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| The Prince of Wales Feathers 82 x 82 inches, Llanrannog, west Wales, 1880 |
I visited the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter, Wales on August 10, 2024.
The exhibition Merry Go Round was on display.
All the quilts are hand quilted with spirals and flowers in the traditional Welsh manner.
This year, in addition to the older quilts curated from Jen Jones' collection, small quilts by contemporary quilt artist, Mary Jenkins, were displayed on several small suspended merry go rounds.
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| upper left wall, Handkerchief Quilt, Pembrokeshire 87 x 82, 1820 - 1840. Lower left wall, Brecon Star 75 x 70 inches, late 19th century right lower corner of left wall, A Present, made by a Welsh lady who emigrated to Canada and sent this quilt back to Llanelli, Wales. Redwork embroidery was taught in Canadian schools. 1901. on the two hanging merry go rounds in the foreground are small quilts by Mary Jenkins |
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| upper wall, a quilt made from bandana handkerchiefs with lovely welsh quilting lower wall, embroidered cat with Canadian Redwork, early 20th century foreground, small quilts made by contemporary quilt maker, Mary Jenkins. |
The high ceilings of the town hall upper floor allowed for a lot of the older quilts to be displayed.
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| grey patchwork above the bed: Lampeter Velfrey Tailor's Sample Quilt, machine pieced wool remnants, hand quilted, 88 x 81 inches 1895 on the bed is the Breconshire Tailor's Sample Quilt. It has a blanket as a batting and is so heavy and irregular that it is awkward to display on the wall. Machine pieced wool, 88 x 81 inches, 1880 in foreground, more of Mary Jenkins small corduroy and wool quilts inspired by Welsh quilts |
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| detail of the Breconshire Tailor's sample quilt (on the bed in previous photo) |
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| Thomas Quilt, naive patchwork using victorian fabrics, sophisticated welsh quilting, made in Newcastle Emlyn, 72 x 70 inches, 1880 |
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| detail of Welsh quilting on the Thomas Quilt |
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| Brecon Star, cotton prints, hand quilted, Brecon, Wales 75 x 70 inches, late19th century |
The most compelling thing in the 2024 exhibition was the Merry Go Round in the middle of the room that displayed four of the Jen Jones' collection. All of them are red and white, and most are hand quilted using the famous Welsh technique.
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| Paisley Panel Quilt with Saw-tooth Border hand quilted with lots of spirals, Newquay, Cardiganshire, 85 x 82 inches, 1890 |
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| Cotton bandana medallion quilt |
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| detail of the Thomas quilt (named by Jen Jones in memory of her pet cat) |
One of the reasons we went to Wales after the Birmingham festival was so that I could make a pilgrimage to Lampeter to visit this famous shrine of Welsh Quilting. Founded in 1971 by Jen Jones, please click on her name to read more about her passion for the Welsh quilt.
5 comments:
Thanks for sharing your visit to Lampeter. Such lovely quilts and especially such lovely quilting.
I am in love with Welsh quilts. The hand quilting is wonderful. The colours and piecing are beautiful. Thank you for showing them.
Thank you for sharing these images of beautiful Welsh Quilts.
My mother was Welsh and one of my earliest memories is of Wales. Being warm and cosy under a very old quilt and feeling the lovely contours of the quilting under my hand. Over 70 years ago but still vivid in my memory
Beautiful quilts! Some of them have the look of Amish quilts.
So many beautiful quilts and such a charming and clever way to display them!
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