Tuesday 13 September 2011

Latest quilt

And I found another one.......
Sorry about the pictures. I have to drape the quilt over the sofa to get the shot.

This is quite a small quilt but made with a wonderful selection of 1950`s fabrics.
This is gorgeous;  very 'Festival of Britain'
This very vivid fabric design is present in two separate colour ways. The texture is quite rough and this may be a furnishing fabric. It`s reminicent of the barkcloth fabric that was so popular at this time.


The construction is quite crude and there are the stamping marks visible on the black fabric...
..and also on this red sprig fabric used in the border.
There is an older quilt visible inside the covers. It`s very worn but seems to have a pink sprigged fabric and some quilting is also visible


This looks a bit more familiar, and the quilting has a very distinctive zig-zag to it.
 It is in fact a cut down fragment of a  'Comfy' quilt. These were factory made during the 1930`s and beyond and there were thousands of them produced.  
Here is a picture of one in far better condition. There are usually at least two or three listed on eBay most of the time. Pink seems to be a popular colour, though I have also seen purple, yellow and even black.
A very utilitarian quilt then. The original Comfy quilt was used until it was worn to tatters and was then used as wadding for a rough but rather fun quilt. 

Wednesday 7 September 2011

Cornwall

Just returned from a fantastic holiday near Land`s End.
This is the walk down to the sea cliffs only yards from the holiday cottage. Cornwall had a massive mining industry and the remains are still visible everywhere. The spoil heaps on the left are from a tin mine that only closed in 1985.
 This lighthouse was just a short walk along the cliff path. It still has an original compressed air foghorn which is very effective!
There was so much to do in this area of Cornwall, but the weather was so good I ended up going for long walks almost every day. I took my brother`s dog with me and as you can see he had a great time.
We visited some of the many prehistoric stone features that litter this part of Britain...


This is Chun Quoit. A Neolithic burial chamber.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Men-An-Tol. A very mysterious structure. No-one knows if this is a tomb entrance or part of a stone circle. Children were passed through the ring stone nine times to cure them of rickets until the last century. 
Rhys isn`t impressed.
The Merry Maidens Stone Circle.
Cornwall South coast. Just to the right and out of sight, is the Minack Theatre which is a spectacular open air theatre carved into the cliff side.  I`d love to see a production there but you are warned  to take loads of cushions and blankets, even in Summer.
I took a load of books, dvd`s and a basted quilt for quilting.......
....but we were too tired to do anything!