I am not to be found at the BQSG table, give me a ring on my mobile - number at BQSG or Karin Hellaby/Quilters Haven stall in quilting in action...hope to see you there.....

Yellow Weardale Quilt

2011-07-21T22:01:00.008+01:00

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.

Two Quilts - Nearly Finished

2011-07-18T11:49:00.003+01:00

Well the two quilts are very nearly ready - just the last touches to make - I guess I'm not the only one to be doing that this week! They have to be posted off next week to arrive by the 29th.

Here is the large sawtooth diamond. It is a large quilt at over 90 inches square. There is just a last check to make for unquilted areas (I know there are a few left) and then to "defur" it, pack it and send it off.

Here is my "helper" Snowy - sitting on top of the sewing machine where I will have to shoo her off.

And here is the bell quilt. I had tried to make a central panel using the photo of the bells amongst the ruins. I enlarged the photo several times - pieces were still very small!and the colours were very dark ... and the bells didn't stand out too well - the harder I worked, the worse it looked ...so with a deadline looming I went over to "Plan B", a simpler centre where there was a circle of bell blocks. Of course the block made by Sue Spiegel had to go into the centre - she is the Cathedral artist in residence who had to be extricated, wounded, through a window of the collapsed cathedral. I think this centre looks good. The rest of the blocks were placed fairly randomly as in a scrap quilt.

This quilt is good proof that there is no such thing as a standard 1/4 inch seam allowance. Fortunately the blocks were not difficult to sew together as I had used my sandboard to mark the 6 inch seam line on the reverse of each block, having folded them in half first. I sewed them into blocks of nine -leaving some extra blocks to go along the bottom.

The finished top before the extra blocks and borders were attached. At the moment I am busy machine quilting the borders. More photos to follow once that is finished! This quilt will have a binding!!

Fianally, the bunch of beautiful flowers that Mike gave me for my birthday. There are roses plus some lovely Protea flowers from South Africa.

On Saturday I taught hand quilting at Quilters Haven in the morning - then we rang quarter peals on the bells at Wenhaston and Reydon. You could hear the Latitude music festival thumping along in the background - not a good year as there have been heavy downpours all weekend! To finish we all went to Southwold Pier and the others (not me - wimp) went swimming in the sea before having fish and chips. We admired the view of rain clouds departing and a beautiful sunset. A nice day.

15th July

2011-07-15T10:29:00.003+01:00

Today is my birthday!! It is hard to believe that I am 55...I am glad to be living in such a beautiful area with people I love. And of course, I still very much enjoy the bellringing and quilting!!

Here is the catalog that I received yesterday - Jen Jones' exhibition Oh That Summer Would Last Forever...it cost £5 plus P & P and has some lovely photos. Jen's husband takes the photos and they show the quilting nicely. There are 11 double page spreads of quilts, and another dozen are shown as thumbnails. A good reference for later. Looking forward to seeing the forthcoming DVDs of the previous two exhibitions, which focused on Welsh flannel quilts and red paisley quilts.

The new Jen Jones catalog...

One of the quilts that appears in the show at the Jen Jones Quilt Centre in Lampeter, Wales.

I have nearly finished the pink and white quilt and am going to start machine quilting the bell quilt - more photos of those in the next few days.

How to Sew a Traditional or Knife Edge

2011-07-13T18:37:00.009+01:00

Apologies for not posting last week - but my computer was "ill" and had to go off to Bill, the PC Doctor in Felixstowe, where it was tidied up generally. Much got put onto the external hard drive that my son Tom bought me - and Bill also loaded a graphics programme. Once the two quilts are finished I should have fun with that.

I recently bought Havig's Classic English Medallion Style Quilts. Something bothered me - it took a while to realise what it was - all the quilts in the book had Bindings. Now if you have looked at the antique quilts on this blog you will know that British quilts nearly always have a knife edge. No where in that book is any information on the traditional knife edge. The quilts just don't look right to my eye - the binding immediately marks them out as not British.

So here are some photos of how to make the knife edge - not difficult, but very neat looking - and- no extra fabric is needed.

My whole cloth quilts are carefully pre-marked - and usually have a line around the edge of the quilt. First, sew along this line - being careful to turn the corner neatly. Use your walking foot.

