The Welsh Quilt Centre

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. 

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

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. 

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

detail of the Breconshire Tailor's sample quilt (on the bed in previous photo)

Thomas Quilt, naive patchwork using victorian fabrics, sophisticated welsh quilting,
made in Newcastle Emlyn, 72 x 70 inches, 1880

detail of Welsh quilting on the Thomas Quilt

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.

Welsh quilts often used found textiles such as shawls, handkerchiefs or bandanas and added borders and the lovely intricate quilting.

Paisley Panel Quilt with Saw-tooth Border  hand quilted with lots of spirals,
Newquay, Cardiganshire, 85 x 82 inches, 1890

Cotton bandana medallion quilt

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.   

magic safety net

 When I need to feel better, I make patchwork.

Attaching nine-patches to each other creates a kind of safety net.

When people ask me what I'm doing, I tell them I am sewing magic squares.

This quilt top has been in the works since 2014.  Now it's done.

It was with me during the broken leg.

It helped me get me through 10 days of this still rampant global pandemic.

The ice has started to go out on the bay in front of our house.

I sat for a while yesterday and listened to the ice cracking

and found a heart-shaped rock.

I chant my steps

I've been able to resume a daily walk.
I use a cane, I count each step, chanting in my mind
...twenty two, twenty three, twenty four.........
I don't know why I do that.
Each day I can get a little further without stopping to rest.
The act of walking has become a brave repetition of small movements
that strengthen me, ground me, and give me ritual.

I am sewing a line to celebrate my daily walk.
I've have been considering doing this for years.
Last winter, each time that I completed the walk, I moved a square of white linen into a basket, although I didn't know how or what I was going to do with them.  Some kind of path perhaps.

The repetition of day after day of stepping reminded me of stitching.  It was as if I was sewing myself to my local landscape.  I wanted to make something that referenced the running stitch I guess.
A walking step/stitch.

Then I broke my leg.
No more walk.
Instead, I looked at the horizon.  I sat on my deck.
I began wrapping those squares of white around around sweet clover.  Wrap wrap wrap.
The clover stalks grow as tall as me.  In the summer they smelled sweet.
I bent the branches, cut the stalk, and bandaged them with cloth and thread.
I thought that somehow, these could still represent me and my walk. The walk un-walked.

My daughter told me that they looked like bones.

go over, go through, go into what we already know
material objects open a door to inner ness

I spaced the white steps into a relaxed gait, using cloth that I have saved, full of memories.
My life path, a patchwork of time.

My path will measures the distance of the walk I can do now and I'll speak more about it when it is installed during the elemental festival in 2 weeks.

Gravity is measured by the bottom of the foot.                  Juhani Pallasmaa said that

fold lines and silk patchwork

women's vintage handkerchiefs, some cotton, some linen,  unfolded

My dear friend Connie gives me things when I visit her.
Over the winter she gave me a box of handkerchiefs.  Then she gave me another.
I pinned the hankies up to see if they would cover my design wall,
Yes, I think they will.

Then I noticed the beautiful folds.
The hills and valleys, the lines and creases.
Then I thought about how those lines came to be.
Laundry.
Washing, bleaching, ironing, folding carefully, ironing again and again.
Making small packets of empty heat and time.  Holding it secret.
No stitching other than the occasional monogram, which I believe was done in a factory.

I just wanted to make a note of this.  Of me noticing.

Martha Agry Vaughn Quilt 1805  Maine  silk patchwork

I have also been looking at this beauty.
It's giving me a path.
It is in the collection of the Winterthur Museum.

sunlight and shadow

This quilt is only about thirty years old but it is worn out.   Perhaps that's because I made it from sewing scraps and worn family clothing.  In the photo above, my fingers show where the chambray from a favourite skirt has practically disappeared.

 

I used to sew all my own clothes, and some of the girls' when they were small.  As I look at the fabrics in this sunlight and shadow quilt, memories flood over me of that time in my life.  The cloth is from skirts, tops, children's sun dresses, or scraps left over from baby quilts I made for friends. I find it interesting that the solid colours are harder to place in my mind than the prints.  At the time I made this piece, (early 80's) I only purchased new cloth for home decor, clothing, or baby gifts.  In a way, these are all 'found' fabrics.

I gave the quilt to my dad when he and my mother moved from the family farm to their condo in Kingston in 1987.
He used it.
He would 'go horizontal' on top of it in the afternoons, and under it during the night.

This year during some of my visits with dad, I've been trying to mend areas.
I'm adding newer fabrics, newer memories, patching them over the worn spaces.
I think that I'm adding strength.
Might as well try.
Dad turns 92 next month.