British Quilt Study Group - Gallery

84? x 67? (213cm x 170cm)

This is a very tatty quilt from the Pembrokeshire area of West Wales, possibly from a farm. However, it is interesting in that it has obviously been made from any materials that were available to the maker with lots of different fabrics of varying weights and colours, some pieces having been joined together to make a larger piece.

All the patches have been hand-stitched together and laid out in a pleasing design. The large central bowtie block measures 26? across and the fabrics are a black and red checked cotton and a Turkey Red twill. The two borders of squares on point that surround this block are of varying sizes and widths and have dress cottons, the Turkey Red twill, red Paisley, shirting fabrics etc. A very narrow 1 ½? strip of squares on point can be found next on the top and bottom followed by large half square triangle blocks. The sides have one row of smaller half square triangle blocks and there is a bowtie block in each corner.

The centre quilting design is quite easy to see and is a very large coin or wheel with four concentric circles in the very centre which is surrounded by four circles of lines enclosing diamond chains. Then the quilting all becomes rather more difficult to make out but there are possibly fans in the inner corners as well as the very outer corners and some of the squares seem to have been echo quilted. The outer border has large beech leaves and spirals.

The quilting stitches are quite large and untidy and is in an off-white linen thread. The wadding is a thin cream blanket with sheep?s wool as the top layer. As mentioned before the quilt is very worn with the wadding showing through in several places and there are large rust marks on the reverse, probably from bed springs.

This quilt was bought very cheaply on ebay many years ago and had to go straight in the bath for a wash as soon as it arrived as it was in a black bin bag and smelt of paraffin! It was extremely dirty and had possibly been in a barn!

Liz Nally