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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.













Wednesday 14 March 2012

Lively Paisley and Plain Pink Welsh Quilt

This Welsh quilt has a lively paisley print on one side and a plain pink fabric on the other. The quilting is well executed with some nice patterns to be seen.


The central motif is a flower? or lovers knot??, this is surrounded by double diamonds. I am constantly surprised by the variety of patterns seen in Welsh quilts!


The outer border is of circles with a design which might be orange peel or might be beech leaves - hard to tell. I was also surprised to see - plumes or feathers. I had, up to now, thought that there were no feathers to be found on my Welsh quilts - but have a look - pairs of plumes at either end of the quilt---


A closer look at the pair of plumes - or are they supposed to be ferns?? I thought feathers had rounded edges whilst leaves had pointy ends which would make these feathers....


The pair of plumes at the far end of the quilt - very handsome but seemingly not double outlined like the last pair. Quilters worked quickly across the frame - by the time they reached the far side of the quilt, the first side was wrapped onto the poles and quilters could forget exactly what they had quilted - so motifs often are slightly different on either side...


A close up of the paisley print which has quite a lot of yellowy-green and blue colours against a pink background - quite different from the reproduction fabrics that we get today!


The quilting is not very visible on the paisley side but it is cheerful on the bed. I have a "comfy" quilt on my bed and usually have just the paisley side showing - as I prefer the effect - looks nice and warm in the winter!



A close up of the central design.



This quilt was bought from a seller in Epsom and had no provenance.

1 comment:

  1. This is really an interesting quilt, I love it's simplicity. The center patterns reminds me a lot of the "Breton Fisherman's Knot" in Dorothy Osler's Quilting Desgin Source Book. Maybe this is also Celtic.

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