Next, trim off extra fabric and wadding - I trimmed it down to an inch beyond the sewn line - 1/4" fabric turn under leaving a 3/4" edge. Use your rotary ruler and take your time. Measure twice and cut once....

Next, I bent the fabric back and trimmed the extra wadding away with scissors- here, about 1/4". You don't have to be too careful about this as any extra can be pushed in during the next stage. But do be careful not to cut into the front or back of the quilt.

Then, using the ruler again, I turned under 1/4" of the top fabric to leave an edge of 3/4" - pin in place carefully.

Turn to the back and using the same pin turn under the back to match the front and pin again.

Judging from my antique quilts this next step is not entirely necessary, but it does make a nice edge - using a whip stitch neatly sew back and front together. Take special care at the corners to make a neat job.

Again this step is not de rigeur - many of my quilts have only one line of machine stitching. However, with my first wholecloth quilt one of the FOQ judges said that the edge was "too puffy" so since then I have always added a second or even third line of stitching. This makes the edge neat looking and firm. Darn in any thread tails.

The finished edge to the quilt - a traditional knife or butt edge.

Bigger Photos - I hope...

2011-07-01T23:02:00.002+01:00

Collector quilt 7473 at Jen Jones - larger photos I hope!! See previous post for the details of this beautiful quilt. Now gone to a new owner...

The centre of the quilt..

Whole quilt, on Jen's famous fence...

The large leaves in the border - have seen this motif before, will have to look in the books to see where...

Fantastic Quilt from Jen Jones

2011-07-01T11:49:00.003+01:00

Here is a wonderful quilt from Jen Jones that I have been allowed to share with you. Before you get too excited, it has been SOLD - what a wonderful quilt for the new owner to enjoy, worth every penny of the £1200 it cost!

In the border, wonderful large leaves. The centre features an amazing "spider's web" which is echoed in the borders.

One side of the quilt is white while the other is pink. Seen here are the centre, large flowing leaves spirals and flowers. Expertly stitched in Cardigan about 1890.

The pink side - a large quilt, it measures 219 x 216 cm or 7ft 2 x 7ft 1.

I am also interested to see that Jen is selling a catalogue of her current exhibition "Oh that Summer would Last Forever". The cost is £5 plus post and packing, in the UK this would be £6.75, I am sending my cheque off now! Go to Jens website http://www.jen-jones.com and click on exhibitions.

I am also interested to hear that DVDs of the first two exhibitions, Heartland and Unsung, are in the pipeline. These will show good detail and details will be posted on the website once they're ready.

The British Quilt Study Group is having a weekend at Gregynog near Newtown, Powys in Wales this October 21-23 where we will be able to hear Jen talk and also go to Lampeter to see the exhibition. Doreen will also be there from the Quilt Association in Llanidloes. A very promising weekend. More details on joining and the seminar can be found on the BQSG website or in the recent issue of Culcita.

Red and Green Strippy

2011-06-27T10:12:00.003+01:00

Here is another early purchase. It is a red and green strippy quilt. Strippies were the utility quilts of the North, and with a few exceptions, they were well used and therefore are generally fairly tatty. This one is no exception, but does serve as a good example of your average quilt. Strippy quilts were popular. They looked cheerful and were easy to put together with purpose bought fabric. Once in the frame, they were easy to mark as the strips could be marked with border patterns along the strips whilst in the frame.

A general photo. The stripes are meant to run up and down the bed, not across. Utility patterns here are cross hatching. waves and a braid.

Of course, we would not use green and red in a quilt as the colours are now strongly associated with Christmas! However, the holiday was not commericalised then as it is now and the colours did not have the same connotation then.

You can see that there are usually an uneven number of strips. The quilt is backed with a plain white fabric. The strips in this North Country strippy are narrower than those seen in Welsh strippies.

The fabric used here is cotton poplin. It is a densely woven cotton that is hard wearing and was liked by quilters.

This one is fairly well worn along the edges - and it has been bound at some point. British quilts usually did not have bindings, except, as here, as a repair.

The size of this quilt is 74 x 92 inches.

