01686 413467
Soft Prints Rag Quilt
Ref: 2000-3-B
This is a nine-patch patchwork quilt in pale fabrics including cottons, cretonnes, shirting and dress fabrics. There are stripes, checks and florals. The fabrics, including one which depicts children skating, date from the 1940s – 1960s. Some of the blocks are hand pieced, others done by machine. The quilting is diagonal lines in white cotton thread. The reverse is a lightweight open weave calico in cream and the wadding is of cotton. The quilt has a mauve binding with a floral print. 1780 x 1415mm.
Suffolk Puffs Bedcover
Ref: 2002-8
This was donated by a lady from the local area and is a bedcover made from various fabrics including crimplene, cottons, nylon and other manmade fabrics so it was definitely made after the launch of crimplene in 1959. Circles of these fabrics have been made by hand into Suffolk Puffs which have been hand stitched onto a white sheet arranged in blocks of colour. The colours are bright blues, pinks, purples and oranges and some of the fabrics are plain but most are patterned – especially floral. There is a border of Suffolk Puffs in blue and green all around the edge. 1350 x 2102mm.
Laura Ashley Bedcover
Ref: 2002-9
Made in the 1970s by a lady from Llanidloes, this was donated to us by her husband after her death. The lady had worked for Laura Ashley, as did many people from the area. The top is a patchwork of machine pieced triangles all made from Laura Ashley designed cotton fabrics in pink and blue. The reverse is mainly curtain lining with strips of patchwork in Laura Ashley fabrics. The top and reverse have not been quilted together, just bound with maroon needlecord. 1025 x 1110mm.
Abertridwr Quilt 3
Ref: 2002-18-C
This is one of a batch of several quilts made between about 1900 and the 1920’s which were made by the same lady who had begun sewing at a very early age. At the age of ten she was sent away from home to work as a dairymaid but continued with her sewing on her rare days off – her stepmother would say to her, “Every stitch you do now, won’t have to be worked again.” She grew up, married, and went to live in Aberdare with her husband, a collier, before moving with their growing family to Abertridwr. There she made the quilts which we now care for.
Each one was made from recycled fabrics and those from the pattern books held by the drapers of Abertridwr. As her daughters grew, she taught them the craft of patchworking. One of them recalled as a child being taught to sew the patches together and, when the tops were complete, the quilting frame being brought down from behind the horsehair sofa for the quilting process to begin. These quilts are “pattern books” in themselves and much may be learned of Valley life in the first quarter of the century by studying them.
Sadly, this quilt is very worn and faded with several tears and slits around the patches. One side is made of a plain green woven cotton with a few patches of other fabric at the top and the bottom. The other side has large patches which overlay the main fabric, a pale green cotton. The quilting is hand done with an off white thread in large uneven stitches. 1974 x 2235mm.
Diamond in a Square Quilt 2
Ref: 2002-18-G
This is one of a batch of several quilts made between about 1900 and the 1920’s which were made by the same lady who had begun sewing at a very early age. At the age of ten she was sent away from home to work as a dairymaid but continued with her sewing on her rare days off – her stepmother would say to her, “Every stitch you do now, won’t have to be worked again.” She grew up, married, and went to live in Aberdare with her husband, a collier, before moving with their growing family to Abertridwr. There she made the quilts which we now care for. Each one was made from recycled fabrics and those from the pattern books held by the drapers of Abertridwr.
As her daughters grew, she taught them the craft of patchworking. One of them recalled as a child being taught to sew the patches together and, when the tops were complete, the quilting frame being brought down from behind the horsehair sofa for the quilting process to begin. These quilts are “pattern books” in themselves and much may be learned of Valley life in the first quarter of the century by studying them.
This quilt is made of dress cotton muslins (some quite fine), shirting fabric and fabric from a samples book. It has a patchwork top. There is a central square medallion inside which are five diamonds pieced in a cross shape and triangles to fill out the square. The medallion is surrounded by rows of brickwall pieces of various sizes and the colours used are mainly blue, pink and white. There is a woollen blanket wadding and the reverse is made from strips of pale pink and green, very thin fabric. It has been hand quilted in white thread using an all-over diamond pattern. 2020 x 1950mm.
