Red Quilt Update

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.

Red Durham Quilt

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.