No provenance with this quilt, although it came from the Drighlington area of West Yorkshire, near Bradford. It was an early purchase and did not cost much - but it did teach me to look at the photos carefully - the description said it was in great condition - and its not! Its rather worn. But that is to be expected with this type of quilt - a warm bedcover that was part of growing up in many households in the north country.

Allendale "Cutter"

2011-06-24T10:00:00.000+01:00

Here is an Allendale quilt which has seen better days! This quilt came from a house clearance in the Hexham area of Northumberland. It is pale yellow on one side and cream on the other. The stitching is good; however, the top and bottom sides have been trimmed. The size of the quilt is now is 60 x 80 inches. This quilt was sold as a "cutter"and I knew that it had been trimmed but I was intrigued...but I should have realised from these measurements that quite a bit had been trimmed away.when the quilt arrived, I was surprised to find that about 6 - 8" had been trimmed from two sides and the borders and all the corner treatment was missing! As I did not pay much, it did not matter....but it would have been nice to see more of the quilting pattern...

Here is the centre of the quilt with its rose centre, straight ferns and feathers - very similar to the white Allendale in good condition that I showed you earlier. This quilt has been expertly and professionally marked.It looks to be by the same hand as the worn blue quilt and new white quilt. I just wish we could group these quilts stylistically and link them to known names!!

Another view of the very attractive centre...nicely stitched...

What's left of the border - a swag with a rose over the joins - and a corner device of a circle with three feathers and scrolling...

Two colours, pale yellow and a cream cotton sateen - well worn and very soft now.....

This is the last of the Allendale stamped quilts that I have to show you - you can see that some are expertly marked, others are slightly less accomplished although still much better than a home marked quilt.

White Allendale with Star Centre

2011-06-21T10:11:00.001+01:00

A white Allendale quilt which was stamped with a large star pattern enclosing the central design.

This quilt came from a house clearance on Tyneside, so no real provenance. It is worn along the sides, but has some nice stitching to see. The size is a double bed size, 78 x 90 inches. The earlier quilts were square but gradually the quilts became rectangular in size.

This quilt is white on both sides, but one side may have originally been light blue as one side has a definate blueish cast.

The central dedign has a central rose surrounded by flat iron motifs, the whole surrounded by two triple lined squares forming a star effect.

The quilt is rather worn and the cotton sateen has gone very soft; the edges are worn.

The border is a typical swag border, with trefoils at the junction of the swags.The diamond infill is neatly quilted.

Another view of the swag border and the triple lined star of the centre.

One interesting detail on this quilt is that it has "the edge" as set out by Pauline Adams, whereby one edge was seamed together ( ie back and front sewn together along one end) before the quilt was set into the frame. This edge does look different than the other three (as it lacks the neat hand stitiching of the other three) , and you can see that along this side the wadding does not reach the edge of the quilt as it does on the other sides. Although not recorded in the literature, this must have been a widespread technique as I have found it on several of my quilts. There is a fuller explanation of this edge treatment in my "Hawick Quilt" post of 27 April 2010.

Pink and Yellow Teesdale Quilt

2011-06-19T09:52:00.001+01:00

Here is a nice Allendale type quilt in pink and yellow. This quilt came from a farmhouse clearance in the Cotherstone area of Teesdale. It perhaps was locally marked as the dealer has seen other similar quilts in an exhibition in nearby Middleton several years ago. The family knew nothing of its history, it was just in a cupboard. Size is 82 x 91 inches. The stitches are very neat and there is a line of machine stitching around the edge.

There were professional quilt markers in many villages; Allendale was the best known but there were other areas with their own local traditions. Quilters speak of Allendale quilts, Weardale quilts, Teesdale quilts and so on - local quilters did have their own repertoire of patterns that they used.

The central design shows a central rose or flower surrounded by flat irons filled with a stem rose motif. There is a large feather motif with a smaller outer running feather.

A better photo of the central area - I like the chevron infill that creates a strong star effect between the flat irons. Triple lines of stitching create a double outline to the flat irons - very effective. You can also see the outer feather infill.

