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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 29 January 2017

Strip Quilt with Diamonds from Ashington

Here is an older strip quilt from Northumberland. It is a large quilt, at 91 x 102 inches. The plain strips, of a cream cotton with tiny brown and green leaf motifs,  alternate with blue and white pieced strips. 

The quilting is hard to see, but is mostly cross hatching. Around the outside is a large twist, and then a triangular pattern with a lobed motif.


This quilt has all been hand pieced and the edge is neatly hand sewn. The filling is a thin cotton, which may have been thicker once - perhaps thinned by repeated washing?


This quilt came from a house clearance in Ashington, Northumberland. Ashington was once a centre for coal mining. The house belonged to the seller's Grandmother, a lady named Hilda Revington.


Quilting, a large twist pattern...


The quilt is somewhat worn at either end. Many of the longer plain strips are pieced. I measured the plain strips and these varied from 6 3/4 to 7 inches. I wonder if, when making strippy quilts, the strips were torn, not cut? Certainly, with the two unquilted tops that I own, this is the case. It may account for the variability of the strips. The pieced strips are all 6 inches wide.

My feeling is that this is an earlier quilt, but perhaps from someone who did not own a sewing machine (quite costly items in those days) so perhaps turn of the century. The fabrics are what we would call workaday fabrics....last quarter of the 19C.

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