New Year, Old Quilts

My first post of 2017, happy new year!  I've been enjoying some time off, family, food and some quiet sewing.  In late December, my local quilt shop, Exeter Sewing Machine Company hosted a free quilter's event and I thought I'd share the photos.  Shop owner, Jenna, kindly hired these quilts and fragments from The Quilter's Guild and gave a talk adding some of her own resources and knowledge too.  Many of these quilts come with rather limited information.  This first example is a wholecloth quilt, see other examples here.

North Country wholecloth quilt from the 1920s, sewn by Mrs Charles Jane, a miner's wife and methodist from County Durham. 

Late Victorian unfinished hexagon quilt top.  The individual hexagons are approximately ½" along each edge. There's a real mix of textiles, many look like very fine dress fabrics and there were some great examples of fussy cutting.  More info here. 

Small quilt top, probably made from a sampler book.  Victorian. 

Late Victorian unfinished hexagon top.  You can read more about this mysterious quilt top here.  The papers are hugely interesting and help date the quilt.

Log cabin coasters in silks and velvet, Victorian.

Eighteenth century hexagon rosettes, amazing colours. 

All these examples are part of a touring case of quilts and fragments that travel around the country so that quilters in all regions get to see the quilts and fabrics close up.    Information on the Quilter's Guild website does seem rather limited on this but their aim is to promote patchwork, appliqué and quilting so it may be worth looking into if you are part of a local guild or group, or a regular at a local quilting shop - there's an email link to the curator on this page.   Meanwhile, the collections section of the website has lots of amazing images for inspiration and some quilt history, I especially like the Heritage Collection.

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