Festival of Quilts 2011- 1

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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.....