Celebrating Hand Quilting and Laura Ashley 60th Anniversary



Red and White Pinwheel Quilt
Laura Ashley Red Spotty fabric

Over at Celebrate Hand Quilting they are hosting a blog hop this week.  It is well worth a look, as hand quilters all over the world are sharing their love for hand quilting.  I am not part of the Blog Hop, but I thought I would take this opportunity to show you my current hand quilting.
This is my current hand quilting project, my Red and White Pinwheel quilt, and on the reverse it is backed with a red spotty cotton lawn that I bought in the Laura Ashley sale many, many years ago.


Vintage Laura Ashley fabrics 1980s - 1990s

If you delve into my everyday fabric stash (as opposed to my quilting fabric stash), you will find that it is largely made up from lengths of Laura Ashley dressmaking fabric purchased in the sales back in the 1980s and 1990s.  In those days the Laura Ashley Sale used to be a phenomenon, with people queuing around the block to get in.  I know -  I stood in the queue!  I always used to make a bee-line for the dressmaking fabrics, which were either Seconds or left overs from a print run which had been used to make last seasons dresses. Most of it was a lovely cotton lawn, very similar to the Liberty Lawn fabrics, but at a fraction of the price at £1.99 a metre. In those days I used to make loads of colourful summer shorts and trousers out of the fabric, and used to wear them until they were threadbear. Some of the fabrics you see here are old Laura Ashley skirts. I even have a set of the patchwork kits in my stash. Happy Days!

Today I have just heard that Laura Ashley are putting on a pop-up exhibition of their vintage clothes, celebrating 60 years, on 13th and 14th June 2013, in  London.  As it is on for such a short time, tickets are limited.  Not sure if I will manage to get up to London, but it would be great to see.

Also, between 13th July - 26th August 2013, the Museum of Costume in Bath, UK, is holding an exhibition alongside their normal display of historical costume, "Laura Ashley - The Romantic Heroine", which features the Romantic Style which she influenced during the 1970s.  It's a great costume museum, with a collection on par with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

If you have nostalgic memories of Laura Ashley, Ann Rippin has a blog, and has a strong interest in how Laura Ashley fabric touched everyday lives and their patchwork and quilting, and there may be an opportunity to get involved in her research.
 

#1 Butterfly Quilt - Inspiration Behind the Quilt

Butterfly Quilt by Frances Meredith

Inspiration
The inspiration for this scrap quilt came from a picture in a quilting book I took out of our local library, early in my quilting journey, about 2003.  The original picture in the book was no more than a couple of inches big, but it was enough for me to work out a pattern for a block.  I like a scrappy quilt, and this quilt used all sorts of fabrics.  At the time, the only patchworking I knew was English piecing, so I made my own paper pattern, cut out all the pieces, and off I went.

History of the Butterflies Quilt
During the period when I was making the quilt, I went to a JOAnn’s store, during a trip to America, where I saw a pattern of the same quilt being sold on the shelves. I guess it was only then that I realised that the quilt I was making already had a history.  Further research when I returned home to the UK revealed that a pattern, and the history of the quilt was published in a book “The New England Quilt Museum Quilts: Featuring the Story of the Mill Girls -Instructions for 5 Heirloom Quilts” by Jennifer Gilbert (Paperback,1999) [NB: Which I notice you can currently access via Google Books].  I discovered that it was originally made in about 1935, by a lady called Nina Shrock, Harvard County, Indiana, USA, using a design by Laura Wheeler. When we were back in America in the Autumn of 2007, we made a pilgrimage to the New England Quilt Museum, in Lowell, where we able to see the quilt on display, the one I had seen originally in my library book, back in the UK.  It was a nice feeling. I now have a pencil with the same butterflies on it, as a memento!

What fabrics did I use?
My creative journey has included dressmaking and embroidery, and it was only in about 2002 that I inherited a collection of beautiful quilting fabric and I considered doing some quilting. Amongst the collection were packets of fabrics, which I later learnt were called Charm Packs.  There were 5” squares, 4“ squares, and tiny 1.5” squares, mainly from a mail order company, Strawberry Fayre based in Chagford in Devon, UK.  I wanted a project that was going to use these up, and the scrappy nature of the quilt, seemed like the ideal choice. 

However, I did notice in the small picture that there were ‘constants’.  For instance, the body of the butterfly was the same for each.  I did not have anything suitable, so I went to my local quilting and patchwork shop, BusyBees, based in the Craft Units at Tredegar House in Newport, Wales.  There I found a brown batik fabric.  I was recommended to give it a wash before I used it. I think that was a good idea.  Otherwise, I didn’t wash any of the fabric – the bits were too small.

There is a whole mix in there.  Ironically, it was only after I had completed the quilt that it was brought to my attention that there were a lot of 30’s reproduction fabrics in it.  This was not intentional, it was serendipity at work.  At the time I didn’t realise what 30’s reproduction fabrics were.  I also have one or two bits of special fabric in there, including the first piece of fabric I ever bought, at the Marldon Apple Pie Fair in Devon, back in the early 1980’s.  You can see details of Techniques and Construction in this post.

Statistics
Dimensions: 243cm x 243cm (approx 8ft x 8ft)
Blocks: 64 blocks, 10” x 10”
Piecing Method: English Paper Piecing. Hand Pieced
Quilting Method: Hand Quilted
Dates: 2004 – August 2006

Awards:
2007 South West Quilters Award for Traditional Quilts, Quilts UK , Malvern
2007 ‘My First Bed Quilt’, Great Northern Quilt Show, Harrogate

#4 Butterfly Quilt - What did I learn from this Quilt?

#3 Butterfly Quilt - Showing the Butterfly Quilt

#2 Butterfly Quilt - Techniques and Construction