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Research Groups
BQSG doesn't have regular meetings of groups but members with a particular interest in a style or type of quilt can join together to form a research group where like-minded people are able to share and discover more about their interest and they are always happy to hear of new discoveries.
A new group based on Fabric Dating has recently been established.
In the recent past, we have had two groups, The Canadian Red Cross Quilt Research Group (CRCQ Research Group) and the Signature Quilt Research Group (SQRG) which have actively worked on research projects.
If you would be interested to form a new research group please contact our BQSG Chair.
Fabric Dating Group
A page from Thomas Comstive's 'Dairy Book' 1824
This small notebook belongs to the Collection of Queen Street Textile Museum in Burnley, Lancashire. It was written by Thomas Comstive, a dye chemist who worked at Catterall Printworks in the early nineteenth century, and include samples of printed fabrics. His notes shed light on the development of new dyeing and printing processes.
The page on the left records the sequence to produce a fabric with well-aligned red and blue dyes - the 'lapis' technique, and the subsequent overdyeing with yellow to give additional colours.
The right-hand page records his experiments to produce lilac prints.
A small, online group has begun to transcribe the notes, and interpret them. If you would like to join us, contact Carolyn Gibbs
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Signature Quilt Research Group
Bazaar Coverlet, maker unknown. Image © The Quilters' Guild Museum Collection.
The group was set up several years ago, primarily to establish a database to record as many examples of signature quilts/coverlets that can be found in the British Isles, whether in museum collections or in private hands.
Currently the database lists 72 items, and intriguing avenues of research have already opened up, some of them quite unexpected.
Analysis of the data so far suggested looking at e.g. locations, dates and reasons for making as well as focusing on an individual quilt or type of quilt.
For example, 46 of the items were made in the North of England, 14 in the South, 5 in Scotland, 5 in Northern Ireland, and only 2 so far in Wales.
Wholecloth Signature Quilt 1907, Lady Workers, Church Dipton. Image © The Quilters' Guild Museum Collection.
Fifty of the items were made between 1888 and 1923, and nineteen from 1940 to present, while for three there are no confirmed dates.
Reasons for making include fundraising, commemoration or celebration, friendship/families, 'milestone' quilts (weddings, birthdays, farewells) and even a tablecloth used as a visitor's book.
Our thanks go to the many members who provided us with information on sightings of items, especially to those who followed up with valuable additional research.
Those wishing to continue researching signature quilts may download the quilt database and a companion file containing available images. The full data is available in a paper-based file, available for study on request. Please contact the Quilters' Guild Curator. Any use of these resources in publications or presentations should be properly acknowledged.
A bibliography providing background and historical information as an aid to new researchers or to any interested member is also available.
Sheriff Hutton Bazaar Coverlet made by the ladies of Sheriff Hutton Wesleyan Church, 1898. Image © The Quilters' Guild Museum Collection.
Publications & the way forward
Several papers on signature quilts have been presented at BQSG seminars:
Quilt Studies Issues 9, 13, 14, 18, 21
Culcita, Issue 59, June 2021
The Quilter, Winter Edition, 2021
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We have now decided it is time to step back, and we're looking for a BQSG member to take over running this project. It is a fascinating role for one or more researchers to take on, and you will make many friends along the way.
For now, if you have any queries, please contact Maxine March or Anne Jeater
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Canadian Red Cross Quilt Research Group
The group was set up in 2005 by three members of Beckenham Quilters, Jackie Maxwell, Maxine March and Dr Anna Mansi, all members of the Guild, the latter two also members of BQSG, after hearing a talk on these quilts.
Surprised at the lack of awareness of these quilts in the textile world, they began research with these aims:
* To rescue as many as they could and form a joint collection
* To raise the profile of these quilts both in the quilting world and with the general public by giving talks to interested groups and finding exhibition space for their collection
* To identify examples in private hands and in museum collections and document them
* To collect stories of the makers and recipients
During the following eighteen years, the group rescued over 100 quilts, documented over 200, given many talks over the years and had exhibitions in the Quilters' Guild (St Anthony's Hall), Bletchley Park, Maidstone Museum and the National Needlework Archive. They loaned quilts to other institutions including the V & A for the major exhibition Quilts 1700 - 2010.
Sadly, Dr Mansi passed away, and her quilts now form the Anna Mansi Memorial Collection, in her husband's keeping.
By 2022, Maxine & Jackie realised that the original aims of the Group had been successfully met, and decided that the majority of the Collection should be returned to Canada, where by now there was little awareness of the many quilts made by Canadian women in support of the war effort. This rehoming to Canadian Museums began in 2023 with the assistance of Lucie Heins, Assistant Curator of the Royal Alberta Museum in Edmonton, and the process is recorded in detail in a paper published in Quilt Studies Issue 25 'The Canadian Red Cross Quilts Return Home by Lucie Heins and Maxine March.
For details, see our Publications page
