A Scant History of Patchwork and Quilting in The British Isles.
Author: Deborah McGuire
The Hudson Quilt Coat
I made a quilt coat. I've always wanted one, for years and years, but finally the circles of fashion, need and time to make overlapped. Here in the UK we have been in a 4 week lockdown to suppress the second wave of Covid. In the first lockdown, I distracted myself from the fresh panic… Continue reading The Hudson Quilt Coat
Waste Not Want Not Quilt
At its heart, making a quilt feels like the ultimate textile tribute, taking fabric and remaking it into a new, beautiful, durable and superbly practical item. Quilts last a really long time, they are not a fast fashion item, they are passed through generations and cherished and mended. But, in a world where overconsumption is… Continue reading Waste Not Want Not Quilt
The Rosemaling Quilt
I lived in the US in 2000 and my favourite abiding memory of that time was weekends spent in Vermont, surrounded by snowy forested mountains, in front of a toasty crackling fire in a little wooden cabin with waist height snow drifts all around. I love being surrounded by snow, and I love feeling off… Continue reading The Rosemaling Quilt
The Daisy Quilted England Wholecloth
The history of British quilting is incomplete, because by the time that its value as a heritage skill was properly recognised regional quilting practice was no longer widespread. The parts of the country that still had a tradition to research at the start of the 20th Century (the North Country and Wales) are often thought… Continue reading The Daisy Quilted England Wholecloth
The Georgian Quilted Petticoat Project
I used to dream about what i'd do if I suddenly didn't have to do everything-else-I-have-to-do. When our lives were a constant dull hum of the front door slamming and car keys clanging as I whipped in and out of the house taking kids here, rushing to catch a train, running out to the longarm… Continue reading The Georgian Quilted Petticoat Project
Hope Blooming Quilt
Across the globe an unprecedented health event is unfolding and along with millions of others I have been struggling to process the enormity and to figure out how best to Be in this strange new world. My kids are at home and my husband is cloistered away down the long corridor taking muffled work… Continue reading Hope Blooming Quilt
The Misses Barron Quilt – Part 2.
Back in the dog days of last summer I embarked on a palma non sine pulvere - a project of great reward in exchange for great effort - I decided to hand quilt a king sized North Country wholecloth quilt. I've always been a hand quilter ( see my previous post for how and why… Continue reading The Misses Barron Quilt – Part 2.
The Maps of Childhood Quilt
I live in the heart of the British countryside in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in the south of England at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. This chalk bluff rises from a flat plain and forms an ancient spine stretching across the country from Bath to Norfolk. It was an ancient bye-way, with… Continue reading The Maps of Childhood Quilt
PlainStitch. What’s in a name?
Making a quilt, however complex, is essentially just a lot of very simple running stitches. This paradox lies at the heart of why I love the process of making a quilt. This simple stitch means that patchwork and quilting are skills completely accessible to anyone who can make a simple stitch with a needle and… Continue reading PlainStitch. What’s in a name?