The background diamond infill is neatly marked and stitched. The lined swag or hammock border has a rose atop each join and there is feather and curlicue/scroll infill beneath. There is a corner device of a larger rose plus a feather with scroll work which points towards the central medallion. The curved petals of the roses make me think that this is perhaps a bit later in date than some of the other stamped quilts.

The front is a rather faded and gentle pink cotton sateen, the reverse is a bright yellow fabric. This yellow is very strong and rather acidic in colour, being of a slightly greenish tint. Yellow and pink was a favourite colour combination in north country quilts.

The edge of the quilt with its double line of machine stitching.

A good example of a "stamped " quilt. You could either send your own fabric off to be marked, or you could buy tops ready marked. Professional quilters also marked and made fancy quilts for local people. It is hard to know what type of quilt this is, but its a nice example.

Goose Wing Border

2011-06-18T09:30:00.002+01:00

When I looked again at the last post with the navy Allendale from Ayr, I realised that I had not posted a clear photo of the goose wing border - so here is another photo.

You can see that the goose wings do make a lovely, sinuous border. The central vein makes a nice distinct curved line. There is floral infill below, and a proud feather motif above.

I will have another stamped quilt tomorrow, this time from the Teesdale area.

Navy Allendale - Ayr

2011-06-15T10:00:00.001+01:00

Here is an Allendale quilt which came from an auction in Ayr, Scotland. Marked tops from Allendale were sent to all parts of Britain, including Scotland and Wales. The quilt is a double bed size, at 80 x 93 inches.

This quilt did not cost me much as it has been dyed navy at some point. Quilts were expensive items, and if they got stained they were thrown in the dye pot to disguise this - they certainly were not thrown away. No "throw away society" then! You can see that the colour is uneven and you can see the stain in parts. There is also a big "bite" out of the edge on one side...

The centre of the quilt is a lovely star motif -There is a central rose surrounded by diamonds - the diamonds have the traditional rose and fern as quilting patterns enclosed in them. There are also large feather motifs. Stars were a popular motif - both as a central quilting design and as the Sanderson Star,a patchwork pattern.

The edge treatment is nice - goose wings with a large corner leaf motif. A goose wing is a curved, one sided feather. It looks good in pairs, or as here, end to end as a graceful border. Swags and goose wings are the most common borders in Allendale quilts.

Another look at the large feather motif - you can see that the stitching is of a good quality on this quilt. What colour would it have been originally? White or another light colour?

A view of the edge of the quilt, showing the single line of machine stitching around the edge. This is a quilt which demonstrates some of the other major quilting designs marked by the Allendale quilt stampers.

Further Progress

2011-06-14T11:07:00.005+01:00

Just to show you the blocks I have had in so far ....over 50 with more promised as a result of the Ringing World article. Too many to list here - but I am keeping a careful list of all that are received. I have enjoyed reading the notes that come with them!

I think that we will have a good sized quilt - I will soon start sewing the blocks together, once I have decided how big the central panel will be. I am going to make a 6 inch template and lightly mark that on the reverse of each block - this should make sewing them together easier. And, I am still pondering a way to put some writing on the quilt - it would be nice to hve Christchurch Cathedral 2011 on it , perhaps towards the bottom of the quilt...still pondering....will post photos when I have decided...

I was pleased to see that my Hawaiian red and white quilt was featured in Fabrications magazine. An easy choice as wholecloths are notoriously difficult to photograph and are not as colourful. It was a nice touch that Grosvenor Exhibitions sent me a free copy, although I had already bought a copy.

White Allendale

2011-06-11T10:00:00.000+01:00

Another quilt which appears grey in the photo but which is in fact a lovely white quilt. This quilt was only bought recently - what attracted me to this quilt was the fact that it has very similar quilting designs to the light blue Allendale quilt. While that quilt was in poor condition, this quilt is in unused condition. It still has the sizing in the fabric and clearly was never used.

The size is 81 x 96 inches, for a double bed and rectangular in size.

The design is clearly a stamped design, and is very similar to that on the Blue Allendale and also the two examples shown in the Beamish book, Quilts and Coverlets. All clearly by the same hand, the little hand marked feathers are so distinctive. There is one mark on the quilt, which you can see in this photo but otherwise in very good condition. Date is about 1900-1910.

