Last Sunday I had the most brilliant afternoon viewing some old Welsh quilts in a private collection here in rural Victoria…and making a super new friend in the process. The wonderful and gorgeous Sian emailed me last Friday to ask if I would like to see her quilts which have been in her Mother’s family for many, many years… she had found my blog, saw my interest in Welsh quilts and invited me over with the view to sharing all of these with all of you. I told you she was wonderful.
Welsh Quilt, alternating strips of plain red and red & black print.
This quilt has a typical Welsh quilting pattern, a large central medallion.
Detailed view of the same quilt.
I took all my books on British and Welsh quilts so we could compare the quilting patterns. Already Sian and I are planning a sewing day at my place and I’ll also sketch the quilting designs off all the quilts in detail.
Whole cloth quilt: Red with Taupe reverse.
Whole cloth quilt detail
Detail of the reverse.
Sian’s 80 yr old Mother is Welsh (southern Wales, around Swansea) and remembers some of the ladies in her village making quilts.
Two of the quilts are very worn, Sian is keen to learn how to slow the deterioration if possible.
The reverse of this quilt is in good condition.
The Quilts are all very thick having wool batting, home carded.
Edge detail showing the edges of the quilt turned in, a conventional treatment of Welsh Quilts.
Corner treatment of turned in edging.
Corner treatment of turned in edging.
As a modern day quilter I am in awe of the quilting definition in these thick quilts.
The fabric in this one below is my personal favourite…but then it would be.
This diamond shape is similar to one I already had marked out for my replica Welsh Quilt so I was happy to see it used in an authentic quilt.
A big, big thank you to Sian and her Mum for making these fabulous pieces from Welsh history available to see, and also for making me so very welcome. Sian lives in a very picturesque part of our state and has a fabulously huge studio space with a magical view…If she wasn’t so nice I’d be a teeny bit envious.
When Sian comes up we’d like to photograph them properly so that each quilt can be seen whole, but you can see that some we have to be very careful with and can’t put any stress on the fibres so we will evaluate how much we can do.
Stay tuned for more…
