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Quilt of the Month - WI Quilt from Sunderland

(Private collection)

This month's quilt is a group quilt, made by a Women's Institute quilting group in the late 30's or early 40's. The group was in Sunderland or Washington and the quilt, a lightweight "Summer" quilt, had never been used. Its a nice, if somewhat atypical design, with bold feathers in pairs, simple motifs which cover the fabric well. The WI was well known to be particular about quilting methods - in particular, the need for quilts to have a hand finished edge. Quilts with the traditional machine finished edge were barred from exhibitions. So I was amused to see that this WI quilt does have machined edges....those quilters were not about to change the habits of a lifetime! What is sad, is that a group of four quilts were put up for sale at the very low price of £35 each. Of course, within minutes all had sold. The so-called expert at the auctionhouse had seriously undervalued these quilts.

Pink quilt with patterned stitching

WI Group Quilt from Sunderland