The swag border is slightly different - not a fleur de lys but a circle with three feathers poking out as a corner device - also notice that the swags have trefoils not roses.

Central area very similar - except - can you see that surrounding the central rose, there is a circle of straight feathers or ferns. I find it difficult to tell the difference between these two patterns - Lilian says that in feathers the lines and ends are curved whereas in leaves the lines are straight and the ends pointed. The stitching in this quilt is very neat and well done. As was common, there are two lines of machine stitching around the edge of the quilt.

Another look at the corner design. What I cannot understand is that there is no blue pencil to be seen on this quilt. Some of the older quilts have been intensively used and washed and yet traces of blue pencil still remain. However here, with the quilt is pristine condition, there is no trace to be seen. Was there a special way to wash the quilt to get rid of the markings? Were a variety of different pencils used? I don't know!!

Detail of the pierced ferns which are typical of Allendale quilts. You can also see the ring of straight feathers/ferns surrounding the central rose.

The 3/4 inch diamond infill is well marked and well stitched and looks very elegant. This quilt in white would have been a "best" quilt.

Corner of the quilt - corner rose plus the machine stitching on the knife edge to create a firm edge to the quilt. Post war, the Womens' Institute had exhibitions where any quilts with this treatment were disqualified - the WI only approved of hand stitched edges - and yet it was a widely used technique.

No provenance for this quilt. It came from a large collection of quilts where no information was recorded.

New Pink Allendale

2011-06-08T10:35:00.001+01:00

Having traced the patterns from the old quilt, I decided that it would be fun to recreate the quilt and make a new one. It is always hard to find suitable, high quality fabrics for wholecloth quilts, but I had a top in pink polished cotton from Strawberry Fayre left over from my week with Lilian Hedley at Sedbergh.

I had devised a light table from four wrapped bricks and a large sheet of perspex with a fluorescent light below. Turning the polythene over so that none of the Sharpie ink could transfer to the fabric, and securing the fabric with pins, I was able to trace the markings on to the fabric with a mechanical pencil. Of course, I had to use a very light hand. A problem was that the old quilt had shrunk and did not fit my exact rectangle on the new top- so some cutting out and rearranging of the border elements was required. Another problem was the 3/4 inch grid - I tried and failed, twice, to hand draft a pattern - the errors quickly magnified. Eventually I printed out a 3/4"grid from the computer and taped many A4 sheets together until I had a large enough piece - I then reoriented it to be diamonds - trimmed - and used this to trace the infill. Although the paper pattern wasn't as sturdy, this worked really well and the diamonds all joined up perfectly at the four quarters. It took me a whole Bank Holiday weekend (three days) to transfer the markings onto the top - so I am filled with admiration for the professional quilt stampers who were said to be able to mark one or two tops per day with their helpers.

I used wool wadding which gives a better appearance with hand quilting but of course the original quilt had a cotton wadding. Here I am at the quilting frame - it is a Q-Snap which I find good to work at. I am already on number 2 - they don't last forever, the outer clamps eventually crack as the whole is made of plastic.

The centre of the quilt with its central rose, pierced ferns and pomegranate type motif.

Corner of the quilt where you can see the fleur de lys, swags and curlicue infill. The edge is the traditional knife edge where the edges are turned in - NO binding on British quilts!!

Another photo of the centre and corner designs of the quilt.

This is the stall at the 2010 Festival of Quilts where I was able to display the old and new quilts. I really enjoyed this.

I have more old quilts in this style to show you.

In the Post Today

2011-06-06T12:15:00.005+01:00

A pleasant surprise today - the postman rang the doorbell with these to deliver - two trophies from Quilts UK at Malvern. Apparently I can keep them for a year and then have to return them next March.You can see that the hand quilting trophy is much larger than the hand applique one!

That's Monkey checking the object out - and my quilting frame is the white object behind.

Past winners of the Hand Quilting award include Liz Jones, Gwenfai Rees Griffiths, Sandy Lush, Jaqui Harvey and Susan Briscoe, so I am flattered to have won it.

