Darelle's Dryslwyn Dreams

Darelle Castelow sent me a photo of her version of Dryslwyn Dreams, which was my version of a quilt that used to be in Jen Jones's collection.  Re the fabrics, she says -

I've done this much and have next colours sorted.  I got into a threesome   red cream red pink.   Have to be more accurate... but  I don't guarantee to get it finished for a while.

I used fabrics from a Richmond Red layer cake, Nancy Gere 1875 JR,  Jane Austen, Dutch Heritage, Victoria Park, 1840 Birds & Basics, New England Museum and others with no selvedge/name.    The filler is Pearl Essence.  Hmmm might call it Dryslwyn Essence...

It is looking beautiful in this warmer colour scheme, which reminds me a bit of the reds and browns I used for Cinnabar and Nutmeg.  Always a winning combination for antique inspired quilts.   I hope I get to see a photo of it finished - I can wait!  Thanks very much for the photo of work so far.

A trip to the Welsh Quilt Centre

Our next stop on our tour of Wales was the Welsh Quilt Centre.  Jen Jones kindly opened up specially for us on the Monday (usually closed that day).  The current exhibition 'Unforgettable' is excellent - highly recommended!

Here is a detail of the quilt shown above -

All the quilts in the main exhibition are traditional Welsh flannel, which has given me some inspiration for the new range of Japanese 'double width' kimono flannels that have just arrived with me...

  

The quilts below are full size bed quilts, not miniatures!  The gallery is a very high space.

The exhibition also features many Welsh hats and 'betgwn', the traditional Welsh women's dress, which has its origins in C17th mantua dresses.

There is an exhibition of new quilts by Sandie Lush, exploring the design possibilities of the paisley pear.  The design of each quilt is also shown as a diagram next to the quilt description.  Some were double sided and both sides were displayed.  So many possibilities from only one motif and so much work in this exhibition.

Yuza Sashiko Guild brought Jen a kimono as a thank you present, which fitted her really well.  Of course, she had to try it on.

The museum shop has all kinds of interesting things.  I found some vintage Liberty sample fabric pieces and got a copy of Marjorie Horton's book on Welsh quilting patterns.

We had a delicious lunch at the Deli next door before descending on Calico Kate's shop next door to the cafe, where everyone added something to their stash...

Our next stop was at Jen's shop, a few miles out of Lampeter, where I found the perfect bolt of vintage striped Welsh flannel for my guest room curtains.  The quilt in the photo below is my version of the quilt from Dryslwyn, which used to be in Jen's collection.  I had taken the top to show her over a year ago, so I thought she'd like to see the finished piece.  This quilt pattern was featured in Today's Quilter and it will be going to Japan for Yuza Sashiko Guild's exhibition in September.

We had a wonderful day and reached our hotel in Cardiff with our heads full of Welsh quilt inspiration!

Dryslwyn Dreams and Today's Quilter magazine

There's going to be a new quilting magazine soon - Today's Quilter - by the publishers of Love Patchwork & Quilting mag.  My 'Dryslwyn Dreams' quilt pattern will be in the first issue.

'Dryslwyn Dreams' - finished

Quilting in the ditch and the 'knife edge' finish was all done on Monday and the quilt is off for photography at the moment.  I'll have more news about the magazine that will be featuring the pattern very soon.  It is based on the quilt on page 37 of Janet Rae's 'Quilts of the British Isles' (1987) and, when the book was published, it was in Jen Jones' collection.  More about my remake here.

I thought 'Dryslwyn Dreams' was a good title, as I have never seen the original coverlet (no wadding) in real life and, in the book, I can't make out all the fabric details too closely, so mine is a very loose interpretation of original design.

Sunday birthday

After a busy week, I had a relaxing day at home for my birthday on Sunday.  The weather was nice enough for some outdoor quilting, with a jumper on standby when it clouded over.  Glyn popped the champagne cork in the traditional manner i.e. over the garage roof.

I have finally started handquilting my jelly roll version of the 'Dryslwyn' quilt from 'Quilts of the British Isles', a quilt that used to be in Jen Jones' collection.   I made the top when I was living in Brymbo and it was the first quilt we tacked on the frame in this house, in July 2011, so it has been waiting to be quilted for a while.

While I was teaching on Saturday, Glyn drilled through the house wall into the old larder for the electricity supply to the summerhouse and the garage.  The wall there is two bricks thick, but it is engineering brick, so it took over an hour to drill through each time.  This is the metal junction box he built to bring both the cables into the house - he couldn't find exactly what he wanted, so he built his own from a blank box.

Here's a photo from my 'Introduction to Shonai Sashiko' workshop at The Peacock and the Tortoise in Perth (I'll be teaching there again on 12th June). Last week was busy too, as mum & dad were visiting Dundee all week, so it was nice to have a day when I could have a lie in yesterday!

The Welsh Quilt Centre - part 2

 

I didn't know if Jen Jones, founder of the Welsh Quilt Centre, would be there on Friday morning, but she was sitting behind the counter in the shop, so I showed her my version of the Dryslwyn quilt - read more about it here.  I've got it tacked now but haven't started the quilting and was hoping the original just might be in the exhibition, but sadly for us, it was sold a long time ago.  Jen said she knows who has it and we hope it might be loaned for a future exhibition.  I wanted to know what the quilting was like on the original and she confirmed that it was very plain, so I think I will go ahead and quilt this in a very simple zigzag design inspired by the traditional 'waves' pattern, which is a geometric zigzag, rather than a curved design as might be expected.  The shop was full of all kinds of interesting things, including bits and pieces of vintage fabrics, trims, books etc.  I added a few pieces for one of my 1718 projects.

Upstairs, the quilts are displayed in the former courtroom of the old town hall.  The ceiling must be twenty feet high, so it is possible to display pieces hanging in two tiers.  The quilt at the top is another old favourite of mine, the red baskets quilt from the Ceredigion Museum in Aberystwyth.

This quilt, like Dryslwyn, is illustrated in Janet Rae's 'Quilts of the British Isles'.  It was one of many quilts made from tailors's samples.  

The abstract designs made by the repetition of simple shapes and the changes in colour and value gives these quilts an endless fascination for me - the regularity of the shape with the asymmetry of the colour and value.  Often this abstract quality is more apparent in photos than when standing in front of the quilt, or when viewing the quilt from a distance.  There was plenty of space to stand back and view the quilts from the other end of the room.

This is is from the quilt centre's website -

Starting with a thrifty culture of “mend and make-do”, the quilters of rural Wales unselfconsciously produced brilliant pieces of Folk Art.  Using their innate and untrained artistry they would assemble pieces of fabric, often recycled, into lively compositions that could be balanced or quirky, classical or primitive.  They might incorporate ancient symbols and images, or everyday items from their lives, chapel, house, animals or people they knew and over all this they quilted ancient patterns; echos from much earlier cultures.

Two of the tailors' sample quilts were stiched with red wool, which made a beautiful counterpoint to the more subdued fabrics.

I love the use of beds to display some of the quilts, something we have tried at Quiltfest in Llangollen, but never having quite as many beds.

What to look at next??

There was a big tub of handling samples too.  Some of these pieces illustrated the 'boro' nature of scrap quilts, with layers of old fabrics inside.

The exhibitions continued into the hallway and adjacent rooms, with contemporary work by Janet Bolton and Sandie Lush.  This quilt still on the frame was displayed at the top of the stairs.

Photography was allowed without flash and I took so many photos - I will put these in my next post, which will be very heavy on images.  It was an inspiration to visit.