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New acquisitions to The Quilters' Guild Collection

Published: Wednesday, 25th October 2017 10:20 AM

The Quilters' Guild Collection has benefitedfrom 12 new donations to the collection during 2017. You can read more about a selection of them below.

Frame Quilt with Cornucopia Print Centre
1800-1830
Maker unknown
217cm x 248cm

This large hand-quilted frame quilt has two interesting features. The central octagonal printed panel, showing a cornucopia on a red background, is a block printed panel that was specifically made for inclusion in patchwork and other domestic projects. They could be bought as single panels or in rows off the bolt at the haberdashers, and were particularly popular in the first decades of the nineteenth century. It also has a row of applied shallow clamshells with squares set in the corners. Applique doesn’t often feature in frame designs, and this particular clamshell design is also unusual. Although we do not know who made this piece, it is thought to have originated in East Cornwall. This piece was exhibited at Torre Abbey, Torquay in an exhibition entitled ‘Thread: Celebrating Creativity in Historic and Contemporary Quilts’, 25 March �“ 4 June 2017.

Honesty Skyline
2015
Pauline Burbidge
133cm x 164cm

Honesty skyline is one of Pauline Burbidge’s latest pieces, made using cyanotype and mono printing techniques incorporating the plants and flowers that surround the artist’s home in the Scottish borders. Known as a Quiltscape, it is one of a series of textile landscapes whose imagery is inspired by the changing natural landscape. This particular piece uses the translucent circular seed pods of the plant Honesty (Lunaria Annua) to print onto cotton lawn and silk organza. Red hot poker leaves were used to create fabric rubbings on cotton organdie, with more designs drawn underneath using a fabric marker Markel stick. The layers of the fabric collage have all been hand-stitched and hand-quilted. The Quilters’ Guild is thrilled to finally have a large studio piece by one of Britain’s leading contemporary quilt artists. We were able to purchase this with a special donation made by the Chatsworth Charitable Trust in memory of Elieen Lewis of Sheffield.


All the World’s A Stage
1993
Linda Straw
216cm x 200cm

This pictoral piece on a theatrical Shakespearean theme was made by Linda Straw, and is typically iconic of style, which often combines narrative works based on historical subjects with her expertise in applique, quilting and embroidery. A small piece depicting Chaucer’s wedding in St. Mary de Castro church in Leicester already features in our Nineties Collection. Linda’s other works include Folk Tales Quilt in the Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Pride and Prejudice which has been donated to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath. This piece was purchased with money donated by Bernina, who kindly donate £1000 per year to our collections fund specifically for the purchase of contemporary works.

Thirties Hexagon Piece
1930s
Grandmother of the donor
69cm x 60cm
This small unfinished hexagonal shaped piece is made from mosaic patchwork hexagons that have been made from dress and blouse fabrics. The paper pieces are still intact, but well hidden from view by the generous seam allowance of each hexagon piece. Patchwork from this period is not that common as it was not hugely fashionable, but small quilted projects were often provided in domestic magazines of the time. It is uncertain what this piece of patchwork was intended to create if it was finished, but it could have been a cushion or a larger piece such as a bed cover.