Red Paisley Throw

Well, I cannot resist a nice red paisley throw! This one is in good condition, and the fabric retains much of its original colours. This throw came from Edinburgh, so I am pretty confident that the fabric came from one of the large fabric mills in the Vale of Leven near Glasgow (see the recent book "Colouring the Nation" for many more details).

Like most of these throws, it was quickly made from lengths of fabric covering a woollen filling.

Corners are not very carefully done....

Again, quickly made.....on the sewing machine...

The colours are still very vibrant, with much of the original green yellow and blue showing...these disappear as the fabric becomes more worn, but the red is very long lasting...

The paisley or boteh shape....no other provenance...size is about 135 x 166 cm.

Christmas is over - back to work!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in over a month - things got rather busy over Christmas. It is also the tax year end for many of the companies that I do bookkeeping for....so lots to do.

In the week before Christmas, there were several company Christmas meals to enjoy - this one was at the Salthouse Harbour Hotel - the food was great here and I enjoyed my lunch with the small group of people I work with in Ipswich two days a week.

There was also a lunch  at Hintlesham Hall, a well known restaurant and hotel with another of my companies. We had party games, a contest for a bottle of champagne (no I didn't win) and small gifts at the finish. A very pleasant day.

Christmas is a busy time for bellringers, as we are much in demand, and have to hurry around to do lots of ringing for Carol Services, etc. Here is the Pettistree band ringing at St Matthews church in Ipswich, for the Christmas ringing. All the churches in Ipswich are rung for half an hour on the last Saturday before Christmas, before we all repair to St Margaret's Church for coffee and mince pies.

We were also able to help the Clopton ringers ring for a service - their first time to ring for a service, as these people have only started to learn. That's David in the centre, who is teaching the band. Susan Schurr's daughter Jenny on the right is also learning to ring. Susan was very keen about bellringing and, having started to ring at the age of 70 for the Millennium, achieved a great deal in her lifetime. I'm sure that she would be thrilled to see that Jenny is learning to ring.

Well, its back to work now.....but the good news is that Mike and I have booked our tickets to visit Sophie and Paul in Singapore in March. We are considering where else to go - Kuala Lumpur and Malacca seem an easy option. Not long to go now!

Best Wishes for 2014

Muriel Rose - A Modern Crafts Legacy

When I was last in York in October, I had a browse in the Quilters Guild Library. One item that I discovered was a small booklet about Muriel Rose. I thought that it would be an easy matter to find a copy of this booklet - but found, on ringing the Crafts Study Centre, that all stocks had been sold and that it was now out of print.

So I was very pleased to find that this collection of essays is available on-line at:

http://issuu.com/studiohyde/docs/murielrose

Muriel Rose was director of The Little Gallery, where she selected what she considered the best of contemporary craft for sale. The Little Gallery "made an active and forceful contribution to the way that craft work was distributed and debated in the modern world".

The Little Gallery was at 5 Ellis Street, off Sloane Street in London. It opened in 1928 and closed in 1939.
We quilters know her best for her work with Mavis FitzRandolph to commission high quality quilts in Durham and Wales, via the Rural Industries Board, which were then sold in London.

I found this a very interesting collection to read, and will be keeping a copy for my research - maybe one day I will find an actual booklet...

Small Red Welsh Quilt

Here is another Welsh quilt that I purchased last month. It is a small quilt, not even a single size. It looks as if it is a large crib quilt. The size is 39 x 51 inches or 99cm x 125cm.

The designs are simple, to fit into the smaller area. However, the quilting is of a good standard and the leaf patterns are very attractive. The double and triple lines really make the motifs stand out well.

You can see that there is a central motif of leaves - a cross hatched area and a border of leaves complete the design.

The backing is of a tan colour. The wadding seems to be lambs wool.

The edges are neatly finished off by hand. Some of the quilting lines have "popped" and are gone...but still in relatively good condition. This type of quilting does epitomize Welsh quilting for me...

Egyptian Work - Two Panels

Here are two small panels of Egyptian tent work that I bought recently. Like many attending the Festival of Quilts, I was fascinated to see the tentmakers of Cairo at work and admired the larger textiles that they produced. These small items are likely to have been brought back as a small souvenir by a tourist to Egypt. The background is a heavy canvas. They are panels, and have not been made up into cushions. They are a bit faded, so perhaps they were simply displayed in a house....

Obvious Egyptian references here, with a mule driver and his animal, with two pyramids in the background. Some pencil marks are visible as a rough guide for the maker. The blue pack on the back of the mule has come unstitched.

The other block has an active scene of a chariot driver with his horse. The colours may be a bit faded with this panel....but very appealing colours......The backing fabric is coarse and the stitching professional, in that the stitching is not fine, but holds everything in place in an economical fashion.

I enjoy these panels, and they will go well with the South American molas that I already have....

Quilted Welsh Bed Jacket

Having bought the 1930's North Country bed jacket from Jen Jones, I was surprised to see another listed by Louise Bell of Builth Wells in Wales.This item is of a similar age, but is constructed differently, with a thinner, silkier fabric and a different style of quilting. The colours are more gentle and there is a most attractive two tone ruffle on the neck.

You can see that the jacket is blue on the outside and has a pink lining. Its in good condition, but has been well used, with wear to be seen in one or two areas (but nothing too major).

The quilting is a straight grid, with some double lined roses and leaves on a vine down either side of the front.

The back is plainly quilted with a grid. The stitching is neatly done....

There is little wadding and the jacket is lightweight. The outer pieces have been sewn together on the machine, and then the inner seams slip stitched in place by hand. A bit different to the last bed jacket where the seams were hand sewn together through all layers and then the edges slip stitched down....no piping to the edges, here...

Here, rather than a ribbon tie, the closure is a matching fabric loop and a pretty mother of pearl button. The edges are all neatly hand sewn in the Welsh fashion.

The neck ruffle is very feminine and would have taken some skill to achieve. This item has no provenance, but was bought in Carmarthen. Between and after the wars, many items were made to be used around the house, or to be given away as gifts. Large quilts were not often made although there were some quilting classes run by groups like the WI.

An interesting addition to the collection!

North Country Bed Jacket - RIB??

Here is a small item that I recently bought from Jen Jones - it is a bed jacket. Smaller items became popular between and after the two wars, and many ladies went to sewing classes where beautiful small items were made for use around the house.

This bed jacket was made by a sewer called A Woods who lived in Cumbria. Mrs Woods was a sewing teacher. This item dates from the Rural Industries Board era, although we don't know if Mrs Woods was involved in that. Jen will be keeping some other items that came with this item and other textiles -- pincushions and folders of teaching materials. The jacket is well made and features north country quilting designs with a tie closure.

Large feathers and also daisies are used on the back.

The quilting is good, but not outstanding - but Mrs Woods may not have been solely a quilter, she probably taught all manner of embroidery and knitting skills....

The edges are neatly finished with piping, and at the seams, the edges are bound before being sewn together.

A very interesting item, and a good addition to the quilts. As you know, I am very interested in the RIB period, and would love to have an  item that was definitely RIB! Quite by accident, I saw (and bought) another bed jacket from Wales of a similar date, which I'll show in another post - although made in Wales, the other bed jacket also has north country patterns, so perhaps there were commercial patterns available at this time.