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I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Sunday, 16 December 2012

Turkey Red Throw

Here is a throw in Turkey Red fabric that arrived recently. It is not quilted, but has some nice fabric to look at. There are so many different variations on a theme with this type of fabric - it was very popular as the red colour was very fast and did not fade like other red dyes.
The throw is just a wool blanket covered with cheerful fabric. I have unpicked these throws before, to recover the cloth, and usually they are just sewn around and the edges then folded over and top stitched - very easy and quick to make. In this one, I think the filling must have shrunk somewhat, as the fabric is a bit baggy....
The outer border has a border print - while the red did not fade, the other colours such as yellow and blue, did tend to fade, so it now looks as if it were just red and white...

A heart formed by two paisley shapes in the mitre!

 

The back has a piece of brocade, another remnant of fabric, pressed into service as a bedcovering...



Also on the back, the fabric is more colourful as the sun has not faded the colours - here you can see that the fabrics originally were overprinted with blue green and yellow - and would have been much more colourful.

It is very difficult to date these throws, as the turkey red fabric continued to be made for a long time, and according to Sykas, the metal rolls were reused and reused and often sold on to be used by other companies.

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