Welsh quilting

 I'm in Lampeter, in mid-Wales, or as a local called it, 'the middle of nowhere'.  I'm here on a long-desired pilgrimage to the Welsh Quilt Centre, home to the best collection of Welsh quilts in the world.  It took me 6.5 hours on public transport to get here, which is why I havent been before.  I'd looked into it over the years but it was always too far and too hard.   Then the Centre closed in 2018 and I thought I had lost my chance.  But it reopened after COVID and earlier this year there was an article about the founder Jen Jones in Today's Quilter Magazine' which inspired me to plan a trip.  It's a long way to come, so when I found out that they were also offering a two-day welsh quilting course with famous handquilter Sandie Lush, it made sense to book a combined visit.

So I got home from Iceland Wednesday afternoon, said hello to my husband, swapped clothes to a different prepared suitcase and restocked consumables, and headed out again early Thursday morning for my trip on two trains then a bus.  I arrived in Lampeter in time to visit the Centre which is in the old Town Hall (currently having some work done on its front).  I immediately met Jen Jones behind the counter.  She was lovely and very welcoming, and I was handed over to the woman who designed the current exhibition and taken upstairs.

The exhibition was wonderful and made me regretful that I had missed previous years of the shows.  I was expecting the usual static display of quilts hung on walls but instead was greeted by a literal carousel of quilts revolving in the middle of the lofty room, and mini carousels of colourful wall quilts surrounding it.  The exhibition had a circus theme this year, and was beautifully curated for colour and design and so full of energy. In addition to wonderful quilts from Jen's collection, there were a large number of smaller Welsh quilts made by Mary Jenkins, author of books about the Welsh quilting tradition.  Mary avoids buying new quilting fabric and instead seeks out vintage textiles to recycle, Welsh fabrics such as wools and vintage Laura Ashley, home decor fabrics and more.  She obviously has a wonderful colour sense and her quilts were all so pleasing to the eye, colourful and warming.

One corner of the room was set up to resemble a corner from inside Mary's house, giving a sense of her eclectic vintage style.

All the quilts in the exhibition had information cards for more details about their provenance and/or inspiration.  It was a real pleasure to wander around the big room and gradually take it all in, the way it was hung was so much more interesting than usual displays or even the V&A show from years back.

In addition to the main room, there were two other smaller galleries.  One featured the work of an artist working in various mediums including embroidery, and the other was showing three videos including Jen talking about her collection, a timelapse film of a Welsh artist painting pictures that feature quilts, and Sandie Lush talking about Welsh quilting.

The gift shop is full of treasures including antiques, quilts, and textile related items.  The back room featured items made by Hannah Hughes from fragments of antique textiles, such as Welsh dolls, stuffed animals, cushions etc.  I bought a lovely little needlebook made from a fragment of antique welsh quilt with pages from vintage welsh woollen blankets and a new log cabin block on the cove.  In the front I found a wellworn small weaving shuttle with the wood polished to silk from use, and a bag of antique quilt fragments to make my own items from. I also bought one of Mary Jenkins books about Welsh quilting.

Lampeter's delights do not stop there.  Just a few doors along is the Calico Kate quilting shop, an amazing rabbit warren of 14 small rooms inside an old building.  Every room is full of fabric according to a theme: batiks, novelties, Moda, Tilda, Kaffe etc.  You think you are done and you find yet another room.  Just looking at all the fabric was dizzying, I kept seeing so many potential quilts flashing before my eyes.  I tried to stay strong but did come away with some fat quarters (four of them with designs that will make great dollhouse quilts), a cross stitch bookmark kit, and 4 meters of blue Moda background fabric for my double wedding ring quilt (I had already bought some Kona fabric but the Moda looked like a better blue colour). I was surprised that a smallish town had such a big fabric shop but apparently this area of Wales is very crafty, with several quilting and sewing groups around.

The Sandie Lush course was held over two days in a modern and well lit business centre just down the road from the Centre. We were very comfortable and there was also a well equipped kitchen.  Sandie is quite well known and sits comfortably with such authorities as Barbara Chainey and Amy Emms for handquilting in both the Welsh and Durham styles, and is a multiple award winner.  She was also quite a hoot and a very engaging teacher along with her husband (David?) who assisted with the class and on the IT side.  On the first day we were provided with a design kit of Welsh quilting elements that we could mix and match to create two cushion designs.  We then traced those onto our fabric (I was using some cotton sateen purchased at Calico Kate) and she demonstrated the rocking method of handquilting using a thimble both above and below.   I have handquilted items in the past and was able to do the rocking motion, but not with a thimble underneath (I just turn my lower hand's fingertips into calloused hamburger instead), but my stitches are nowhere near as even or as small as Sandie's.  Also I accidentally traced my pencil lines too dark so hopefully they will come out ok in the end.   Sandie has very generously made one of her videos about handquilting available on her Youtube channel, which gives a thorough introduction to the techniques.

On the second day, we received a comprehensive lecture about the typical designs of Welsh quilts, which in contrast to the frame structure of Durham quilts, tend to feature all over patterns made up of infinite combinations of simple elements with different fillings in them.  Sandie stepped through several quilt designs on screen, showing the effect of decisions that she made along the way, and then we saw the finished quilt.  I don't know if I would ever design a whole quilt but it was very interesting to learn more about the traditions.  The rest of the day could be stitching or designing as you chose.  I got about half my cushion done and my stitching is getting a little more regular after I switched to a Piecemakers size 10 Betweens needle.  I did try to use a thimble on my underneath hand but it just feels really unnatural to me, and its not mandatory.

My cushion so far

I enjoyed the course and met some nice people, and Lampeter itself is in a pretty situation in a green valley which seems so beautiful after the stark landscapes of Iceland.  I'll be heading home tomorrow to tackle two trips worth of laundry and to try to get caught up on things.  While I was in Iceland, my husband helped my son and his girlfriend make the move into their new house, so I need to go and see how they are getting on - the house looks transformed in photos after all their repainting and having new floor coverings installed.