Welsh Quilting, Part 1 of 3
OK…so most of you know me as an art quilter. And some of you know that I adore Hawaiian style quilts, which are definitely on the traditional side. You may not know that I am also a great fan of Welsh quilts and the quilting from Northern England!
This catalog is for the 2011 show, “Oh that Summer Would Last Forever,” and is about 8 x 8 inches and (if I counted correctly) 28 pages. The quilts range from pieced, to the wholecloth (which I utterly adore), to applique, and date from the late 1800s to about 1930.
Let’s face it… if it is quilting, I love it! Not long ago I discovered that there was an exhibit of quilts with a published booklet at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, I googled them up, wrote and asked how much it would cost to send a copy of the show catalog to Maine. Luckily they had just gotten a new and final shipment of the catalogs, and the cost wasn’t much (under $20 including postage); in a rare example of speedy governmental service on both sides of the Atlantic, I got the envelope in about a week despite the onslaught of holiday mail. Here’s a snapshot of the flyer for the show:
It looks as though this was the third consecutive year for a show, so I hope I can figure out a way to get to the Festival of Quilts, with side trips now including Lampeter, Wales!
and
A few years ago before my quilty career took off and funds were more scarce than hen’s teeth, Thelma S. kindly sent me some handdyeds from her stash. One huge piece (like king size bed quilt huge) was dyed this glorious peach-yellow-rose; I keep thinking of it as a sunrise. Immediately I wanted to use it as a wholecloth. That evolved into wanting to dye a wholecloth top the same colors, but in cotton sateen like the English north country style, with Thelma’s piece as the makes-me-happy back. I still harbor that desire, and am slowly working my free-motion skills up to the demands of the precision of a traditional wholecloth quilt. I’m definitely a more flow-y, free-form kinda quilter!
After reading the catalog, I went to write Hazel, the kind lady at Jen Jones’ centre who took my order (they don’t have Paypal or online ordering, so I ended up sending my credit card in separate emails, you can also fax or call her) to say how much I loved the catalog, and ended up looking at the site again. Turns out they had three more books on Welsh quilts. One, the big one by Jen Jones written in both French and English, would have cost a fortune to mail (so I am trying to get a copy through my local quilt shop and the US distributor for that book), but ordered up two additional books: Welsh Quilts by Jen Jones, A Towy Guide and Marjorie Horton’s Welsh Quilting Pattern and Design Handbook. I thought I’d share those, then decided I should also share a couple other books I have on Welsh and English north country quilts. Since the posts would be waaaaayyyyy too long, I’ve decided to parse it out into three blogposts.
The first book I bought on Welsh quilts is actually a Threads magazine book made up of articles from the magazine, one of which was on Welsh quilts and is called Great Quilting Techniques. But there’s not a ton of information in there… it left me wanting more, much more. A few years ago at Quilt Festival in Houston I found
Making Welsh Quilts: The Textile Tradition That Inspired the Amish?, by Mary Jenkins and Clare Claridge.
As with so many of our quilt books, the shorter front half of the book is the back-story, the information, then there are lots of patterns for projects. This is wonderful when you want a project book–alas, I always want more of the “not project” stuff! That said, there is a LOT of great information here, as well as inspiring projects. Best of all (for me) is the interesting section toward the end called “Welsh Quilting,” with designs –lots of pictures of lots of types of designs– that are typical of the actual quilting part of Welsh Quilts, including hearts, paisleys or Welsh pear, Leaves, Flowers, Spirals, Fans and Circles, Borders, and Infills. The book would be worth it alone just for this section!
As you can see, the photography is good. Best of all, the book is still available on Amazon if this type of quilting interests you!
I’ll be back with more of my book stash on Welsh and English quilting soon!
January 25th, 2012 at 6:48 am
I do hope that you can find your way to Jen Jones’ Quilt Centre at some stage. It is well worth a visit at any time.
January 25th, 2012 at 7:12 am
This is a really enjoyable post – especially as I come from a Welsh quilting family. My great-great grandmother quilted for the London market and my great gradmother also quilted professionally: they both lived in Maesteg, a mining town in South Wales. My grandmother never learnt to quilt – she felt she would have been exploited – but was apprenticed to a talioress and milliner instead.
January 25th, 2012 at 9:13 am
I always think of Welsh quilts as being strippys or whole cloth, not pieced. Learned something new! I like though that there were people who marked the quilts for quilting — a real specialty niche!
January 25th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Did you know that Mary Jenkins has a great blog? http://littlewelshquiltsandothertraditions.blogspot.com/ I love Welsh quilts!
January 25th, 2012 at 7:45 pm
H Sarah,
My good friend Dorothy Osler has just published a book “Amish Quilts and the Welsh Connection”
http://www.amazon.com/Amish-Quilts-Welsh-Connection-Dorothy/dp/0764339168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327534891&sr=8-1
Mine just arrived and it looks wonderful. Fascinatin connection.
Barbara in Nova Scotia
February 5th, 2012 at 10:01 am
I’m so glad I clicked onto your blog from your quilt designer forum post today. I have a smoldering love affair for welsh quilting as well! When I first started to quilt I lived in Mennonite country in southern Ontario and have been heavily influenced by the look of this style of quilting. I discovered welsh quilting last year – and the website for the Jen Jone’s quilt centre. I have the book in this post you review. I agree – I like the end of the book the best too. The appeal of this quilting technique for me is the fact that the quilting is like a second quilt on top of the first. Amazing. What amazing artists these quilters are! I will keep coming back to see what other books you review. I’m also grateful your other readers are sharing more links and info.
March 21st, 2012 at 12:01 am
you are going to laugh at me… I have a quite a few book on Welsh quilting and patterns… I love that you are into it too… I am not totally crazy, there are others!