British Quilt Study Group - Gallery

92? x 75?

Private Collection

There is a lovely soft feel to this very well-made quilt in cotton sateen which was purchased from the granddaughter of the maker ? Dorothy Cooper nee Manners. There is some wear to the top and bottom edges and a small hole on one of the strips but that doesn?t detract from what is a really super quilt.

Born in 1886 in Coundon, a mining area near Bishop Auckland in Co Durham, Dorothy was one of eight girls born to George Manners, a colliery engineman and his wife Ann.

In 1906 Dorothy age 20 married Charles Cooper, also from a mining family, but himself an Elementary School Teacher. They had one surviving child, a daughter Olga who was born in 1923 when Dorothy was 37.

Dorothy was a keen and very competent needlewoman and also enjoyed painting, sadly her health was not the best and she gradually became almost blind and quite deaf. She died in 1953 aged 67 and is buried in the local church at Coundon. She had lived in Coundon and the surrounding areas all her life.

The front has nine strips, four in a golden yellow cotton sateen and five in a cream cotton sateen which was probably originally a very pale blue or green. The strips are all approx. 8 1/4" wide. The back is of the same golden yellow sateen and there is a cotton wadding. The Butted edge has been machine stitched on the very edge of the quilt - this looks to be original so not cut down. This quilt also has 'the Edge' as discovered by Pauline Adams, although it is difficult to photograph.

The quilting patterns are very well defined and very neatly stitched with small regular stitches in a yellow thread. Some unusual patterns have been used and there are two narrow rows of quilting between each strip pattern.

Strips 1 and 9 are of a seven-lined wavy line infilled with diamonds

Strips 2 and 8 are of a multi-lined, slightly curved and pointed lozenge shape with a diamond grid of sixteen small squares at the crossovers.

Strips 3 and 7 are pairs of quarter fans with pointed end facing each other. There are ten narrow ?petals? in each fan and square diamond infil. Between each fan pair are two small 8-petalled flowers. The pattern measures approx. 13? and there are seven pairs on each strip.

Strips 4 and 6 are of sprays of seven leaves of varying sizes set within an oval shape interspersed with sixteen-petalled flowers all surrounded by echo quilting.

Strip 5 Centre is of long-stemmed sprays of three daisies with a diamond infil. Each spray measures approx 12? and there are seven and a half patterns on the strip.

Liz Nally

Remember to click on the photos to view full image.