The Cottage Orné Quilt

The Cottage Orné Quilt
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Wednesday 29 September 2010

The Welsh Quilt that got away!

A few years ago when Clare and I were working on MAKING WELSH QUILTS I spotted a picture of an old Welsh quilt in Pepper Cory's book MASTERING QUILT MARKING (Hi Pepper - I love this book!) and I thought it would make a good project for our book (we did ask Ardis and Robert James for permission to do this).

I quickly drafted it on my favourite squared paper and Clare made it with pieces from her stash.  She then quilted it beautifully using many of the patterns on the original.  We called it Pennsylvania Echo, because it seemed like a good idea at the time and it is in the book if you want to make one.


  This is the link to the original quilt -http://www.quiltstudy.org/collections/search.html?search_type=advanced&search_action=advanced&totalresults=9&offset=0&maxresults=10&detailresult=3&sortby=PatternPrimary

It is much larger than our little quilt and of course the fabrics are very different. It couldn't be in a better place to be appreciated and cherished, but I do feel that it is a shame that it has left Wales.

I believe that it it is an important quilt for a few reasons. Firstly it is very early for this style of quilt and secondly it is actually dated 1818, which is rare.  It is made of a mixture of wool and silk and when I drew it to the attention of Dorothy Osler, she and Debbie Harries did extensive research on the fabrics and produced a research paper for Quilt Studies (published by the British Quilt Study Group).

So it is a very special quilt and in a perfect world it should be here in a Welsh museum.  But hey ho, we have so much heritage that we don't value it as much as we should.  It is safe where it is in the USA and after all it really is their heritage too!

The above link to the old quilt doesn't seem to be working consistently, if you see the wrong quilt (and it's obvious) copy and paste the web address into your browser.

8 comments:

Jan said...

It's really beautiful; I enjoy the simplicity of the piecing and coloring and could look at it for hours!

Little Welsh Quilts and other traditions said...

Thanks Jan. The feedback on this project has been positive. Clare made it just with what she had in her stash, no shopping necessary!

Radka said...

Your quilt might be "little", but it is beautiful, I love the colours and fantastic quilting:) By the way, I left a message on the previous post re reply, if any.
Take care:)

Anonymous said...

Hey Mary, congratulations on your blog. I love your posts and will eagerly await new pictures and descriptions.

Penny

Quilts And Pieces said...

I just love that quilt, and the setting is perfect for it! I really enjoyed looking at your blog tonight!

Miriam said...

I just found your blog. I bought your book earlier this year and I have started making one of the quilts from it. I really love that you have quilting patterns also included in the book.

Little Welsh Quilts and other traditions said...

So glad you like our book. I am busy with the next one!

Jessica said...

Hello, Would you kindly tell me where I might acquire that twig chicken?!