Worn Pink Quilt from Pontardulais

This quilt arrived in a very sorry state! I was kindly given it by Enid Davies of Creigiau, via Nerys Horrocks (a quilter from Essex who I know through the Quilters Guild).


The quilt is very well used and had been sitting in a garage for some time. The first step was to wash it in tepid water and some Synthropol ( a mild detergent).

I then spun it to remove as much water as possible and laid it flat on polythene on the floor, turning as often as possible.

The quilt is similar pink cotton sateen on both sides. It has some typical patterns on it - a central medallion with a four lobed flower surrounded by spirals - more spirals - chevrons - triangles filled with spirals.

A closer look at the centre of the quilt.

You can see how worn it is at one end, where the worn white woollen blanket peeps through. The ends and corners of a quilt always receive the most wear.

Enid's mother lived with her grandmother who was named Mary Elizabeth Jones. Mary belonged to the Pontardulais group, near Swansea, who quilted commercially for the RIB (Rural Industries Board) in the Depression. Mary helped to make quilts for the Claridges order.

Both grandmother and mother went to classes in the 50's - taken by her aunt Eira Rees. Mostly small items such as cushions were made. Her father made the frames and took them to the classes.

The family still retains the nicest quilt. Other quilts and narrow loom blankets were sold to Jen Jones. This quilt had been in the garage for many months. It is old and the family doesn't really know who made it.

The quilt measures 64 x 78 inches and is of interest because it is very typical of the type of quilt that would have commonly been used on beds at the turn of the century. Many thanks to the family for giving me this quilt.

Pink Durham Country Quilt

In the early 1990's, the US military Bases at Woodbridge and Bentwaters were open and five of us quilters met fortnightly - Kay and Shirley from the base, and Pat, Madelaine and myself. We would each take it in turn to teach a technique or run an exercise of some sort. We brought food to share, which resulted in some interesting and unbalanced meals!

I don't remember how, but we met Suzi McFarland, who lived in Ipswich and had some museum quality quilts. She and a business partner had run an antiques shop in Carlisle, and sold quite a few quilts there. She still had a few, so one day I went along to her house to see what she had left of the old stock - not much - some rather uninspiring utility patchwork - but I came away with three Durham wholecloths. Even then, I was interested in the quilting! This is one of the three quilts.

By the way, Suzi used to just pitch the Durhams in the washing machine and peg them out on the line in her backyard - apart from some notches where the pegs had been, they all came out great - these old quilts must be made of iron.

This is "country" quilt. It is made of cotton sateen and is a large quilt (79 x89 inches). It has cotton wadding but is a lightweight quilt. It has obviously been well used but someone was proud of it, I'm sure.

The design is rather home made, the quilter has not used the usual templates, but made up her own, the main one is this "palm leaf" motif.

In the centre of the quilt is this horse shoe in a small diamond. Perhaps, like the Suffolk farmhouses, there were horseshoes around - a symbol of luck - or perhaps a wedding quilt? This seems to have been traced as it is life sized - also, don't know if you can see, everything was traced around objects with a heavy pencil marking - many, many washings have not obliterated this pencil (let that be a warning to you!)

The crosshatching is wonky, to say the least - distinctly wavy - and yet the eye tries to make it straight...

The quilter also went into the garden and collected leaves to serve as patterns - this is a sycamore leaf - again traced in heavy pencil...

...and an elder leaf or other compound leaf ......

The corner where you can see the machine stitching along the edge.
There are two slightly different shades of pink.

A final photo to show the VERY heavy pencil markings on this quilt. One gets the feeling that this quilter didn't have much to work with, but still made a quilt which is charming and very much in the north country idiom.

Pink Welsh Quilt with Frill

This is a wholecloth quilt in a light pink cotton sateen, with frills to all sides. The wadding is carded wool, and the stitching is good. The size is 78 x 82 inches.

The central coin is of four beech leaves, surrounded by twists and spirals. There is the crank design - four lobed motif - but also seen here is a motif of four hearts touching, to form a flower. Hearts on a Welsh quilt are commonly supposed to signify a wedding quilt, but actually, the heart is not an uncommon design in Welsh quilts.

On the outside border is a small spiral design. Again,one can see the four lobed design and the hearts design. The frill is 4 inches wide, of matching double fabric.

Unfortunately, the frill is worn in some places and looks quite tatty. Some would repair or replace - but I would rather keep it "as is".

Corner of the quilt, again showing the nice quilting. This would have been a very feminine quilt - what a pleasure to have, it was someone's favorite, I'm sure.

No provenance on this quilt - it came from a dealer in Swansea, who bought both from the public and at auctions.