I was pretty tired after my visit to York for the Saturday Treasurer's training session, so I had to spend yesterday resting. Back to the grindstone today! I was pleased to see the current exhibitions at the Museum - and I am of a mind to join the 100 club to sponsor the YQ officer's salary - now that the Hollesley Tower one is just about finished it will make a good replacement for that monthly £10.

Ringing World Article

2011-06-03T08:19:00.004+01:00

Finally! the Ringing World article about the "Bell Quilt" appeared in last Friday's issue. I have had a good response and it is interesting to see that there are other quilters/ringers about.

The article also appeared in the online version, which is how many outside the UK now receive their copies.

Progress on the sawtooth quilt - the white border is now finished (only partly complete in this photo) and I have started on the pink braid border. Not only is that rather more tedious, but the markings are more difficult to see on the pink cloth, especially at night.

The pink braid border - markings on the braid are not very regular - I get a feeling that there was a template used to mark the outer lines and central square, then the rest was filled in freehand - but I've decided to go with all the markings as they appeared and not to "titivate" any of the designs.

and here's what happens if you use a thimble a very lot - the needle eventually pierces it, as on the left. These thimbles with a rim around them (a quilter's thimble) are my favorites - and I've tried a lot! It's always worth trying a variety of thimbles, as everyone has their favorite. But I find one with a rim essential to hold the needle in place while picking up more than one stitch.

Last night, I gave a talk on Welsh and Durham quilts to the Mole Valley Quilters in Bookham, Surrey. I lived there for a year - from 1984-85 - and it doesn't seem to have changed very much - even the old house on Dawnay Road didn't appear any different. I was also pleased to be able to drop in to visit a colleague from Kings College days, Pat Wiltshire, who now is one of the country's top forensic scientists, specializing in forensic botany - pollen grains and fungal spores a speciality. Was able to meet her husband David as well. As I had set off from Suffolk in good time to miss the rush hour traffic on the M25, I was glad of a cup of tea and a bite to eat. Thanks, Pat!

Light Blue Allendale Quilt

2011-06-02T10:23:00.003+01:00

In spring 2009, I bought an old North Country quilt that was in very poor condition. The quilt had been purchased at Tyneside Market after a house clearance - the quilt was very faded and grubby although not smelly or damp. It was as if it had been left in a shed or loft for a long time. It had stains and some paint on it, and an area where the wadding had entirely disappeared.

The centre of the quilt

My first action was to wash the quilt in a tub with some Synthrapol detergent, and clean tepid water. Several tubfuls of dirty water later, the quilt was much cleaner and could be carefully spun and then dried. Although it was still rather stained, one could see that it was very nicely quilted. Over the years, the quilt had faded to a pale blue, but by looking in the seams one could see that it had once been a mid blue colour. The quilting patterns were very attractive and it was apparent that the designs had bee professionally "stamped" or drawn out, although no markings remained after years of use and washing.

I found a very similar quilt illustrated in the Beamish Museum's book Quilts and Coverlets, which had been stamped in 1910. The patterns on my quilt were not identical, but as quilt designs were largely drawn freehand, few are exactly the same.

I decided to trace the quilt patterns onto polythene sheeting using a permanent marker. The design was roughly rectangular with swags, roses, feathers, ferns, spirals and elaborate pomegranate-type designs, The centre treatment was especially pleasing. The pierced ferns are very characteristic of Allendale quilts, as are the border swags.

The corner treatment - note the swags with roses at the junctions and also in the corner. In the centre of the corner is a fleur de lys design with much freehand scrolling. Note the hand-drawn feathers underneath the swags - very characteristic of Allendale quilts. The background grid is neatly drawn , 3/4 inch squares on point; again this was difficult for most home quilters to do but was carefully and neatly done by the apprentices in the Allendale workshops.

I later decided to make a new quilt - more in the next post!

Quilts UK -Malvern May 2011

2011-06-01T17:31:00.005+01:00

Phew!! I was so glad that the two quilts that went off to Malvern have arrived home safely today.

And I am pleased to report that the red and white Hawaiian quilt Kaui o na Molokama was awarded a Judge's Merit and the Award for Hand Applique.

And the New Allendale Quilt was awarded a Judges Merit and the Award for Hand Quilting. I am so glad that two very traditional quilts won prizes - sometimes I think they get forgotten among the more modern and more exciting quilts....

