A Real Durham Strippy

Here is a real Durham strippy - I say "real" because it came from the City of Durham. It was handed in at a charity shop - the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals - and sold after being washed three times by a volunteer!

This quilt is made of pink and white cotton sateen - it is well used and the sateen has gone as soft as butter - I have never felt a modern cloth that felt like this - it is wonderful to feel. And the oldtime quilters said that it was lovely to quilt, which I can well believe. But it was labour intensive cloth to make (although it was inexpensive to buy) and was last manufactured in Britain in 1939. The war meant that materials and labour were both in short supply.

The patterns follow the strips, and are a twist, a four lobed design, bellows and cross hatch infill (hand marked, as the lines are a bit curved and not straight as they would be if marked with a straight edge)

A photo of the back, which is a plain white sateen. The size is 94 x 72 inches and the wadding is cotton. The edges are machine sewn.

The edge of the quilt, showing the machine sewing to secure the edge, and also how the strips were run up on the machine. A very typical strippy, in a very typical colour combination.

As you know, these quilts were often made by quilters running quilt clubs, where a weekly payment of a shilling went towards the purchase of a quilt, with the names put into the hat to see whose was made first - there were usually about 20 people paying their weekly money. an early form of social help. Often the only income for a family on hard times or where the main earner had met with an accident. Durham of course had a coal field and many mines or collieries, but these were few in number when I was a student in the 70's, and are now all shut down, along with the steel mill.

A life which has disappeared now, and is only visible when talking to older folks or at Beamish Museum.

Green and Yellow Quilt from Ashbourne, Derbyshire

Here is a quilt from Derbyshire in a rich gold and peapod green colour combination. It is a north country quilt, but perhaps because it is from Derbyshire, the patterns are a bit different to the usual. The size is large - 90 x 80 inches and the wadding is very thin cotton. The quilting is small and very neatly done.

Here is the central quilting pattern - flat irons with roses surrounding four beech leaves. These leaves are usually associated with welsh quilts, but here seen in a very north country style. The centre is surrounded by diamond infill neatly executed.

In the corners we see scales in a triangle or bunches of grapes?? plus windblown daisies. The outer border is of fans, almost like scallop shells...

The fan border has a central device of a square with a four lobed design inside.

At the back of the quilt in one corner, is a name tag "Marion Ward". It is hard to know whether this is the owner or the quilter. The edge is hand sewn.

This photo shows the colours a bit better - a strong gold and a pea green colour. It is hard to know the dates on these quilts, but because of the colour combination and the windblown diasies, I am thinking 1920's. a quilt with good stitching made by an experienced quilter.

I have several quilts which are not from the central quiltmaking areas - outlying areas - these often have different quilting patterns, or even transitional patterns. Perhaps this is one of those quilts where quilting traditions and quilting patterns varied from what is generally considered to be "north country".

Green and Peach Brocade Welsh Quilt

Here is a Welsh quilt with some slightly unusual quilting designs; I begin to think that almost every Welsh quilter had her own designs, because there seems to be a much greater variety of quilting motifs in the Welsh quilts than in the North Country quilts.





One side of the quilt is an attractive peach brocade, which was popular for decorating at that period...the other side is a plain green sateen cotton. From the cotton thread used and the stitching, we can see that the peach is the top side.

This quilt is smaller than some of the others at 67 inches square. It came from a dealer- Geoff from Brechfa, who enjoys going to country auctions and sometimes buys quilts. ( I have another red and white strippy that was bought by Geoff - the day was so bitterly cold that he bought the quilt for £5 to wrap around himself and keep warm - then later sold the quilt to me - a dual duty quilt...) This quilt is probably from Cardiganshire.

You can see that there are no fields or divisions marked out with straight lines of stitching here, although there is a general central area and a border area. You can see that the central area is framed by the oblong shapes, then there are two lines of circular motifs as borders. The quilting motifs include an oval motif with infill, spirals and a circle with spiral infill (looking vaguely like a tennis ball or a yin yan sign?) Still very Welsh but more individualistic to the quilter. No date, but probably later at 1920-1930.

I found this split in the fabric at one corner, you can see that the filling is carded wool, and not a blanket as is often the case. The photo also shows the brocade with the "primroses".

Not an expensive quilt, but one with a certain charm to it - I like the peach coloured fabric and the quirky designs. Certainly not RIB!!

Nature Print/Earth FlowerWelsh Quilt

This is very much a typical bed quilt - made in the Rhondda vallies about 1910-1930. The Art Deco fabric is known variously as Earth Flower, Mushroom Flower and Nature Print, it shows a stylised bunch of flowers and came in a variety of colour ways. One side is grey with pinks and browns - the reverse has cream with blues, browns and greens. The size is 80 x 80 inches. Condition is very good with little wear and no fading.