Cotton Blue and White Quilt
Ref: 2002-24
This quilt is made from cotton shirting dating from the 1850s and 1860s - plain blue and white striped and some faded prints of red, brown and yellow. These are all fine fabrics so the quilt was probably owned by a family who were comfortably off. The patchwork top is hand pieced and the design has a central medallion made up of 16 stars, surrounded by seven borders incorporating triangles and diamonds. It’s possible that the top could have been made earlier and then made into a quilt at a later date, as the edge is machine sewn. The wadding is of fine raw cotton with some seeds showing. The reverse is a red check twill weave made from three widths of fabric. The quilting design is an all-over chevron pattern. 2208 x 1807mm.
The Eleventh Child Quilt
Ref: 2002-28
This is a contemporary quilt by Bobby Britnell which was inspired by The Gentleman’s Quilt which is number 2002-11 in our collection. It was made especially for the Quilt Association Summer Show in 2002, Reflections. It is made from white cotton fabric and hand dyed blue and pink cotton fabric with cotton wadding and a reverse of white cotton. It is, like the quilt which inspired it, a mix of patchwork and appliqué and is heavily machine quilted using thread to match the fabric colour. 1932 x 378mm.
Two Layer Patchwork
Ref: 2006-9
This is a two layer patchwork bag construction – perhaps an early style eiderdown cover. It has a patchwork top made from various sizes of rectangles and squares of cotton sateen of varying quality – probably shirting fabrics. Most of these are woven in stripes of blue or red and white although some are printed. The reverse is made up of 50mm wide strips of fabric stitched together. The two layers are machine stitched together around the edges. 2250 x 1550mm.
Octagons Patchwork
Ref: 2007-8
This is a large patchwork quilt made of octagons and squares in various cottons – mostly printed. It was made between 1870 and 1890. The wadding is two woollen blankets, one loosely woven one finer. The reverse is of white twill cotton. It is very finely hand quilted in white thread with a design of a central medallion with chevrons and cables around the edge. 2225 x 2395mm.
Unfinished Patchwork Top
Ref: 2009-1-C
This unfinished patchwork top is mainly of interest because of the use of a variety of plain and patterned fabrics dating from the mid to late 19th Century. 2220 x 1940mm.
Contemporary Knitted Quilt
Ref: 2009-8
This knitted quilt was made in Spring 2009 by the Llanidloes Knitting and Crochet Group and was donated to the QA following the summer exhibition of that year where it featured alongside an antique knitted quilt from Rhayader which is in our collection. Each member of the group contributed to the quilt which is on the theme of gardens. Made from both wool and synthetic yarns, the various patches have been sewn onto a wool blanket.
Patchwork Top
Ref: 2009-9
This unfinished top is made of fabrics dating from the late 19th Century, including cotton dress and shirting in floral patterns, stripes and novelty fabric. There is also some furnishing fabric used as well as the Queen Victoria 1837-1887 Jubilee fabric which features these dates and the head of the monarch. It is hand sewn in patchwork squares and has three borders only – top, bottom and one side. It was rescued by a former QA Trustee who found it on a sales table. It had been stitched onto a boucléwool fabric and this had been washed and had consequently shrunk. She took it home, removed the backing and donated it to us in 2009. 2035 x 1402mm.
Unfinished Tumbling Blocks
Ref: 2010-2-A
This is an unfinished patchwork featuring tumbling blocks and hexagons in a variety of bright colourful fabrics. The piece was given to the donor’s mother in about 2005 by a lady from Barmouth who had inherited it from an aunt. It dates from the late 19th Century – sometime after 1869. There are various dates contained in the numerous papers in the reverse, including 1855, 1858 and a postmark showing Porthmadoc, July ’69. The papers are a mixture of newspapers and handwriting, in Welsh and English.
Made from silks, fine wools, cottons and velvets, the main piece is hand-pieced in the English style with papers, and a neat stitch, some in white thread, others in matching threads. The tacking and papers are still in. There is a central six pointed star motif with a pieced blue satin hexagon with a wreath image. There are also three, smaller, unattached pieces. Main piece: 1105 x 1156mm.
Unfinished Patchwork Top
Ref: 2011-2-B
This patchwork quilt top, which is unfinished, is made of various fabrics including patterned cottons (spots, stripes, florals and rings) and shirting fabrics. There is a basic patchwork central medallion made from different sized squares and rectangles surrounded by borders all hand stitched together. At some point it must have been used as a dust sheet – there are paint marks evident. The donor stitched it to an old sheet to stabilise it before giving it to us in 2011. 2072 x 2030mm.
