In Stitches

If you love seeing the stitches in old quilts, no doubt you admire Amish quilts. But did you know that Welsh quiltmakers have been making quilts in their own style for perhaps even longer than the Amish? And on the dramatic dark color wools and flannels, the hand quilting stitches show beautifully.

Good news: Jen Jones, an American who lives in Britain, has opened her excellent collection of Welsh quilts to public view at a new museum. Please click on this link to see the video clip from BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8179225.stm.
Ms. Jones also has a beautiful website and sells a book about Welsh quilts http://www.jen-jones.com/ definitely a 'must see' if you're going to England.

The image at the head of this blog post is a close-up from a Welsh wool wholecloth quilt that I own. Bought on ebay, I was surprised when it arrived and discovered that the backing was a damask linen tablecloth dyed bright red! My apologies for the crummy quality of the overall picture but you can still discern the interesting designs.

Warning: if in England and you see a quilt that looks like a traditional Amish Center Diamond, do not comment as I did-you might get in trouble! Me at the Malvern quilt show years ago: "What an unusual Amish Center Diamond quilt! Grey, red, black, and forest green..." A dark-haired woman rounded on me immediately:" I'll have you know that's a Welsh Center Diamond and the Amish got the design from us!" Oops.