In the summer of 2017, I recorded a contribution to a radio programme called Moving Pictures which appeared on BBC Radio Four. That programme was exploring a quilt called The Ann West Coverlet which is in the V&A Museum. At two places on this huge and complex coverlet were the small words, embroidered over a… Continue reading The ‘Remember Me’ Quilt.
I've always been in love with the artisan nature of quilt making. You see, when I call myself a quilter, I'm thinking about an old creaky frame, months of stitched toil by hand, sewing as a devotion. It's a mile away from the glossy marketing image of fast expensive sewing machines, jelly rolls and quilts… Continue reading The Midsummer Harvest Quilt
I'm missing my girl. She went off to university for the first time last week but before she went we spent the last few weekends working on this coat, or as I'm calling it, a talismanic maternal shield! This was a last minute commission so we shopped the stash at home, making up a simple… Continue reading A Quilt Coat of Many Colours for My Girl
Quilt historians have postulated that the graphic modern shapes and rich woollen colours of antique Welsh quilts are the origin for the much vaunted modernist quilts that went on to be made by the American Amish. Certainly, non-conformist religious migrant communities are documented as having stopped off in South Wales to restock ships as they… Continue reading Deconstructed Welsh Quilt
When I first read the story of the Hawick quilter Janet Pow (1884-1962) the fact that jumped out at me was that she lived in a mill town, and she came from an extended family of textile workers. Of course, she was also a quilter. I was already fascinated by the quilts she helped to… Continue reading My Lilliesleaf *Hawick* Quilt
A Scant History of Patchwork and Quilting in The British Isles.
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
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
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 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
PlainStitch Deb 