Patchwork Coverlet
Ref: 2011-2-C
This coverlet is made of cotton fabrics, many in purple but some in red and many of which are floral. These alternate with white and paler fabrics some of which are patterned. It is a patchwork in the brickwall style and the patches have been oversewn in white thread. The coverlet is backed with flour or sugar bags with some basic machine stitching to hold the two sides together.
1800 x 2165mm.
Red and White Patchwork Quilt
Ref: 2011-3-A
This quilt was bought by the donor from the Oxfam shop in Aberystwyth. The patchwork top has a central medallion and borders, with red squares in the fourth border. It has a wool wadding and the reverse is a piece of white cotton twill fabric. The quilting has been done by hand in a white thread using a diamond pattern. 1940 x 1650mm.
Laura Ashley Factory Patchwork
Ref: 2012-4
This patchwork quilt was donated by a lady from Llanidloes who was employed at the Laura Ashley factory in Carno. The management asked workers to bring in family quilts to be used as design sources. When the lady left her job, this quilt was ‘given back’ to her but it was not the one which she had taken in! It is made from a variety of recycled fabrics in cotton and linen, some intended for clothing and some for homewares. There are striped, spotted, floral and gingham patterns. Most of the fabrics date from the 1930s, a few are earlier and some are from the 1970s. It is a reversible medallion patchwork quilt which has been machine pieced. Hand sewn patches of later fabrics have been added. There is no wadding between the top and reverse sides. It has been used as a dust sheet – splashes of paint can be seen. 2090 x 1750mm.
Welsh Reversible Patchwork Quilt
Ref: 2013-5
Our donor remembers buying this quilt in Carmarthen in about 1990. Made in the 1920s or 1930s it is made of cotton sateen and is a reversible quilt with pale pink fabric on one side and pale blue on the other. It could have been made to be ready in time for the birth of a baby so that the appropriate side could have been chosen for display. The wadding is a kapok filling and the quilt has been hand stitched in pink thread. There is a central medallion with a square on point, surrounded by circles. There are also stars, tulips, spirals and hatching incorporated into the design. A flounce has been added by machine stitching around all four edges with a machine stitched butted edge which has frayed away. 1903 x 1702mm.
Multi Coloured Patchwork
Ref: 2017-1-A
This is a basic patchwork quilt made of cotton fabrics, made in the St David’s area of Pembrokeshire in the late 19th Century. The fabrics are cotton and all small prints which were popular at the time- they probably came from dress fabric and shirting sample books. The top has a design of brickwall patchwork and a combination of hand and machine quilting has been used. Some long narrow strips of cloth have been used along two edges to ‘square up’ the quilt. The reverse is a white twill sheet and the wadding is a thin layer of carded wool. The layers have been hand quilted together in a hatching pattern with white cotton thread.
1970 x 1760mm.
Canadian Dresden Plate Quilt -Yellow
Ref: 2017-3-A
This is one of two quilts that belonged to a resident of Llanidloes which were passed on to us, at her request, after her death. This quilt was made by the owner’s great grandmother during the 1920s or 1930s at her home in Canada, as she had emigrated there from Wales. The owner said that she could remember her working on them when she visited as a child. The maker lived on a small island of only one acre in size and the whole family used to get together in the school holidays to camp, play games and play music together. They also used to hold a sewing bee.
This one is made up of fifteen blocks with a Dresden Plate design of floral cotton fabrics pieced together by machine, appliqued onto a square white background and outlined by hand in black thread using chain stitch. The blocks have been joined together with yellow sashing around each block. There is a reverse of pieced white cotton sheeting, a wadding of raw cotton and the layers have been quilted together with a cross hatching design on the white blocks and a twisted chain design on the sashing and border. 1550mm x 2555mm.
Canadian Dresden Plate Quilt -Green
Ref: 2017-3-B
This is one of two quilts that belonged to a resident of Llanidloes which were passed on to us, at her request, after her death. This quilt was made by the owner’s great grandmother during the 1920s or 1930s at her home in Canada, as she had emigrated there from Wales. The owner said that she could remember her working on them when she visited as a child. The maker lived on a small island of only one acre in size and the whole family used to get together in the school holidays to camp, play games and play music together.
