Paisley fabric panels

Here is the fabric that I am intending to use on the reverse of my Welsh quilt (two lots-enough for two quilts, then). It was bought as a "vintage paisley quilt or throw" and I paid just £20 for it. The dealer confessed that it was not very old (she thought possibly 70's but definately not victorian) and did I still want it? Well, I just love red paisley fabrics, of course I had to have it!! Besides, modern repro cloth would cost more than this...

The two sides of the throw were each made of four yard long red paisley fabric panels, sewn together, to make an interesting pattern. Each side is different. The throw itself had not been used but was very poorly put together. So I had no compunction in unpicking it to reuse the fabric. Also, I was able to inspect the construction and inspect the wadding.

The throw was very simply made - the three layers had been put together, wrong sides together, and then sewn around and turned inside out (the envelope method). This was then sewn around again. The sewn edge was folded in and top stitched to make a bound edge. But it was very rucked up and had not been carefully sewn. The inside was a length of white woolen cloth with a twill weave.


The more striking design - almost gaudy...with a central star and blue flowers...

A more sedate red paisley, I will use this fabric for the first quilt...central design has a flowershaped design and the paisley is more classical in appearance...

Jen Jones has a quilt museum in Lampeter's former Town Hall - which I very much look forward to seeing one day. This year's exhibition was of quilts made with paisley fabrics and also paisley shawls...two quilts looked similar to my fabrics and were made from the paisley panels, but in different designs, of course.

I sent a copy of the two photos to Hazel at Jen Jones to ask the age of the two quilts on display - here is her answer:

"We have two paisley panel quilts in this years exhibition - the one most like your fabric has provenance and came with other quilts from the same family (different generations).

"Bold paisley Panel quilt" made in 1880 by Ann Lewis of Whitland (prolific quilting area).

The other paisley quilt has been dated as 1890. Hazel"

Now, these fabrics were popular and were likely to have continued to be made for some time. But it appeaars that the fabric is older than the 1970's - and even if not older than the 70's is well in keeping for the era 1880/1890 that I most admire. However, my feeling is that the fabric is older - the sewing did look like a treadle sewing machine(hard to explain why, it just looks that way) and may be from the 20s or 30's. It is always difficult to find good backing fabric but in this case the paisley panels will really add to the appeal, and, make the quilt truely two sided. A lucky find.....

Little Welsh Quilts

Mary Jenkins has a new blog, which is called Little Welsh Quilts and other Traditions, it can be found at: http://www.littlewelshquiltsandothertraditions.blogspot.com/



Mary is the co-author of Making Welsh Quilts and is interested in Welsh patchwork quilts, vintage fabric, Welsh samplers and more. She is in the process of writing another book; I shall look forward to seeing this book!



Some of Mary's little quilts from her header photo -how lovely are these!!


I am looking forward to following Mary's blog.

Walking Holiday to North Cyprus

Sorry that I have not posted anything recently. We went away for a week's holiday and as you know, not only does it take a week to prepare to go and finish work in preparation, but it also takes a week to catch up on things. Our holiday this year was to North Cyprus, on an Explore walking holiday. The walking was moderate, the weather warm (over 30 degrees) and the group a friendly one. We stayed in a pleasant hotel near Bellapais above Kyrenia. As you know, about 30 years ago there was a war between Greece and Turkey, and the country is now divided. Most of the Greeks fled to the south. There are still clear signs of this conflict - most noticeably many army outposts and a demilitarised zone, but also many unfinished houses.Whether this is due to the burst housing bubble or uncertain legal title (much property was originally owned by now absent Greeks) I am not sure but entire holiday villages stand empty or unsold.

Kyrenia harbour, where the castle has a museum with a trading ship found locally, very well preserved and much older than the Mary Rose.

Breakfast on the terrace!! Mike and I.

View from the top of St Hilarion Castle - one of three crusader castles we visited - this one only had 450 steps - we walked down towards the sea after this...

Our guide Geyza - he is a graduate in tourism, has jobs with three different companies and is saving up to start his own company. He learned his English at college and also with his aunt in Hackney. Here he is pointing out that these are not pods, but insect galls, nursery to a sort of aphid I think.....

Beer after the walk!!!

Walking along sandy trails through pine forests

There are many stray cats and dogs but most seem looked after by shopkeepers, boat owners and restaurant owners. Kyrenia has a local animal rescue centre that inoculates and neuters the animals, which has seen a drastic reduction in strays.

Walking through olive groves - we saw the olives being harvested by local people, with nets and long canes. The local olives are small and are crushed before being pickled.

An abandoned church. You can just see on the right the new mosque. Most of the Greeks are Orthodox Christians and the Turkish people who remained are Muslim (although not terribly religious). Unlike Morocco, we were allowed into the mosques which was very interesting.

I have some interesting quilt-related news, so will sign off and hope to take some photos of quilts tomorrow.

Fushia Welsh Quilt

Here is a recent purchase - a Welsh Quilt in a fushia or bright pink colour. The top is a shiny artificial satin fabric. It has a frill along two sides only, and is 82 x 86 inches. It is made in the traditional way, but has only a thin wadding. From the feel of it, the wadding is a thin woollen cloth. The backing is very unusual, a fabric with a honeycomb or waffle pattern. The stitching is neat with a dark pink thread. The quilt is in good condition apart from some fades along folds.

Here is a photo of the back, showing the honeycomb fabric.

The borders are neatly hand sewn with a running stitch, and the frills (along two sides only) are double sided and 6" wide.