But as I did not attend the show in person, I can't say any more! Unfortunately, Malvern is a 200-mile, four hour drive away from Suffolk. The judges marking sheets (always interesting to view) were not enclosed (as with the FOQ entries) - and no catalog either. I would like to have seen the other quilts - perhaps one day....

Allendale Quilt Designs

2011-05-30T20:34:00.003+01:00

The Gardiner style is instantly recognisable, but as these quilts were marked by hand, there are no two identical patterns. In her book "Traditional Quilting", Mavis Fitzrandolph says that Gardiner evidently had a good understanding of what would be effective in quilting, and a remarkable talent for design.

These "complicated and elaborate" quilts generally have large central motifs, with much freehand curlicue infill. The centre is rarely confined, but instead "flows" into the central field of square diamonds. Elaborate corner motifs are present, with borders of swags or goosefeathers. Elizabeth Sanderson was said to be able to mark one or two of these tops per day with the help of her assistants, thus thousands must have been produced over the years. Certainly, large numbers of quilts in this style have survived.

Generally, while everyday patchwork and strippy quilts were "hand laid" or marked in the frame at home, more special quilts were sent away for marking. It is therefore supposed by Fitzrandolph and others that most local quilters lost the ability to draw out the more complex patterns, or to turn the corner in a border. Indeed, many of the later wholecloth quilts have more simplified designs and lack the elegance and skill of the earlier, Gardiner-style quilts marked at the turn of the 20th century.

Allendale quilt with swags and central design with flat-iron motifs.

White Allendale quilt with swags and fleur-de-lys motif and elaborate corner design.

Allendale Quilt Stampers

2011-05-27T10:54:00.003+01:00

I am going to begin a series of posts on Allendale quilts - these are the quilts that were marked by professional quilt "stampers" in the Allendale area of Northumberland. Over the course of several posts, I will relate some background information, and then present several stamped quilts to you.

Allendale, in the northern Pennine Dales, Northumberland, was an important lead mining area, but also famed for its experienced quilters. As the mines declined after 1860, many people emigrated or moved elsewhere in search of work. Those who stayed had to find other sources of income.

George Gardiner was a successful shop owner and hat-trimmer in the village of Dirt Pot. He became famous for his quilt designs, developing a quilt format that would be used for the next 100 years. He had many apprentices, the best known of whom was Elizabeth Sanderson, who worked from c. 1875 to her death in 1934.

These quilt designers were called stampers because it was commonly supposed that there was a special transfer method to put the blue markings onto the cloth. In fact, a durable blue pencil that would not easily rub off was used for the marking. The markings had to withstand parcelling, posting, peddling and finally quilting, sometimes by inexperienced quilters. the markings did eventually come out, although many quilters were proud of having a specially marked quilt and preferred to keep the quilts unwashed.

Magenta/Deep Pink Durham

2011-05-21T07:30:00.001+01:00

I don't know how to describe the colour of this quilt! In some lights, it looks a purple or magenta colour, in artificial light it looks like a deep pink colour. But it is very nicely stitched and designed, and looks unused, as if it were simply left folded up and stored away.The size is a generous 85 x 95 inches. No provenance, but the quilt came from a dealer in Teeside, Cleveland.

Here is the central medallion, very striking with a star effect sprouting shell motifs. The centre circle has concentric circles and there is crosshatching (smaller than the background grid and different orientation) to complete the effect. This rather looks like a petal/flower shape as well as a star. Notice how the motifs have been double outlined for emphasis.

Here you can see that the two sides are different shades of pink/purple - light and dark, as is usual in north country quilts.

The outer border is a fan or shell (pecten or scallop shell) pattern. You can see that there is a slight fade here and there where the sun caught on the folded quilt. Again, the shells have been double outlined.

The stitching is very nicely done, probably a professional quilter. The panels are machine stitched and there is a machine sewn line around the edge (this made for a firmer edge).

Quite a simple design, with only a few motifs and a lot of background stitching. I don't think this is of any great age - probably 30's or 40's. But it is what I would call an honest, better quality Durham quilt. Someone thought it was too good to use - or did they prefer their store bought blankets?