Welsh patchwork Quilt

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

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

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

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.

More from the quilt by Pam Holland.

An interesting strppy by Judith Caroline Lynch of High Wycombe. It was a red and white strippy, over which Judith had machine written extracts from her son Nic's emails received from him during his gap year abroad, six months during 2004. A commenmorative quilt that had a lot of people reading the rather hair-raising entries...

Elizabethan Jewels by Jane Rollason. Silk dupion in curved log cabin patchowrk, hand painted, hand applique and free motion machine quilting. Very nicely done and invited further inspection of the details.

Detail of the applique and quilting on Jane's quilt.

I think this is a detail of a quilt by Robin Fahy of Drumquin. If I have gotten this wrong, please let me know! Quilted on a longarm machine, hand guided. Cotton Sateen and trapunto. The "Mactavishing" made the feathers really stand out.

A larger portion of the above quilt.

Katab Daisy Chain by Jane Davies of Rugby. Katab (cutwork) work from North West India was the inspiration for this quilt, which used a machine pieced background and hand applique. Design was cut free hand from fabric folded four times. Very colourful.

FOQ More Photos 1

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

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

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.