Quilting patterns include spirals, four lobed designs and cross hatching. There is a central medallion which is a square subdivided into nine blocks, each of which has either a spiral design or a lobed design. The corner fans are rather odd heart outlines in a crosshatched area. So the quilting designs do follow the traditional patterns, but as so often happens with Welsh quilts, is rather individual, or autosyncratic, to the quilter. She was just quilting designs which were familiar and comfortable to her. Apart from the Rural Industries quilts, there were no standardised patterns for Welsh quilts, and they were much more individual and quirky.

Here is the quilt being checked out by Snowy, of course the cats do not have access to the quilt storage room and thus are always very interested in the quilts which come downstairs.

This quilt was undoubtedly a very elegant quilt in its day. The quilt was bought many years ago in a small antique shop in the Llandovery area.

Northumberland Stamped Quilt Top

Here is my most recent purchase - a marked quilt top from Northumberland. It looks fairly old and is a bit grubby but cannot be washed due to the quilt markings. It was sold as an unfinished project, but I won't quilt it, but just keep it as it is. It is a large top, 91 x 96 inches. It is interesting to see how it has been marked and also, how it has been constructed. The overall pattern is a toothed central diamond with borders,again sawtoothed.

The top is all machine pieced, and you can see that the sewing machine had tension problems in the bobbin! The fabrics are a natural white cotton twill and a pink fabric. You can see here that although the fabric reads as pink, it is actually woven white and red threads.

In places, the sewer did not unpick the poor tension but just oversewed the seam line. I wonder how sturdy this top would have been in use! So often, the patchwork on these quilts is very slapdash.....the tips are often cut off on the half triangles but still, the overall effect is good...

It doesn't come out very well in this photo, but if you look carefully you can see a woven plait carefully marked in blue pencil. This is from the border, there is a lot of cross hatching in various areas.

In the outer white border, a four petalled flower pattern has been marked.

And here, in the innerwhite border, a curlicue floral design has been marked. I dont have any details about provenance, apart from the fact that the seller was a Miss Baxter and the top came from Northumberland. A big project for a quilter - perhaps that was why it was never completed.

St Mary le Tower Ipswich Outing to Cambridgeshire

Yesterday was the annual ringing outing of the St Mary le Tower bellringers. The day was arranged by George Pipe, a well known ringer from Ipswich. We went to Cambridgeshire, a round trip of about 150 miles. Seven churches were visited, most with spires (unlike most Suffolk churches which have sturdy towers). Before lunch we went to Ely. The cathedral at Ely has no bells, so we rang at the parish church, St Marys. The black and white house is associated with Oliver Cromwell.

We also rang at Bluntisham. Some of you may be familiar with the books of Dorothy Sayers, who wrote The Nine Tailors and Gaudy Night among others. The bellringing in The Nine Tailors is at fictional churches in the Fens, but as her father was rector at this church, Bluntisham, she knew bellringing from her childhood days. There are eight bells here.

We had lunch at Stretham in the Red Lion. When we came out, my car had a very flat tyre, with a big nail to be seen sticking out of it! Luckily we were able to put on the spare (temporary) tyre and drive to the next tower. I will have the get the flat tyre repaired on Monday morning.

And here is All Saints Church, St Ives. The town is attractively situated on the banks of the Great Ouse River. You may remember the nursery rhyme:

As I was going to St Ives I met a man with seven wives, Each wife had seven sacks, Each sack had seven cats, Each cat had seven kits, Kits, cats, sacks, wives, how many were going to St Ives?

There is more than one St Ives, the other is in Cornwall, but as the one in Cambridgeshire is an ancient market town, it has a good claim to be the one in the rhyme...

The church had an exhibit of church vestments; we concluded that the parish lunches were a good fund raising effort, as most of the vestments had been paid for by these.

Here we are ringing at St Ives - eight bells.

And here is Hemmingford Grey church - again on the banks of the Great Ouse. A sign in the churchyard says that it is prohibited to fish from the churchyard - the river runs along one side of the church...Lucy Boston's house is located nearby - it is supposed to be the oldest inhabited house in England, the Children of Green Knowe books were written here and Lucy also made a series of quilts which are featured in a book.

View from the church yard across the river at the end of the day. We went to the Axe and Compass pub before driving home to Suffolk.

Two Cot Quilts

Here are two cot quilts - one a Durham and one Welsh.

The Welsh cot quilt came from Cardigan in West Wales and measures 33 x 27". It dates from about 1900. It is entirely hand quilted and hand pieced. It is very worn, faded and somewhat stained (must have been used for many small babies!)One side is a pink cotton while the other side is patchwork in a simple frame pattern. This must have been very cheerful and colourful at one time, as it is made from flowered scraps of cotton sateen. These are rather small scraps - even the centre is two pieces set together. Fabrics include a pink paisley, a trellis pattern with purple roses, green and also brown paisleys, a pink lozenge pattern and the central fabric with large cabbage roses.

The quilt is simply quilted, with two central panels that are cross hatched, with borders of diamonds with a "union jack" pattern. In each corner is a little heart. The edges are neatly hand stitched. So although a cot quilt, the template is that of a full sized quilt.

The interesting thing to see is that the selvages show on either side of the pink cloth (see photo) - showing that it is made from one width of fabric. A common width of fabric at this time was 36" but in this case the measurement is 27" so, perhaps fabric that is 28" wide. We can see that this is clearly a cot quilt, not a fragment of a larger quilt.

This is a Victorian Durham quilt made to fit a baby's cot (I suppose the American term would be a crib quilt), It measures 36 by 30". If you look at the stitching and the frill, the ivory or white side is the top, while the reverse is a pink colour. The stitching is good throughout, with a midweight cotton wadding.

Quilting patterns seen are cross hatching with a central strip with a "worm" pattern. There is a frill or ruffle made from a single layer of cloth. It is joined to the top with two lines of machine stitching. Although not many survive, it was common to have small quilting frames to make these cot quilts and other small quilted items.