They also used to hold a sewing bee. This quilt was made in a smaller size than its companion quilt, so the owner’s mother added a further border to it so that both were almost the same size. The quilt is made up of fifteen blocks with a Dresden Plate design of floral cotton fabrics pieced together by machine, appliqued onto a square white background and outlined by hand in black thread using chain stitch. The blocks have been joined together with green sashing around each block. There is a reverse of pieced white cotton sheeting, a wadding of raw cotton and the layers have been quilted together with a cross hatching design on the white blocks and a twisted half chain design on the sashing and border. This quilt has been very well chewed in one corner – possibly by the owner’s dogs as she kept poodles. 1550mm x 2530mm.
Cotton Squares Patchwork Quilt
Ref: 2017-7
This patchwork quilt was probably made in the 1920 by a lady from Shrewsbury. In blue and white, with touches of pink, the quilt was made using a variety of fabrics including brushed, crinkly and textured cotton and Liberty lawn. Many appear to be pyjama and shirt fabrics. The top is formed of handsewn fabric patches in squares and rectangles and there is no discernible overall pattern.
There are some repair squares stitched very neatly over the top. The reverse is made from four pieces of fabric stitched together. The top, reverse and wadding have been hand quilted together with cotton thread using small neat stitches to form parallel lines going from top to bottom and diagonal lines in one direction only. 1700mm x 1920mm.
Glyn Farm Quilt
Ref: 2018-1
This patchwork quilt was made locally near Llanidloes pre 1919 and was donated by a member of the family. The top is a patchwork made from a variety of fabrics – cotton twill, dressmaking and upholstery fabrics and velvet – in green, red and black. The centre is made from nine feathered Ohio Star blocks, surrounded by a border of half triangles in a zig zag pattern and a plain black border. The reverse is made from three pieces of paisley fabric. The wadding is a handwoven blanket. The quilt has been hand quilted in dark green thread. Arch shapes can be made out on the border but the rest of the design is difficult to see. 2223mm x 2224mm.
Pentre Berriew Coverlet
Ref: 2019-1
Made in around 1920 this is a patch work coverlet in pastel colours from Berriew near Welshpool. The coverlet top is formed of a central medallion of four triangles and nine borders of half square triangles which get larger as they go towards the edge. The reverse is a white flannelette sheet. It has been quilted in straight lines using white cotton thread. The quilt was the only thing left to be taken as a memento after a death at a property near Berriew. The donor, who was a neighbour, found the coverlet screwed up in a corner, took it home, washed it and kept it before donating it to us. 2063mm x 1907mm.
Patchwork Squares Quilt
Ref: 2021-1-B
This is one of two quilts donated to us by a Llanidloes resident who had bought them from Leeds Market in the 1980s. Made in the early 20th Century it is made from wool flannel, cotton and flannelette. There is evidence that some of the patches were cut from a shirt, tea towel and a pillowcase. Colours are a muted grey, green, pink and blue with a red bias binding added around the edge, probably at a later date. The top is a patchwork of rectangles and, over time, the quilt has been extended with another quilt and some patches have been added on. Some of it has been hand pieced but a machine has also been used. There is an old cotton sheet on the reverse and the layers have been quilted together using rows of machine stitching. 1930mm x 1700mm.
English Paper Pieced Diamond Top
Ref: 2021– 06
This quilt top was made between 2003 and 2010 and is an interesting, very dramatic looking piece. The design used traditional English Paper Piecing (EPP) and the papers are clearly evident, as is the tacking of the pieces around the diamond shaped paper pieces. The fabrics are multi-coloured printed cottons. Because of the design and its unfinished nature, it is irregularly shaped with a maximum size of 2600mm x 2540mm.
The Shoo Fly Quilt
Ref: 2022–1- A
This is a Canadian quilt made in the 1930s or 1940s. The top is a patchwork using square blocks in the Shoo Fly design, and is a traditional homespun quilt using up fabrics, which are of blue and white cotton, some of which is patterned. The reverse is a piece of lower grade white cotton fabric and the wadding is also of thin cotton. The quilt has been hand quilted in diagonal stripes using white cotton thread and the edges have been bound in blue with rounded corners. Although there is some staining on the quilt (which may be nicotine) and it is rather faded, it is in good condition. 1747mm x 2004mm.
Landing Chest Quilt – Box of Rain
Ref: 2022-6-C
Made by the late Dawn Pavitt in 1996 and donated by the maker. This visually beautiful quilt is made in a variety of coloured cotton fabrics on a pale blue background, using a Seminole patchwork design which is a style of patchwork made from piecing colourful strips of fabric in horizontal bands. There is a thin wadding and a reverse of plain cream cotton. The quilt has been hand quilted in a zig zag pattern. 814mm x 920mm.