British Quilt Study Group - Gallery

This was once a very lovely quilt with some super quilted patterns. Unfortunately, it has at some point been washed at too high a temperature or too robustly and the wool wadding has shrunk giving the quilt a very crumpled look. It has also bearded badly through the cotton sateen and either at the same time or some other point been dyed as the wadding is also the rust colour ? a lesson to be learnt!

However, the quilting patterns are interesting and it is worth taking a closer look at them.

The central ?wheel? or ?coin? has a small eight petalled flower at its centre which is surrounded by four hearts all placed in a square set trellis. Two double-lined circles filled with double-spirals are next and the whole centre is surrounded by squares on point with alternate rows of a spiral and a leaf filling.

The final border which follows a narrow single chain, has large curved Paisley Pears which are arranged in pairs enclosing a similar eight petalled flower to the one in the centre of the quilt. Spirals fill the gaps and the Pears are filled with lines ? some of which carry on across the central ?vein? while in others there seems to be two leaves with veins within the Paisley Pear shape.

It is interesting to see that no attempt has been made to make the pattern go round the corner. Instead, the top and bottom patterns carry on to the edges of the quilt and the side borders butt up to these.

It is difficult to see the quilting stitches easily but for the most part they look to be reasonably neat and regular.

Liz Nally