It was hard to capture the quilting, it is somewhat coarse but effective - it consists of simple twists, crosshatching and a central spiral or circular motif. The wadding is carded wool.

A closeup of the two fabrics - rather cheerful, I think.

The corner of the quilt, showing the hand sewn edge, which is typical of Welsh quilts. This quilt is a very heavy quilt, as it has a woollen blanket inside, and would have been a very warm quilt in use. I wonder why these quilts were never used - were they kept for "special" or were they just considered old fashioned?

Progress with Sawtooth Diamond top

You may remember that I bought this antique marked top, and decided to recreate the quilt. Finally, the top is underway as I have located some suitable fabric. (Many thanks to Susan B who offered some from her stash!)

Here is the little sample piece that I made - I bought 1/2 metres before making a big spend on large amounts of fabric.

The fabric that I have finally chosen is from the French General range of Rouenneries - it is a bit darker than the original, but a good approximation, and is dress weight so it quilts nicely. It is a printed solid, not a woven plain, so I'll have to be a bit careful not to erase or scrape the colour off the surface...

Here is "Faded red" another fabric from the Rouenneries series - it was a better match in colour, but proved just too coarse as it is a linen/cotton mix. The other fabric will be easier to quilt.

Here is the centre of the top. I have made half square triangles to finish 2 7/8" because the maths indicated that -the originals did vary a lot! I started with 4" squares, cut these in half and sewed together - this made a larger unit which I could trim down exactly to 3 3/8". I find it easier and more precise to trim the units down, lining the bias square ruler on the centre seam. I bet the old timers didn't take this care! however, can't shake the way I work...lots more half square triangle units to make; the plain borders will be easy to run up I think. I am just wondering whether I should trace the designs directly from the top, or use the tracing which is only 1/4 of the whole - it may be possible to trace directly from the light sections but I don't think it will be possible to trace from the dark sections - I will have to experiment on the light table to find out.

The pink Kona cotton will make a nice backing, which will show off the quilting nicely.

Welsh Green and Yellow Quilt - Unusual Patterns

Here is a Welsh quilt with rather atypical quilting designs. The size is 70 x 82 inches and the stitching is of very good quality. Unfortunately, I was promised some further information about the quilt, which never arrived - various excuses - I never knew what happened and finally had to give up on it. However, the designs are of interest; the colour combination is the ever popular green and gold.

The outer borders are unusual for a Welsh quilt - they include swags plus a double scale or clamshell pattern infill.

There are more typical fans with some nice echo quilting.

The centre is formed by smaller swags, with diamond infill.

In the corner , you can see a striking leaf or fleur de lys. The colours in this photo are more lifelike - a strong green and a strong gold. It also shows the fine stitching.

The reverse of the quilt, in green. The yellow thread shows through nicely on this side.

A bit of a puzzle, this quilt, I only wish that I had received the details that were promised to me.

Planning a Ringing Outing

Last spring, our "Ring and Walk" Pettistree outing between Fressingfield and Wingfield was a big success, so Mike and I are planning another for April. The formula is a bit demanding - there have to be two towers with bells - linked by a short but picturesque walk -suitable parking for the cars- with a pub at either end, one of which is suitable for lunch for 20 to 30 people.

On Saturday, we tried to walk from Yaxley to Eye. The footpath was overgrown and a bit of a scramble - worse, there was no pub in Eye! The Queens Head was closed for repairs.....and the bells at Eye seemed too heavy for our ringers.

On Sunday, our walk met with more success...


We started at Stoke Ash, a small village next to the Ipswich to Norwich Road (an old Roman Road). It seems that excavations in 2004 have shown that there was a Roman staging post here, and it was much larger then...there was a very pleasant 30 minute walk to...

Thornham church. The paths were broad and well maintained and passed some lovely old cottages.

This is the Waterhouses area, with its ford - imagine driving through this every morning on your way to work...

The ford was too deep for our boots, so to get over the footbridge we had to "run the gauntlet " past loud geese -

And there are two good pubs at either end, the White Horse and the popular Four Horseshoes at Thornham (above). The next stage will be to make the bookings - entry to the churches and arranging the food - if only we could order up the good weather.

This week, I have done something I thought I would never do again - some dressmaking. It brings back unpleasant memories of "home ec" at jr. high school...however, I have found it difficult to buy cotton trousers with nice fabric - so frustrating when there is great fabric in the quilt stores. So I bought this pattern - have modified it to match a favorite pair of trousers -I bought 2 metres of fabric from Quilters Haven - it is Habitat by Michele D'Amore - hope it turns out well....it is does, I'll make some more - I want a pair of red paisley trousers...LOL..