Cockfield Quilt - Running Feather

Here is a quilt that was rather difficult to photograph, as it is a white quilt. I bought this quilt three years ago from Sarah Truelock of Norton, Stockton-on-Tees. The quilt had belonged to her mother's family, and had been made in Cockfield, a village in Weardale. The quilt measures 79 x 94 inches so is a large quilt. The pattern is a running feather in a "bellows" (in and out) configuration. This pattern is common - it was striking, easy to mark and covered the fabric well without being too intricate. The templates showed the outline - the quilter just had to add the lines for the feathers -some quilters made the lines straight, but the better quilters drew more curving, naturalistic lines.

You can see that either end has a row of daisies - another well-liked pattern, it covered the fabric well. No attempt to turn a corner here!!

Another view of the running feather pattern - very attractive.

This quilt is unusual in that it has Pauline Adam's "edge"- ie the front and back were seamed together before being set on the frame. Here, it is well done and hardly noticeable, unless you look very carefully for the machined seaming stitches. The edge is machine top stitched.

This quilt was clearly made by a professional quilter, it is very nicely done without being complex, and the stitching is neat and regular. It could be a "club" quilt.

A view of the centre of the feather, with its double line for the feather vein.

And here is the running feather pattern in another quilt, the Rothbury quilt - I did not show this pattern very clearly in that post, so here is another photo. In this version, you can see that there is a "worm" or vein with a twist, in the centre of the feather. A popular pattern like this is bound to have several variations.