Wednesday 2 April 2014

A red and white quilt from 1900

Our tiny local museum has a display of stitching at the moment, and I took a quick hour out of my day last week to go and have a look.


There were a number of small items, as well as some lovely smocks which had been painstakingly stitched, and then later mended in places.  I didn't photograph the smocks, but I did manage to capture some of the other items.




I loved this stitched map.  We live just north of Bristol - for those from further afield, if you start at the Bristol Channel (on the left, about two-thirds of the way down), then move east up the Severn River, you can see Bris tol to the right of the word River.  I like how the stitcher has squeezed in the county names.


The star of the show is something pretty amazing.  Back in 1894 the local vicarage was declared unsanitary and uninhabitable and was demolished to make way for a new one.  Local people raised some money, and the new vicarage was duly built.  But in 1900 there was still a debt of £150, and it was proposed to hold a Sale of Work to clear it.

The sale was held over two days, and included a rummage stall, penny dips, refreshments and entertainments as well as an evening dance at the tennis court at the local castle.  The parish accounts also referred to "Mrs Chambers' Quilt" which raised £8-1s-0d.

Last summer, when a local family were clearing a building on their farm, they unearthed an old cardboard box, which contained damp sheets and various odds and ends.  It was nearly thrown away, but fortunately someone noticed a roll of coloured fabric at the bottom.  It turned out to be an amazing patchwork quilt with each square handstitched and representing a local person or business.


The central panel, worked by a Mrs Lucy Chambers, shows the new vicarage.  It's safe to assume it is the quilt referred to in the records of the Sale of Work.


Mrs Chambers was born in 1850, the daughter of a grocer here in this town.  She married her cousin (I know in some places that kind of thing is prohibited, but here it's A-okay), and they even had three children, although one died before she was two.  Mrs Chambers lived in a house at the top of the high street and ran a small private school there.  She died aged 54, just four years after the quilt was completed.

I'm not sure if she created the whole quilt.  It would have been a huge undertaking - as well as the central panel there are another 236 small squares.  It is a so-called bazaar quilt, with each square sponsored by someone who would have paid to have their initials or something relating to their business stitched onto their square.

The individual squares are wonderful.  My favourites are the bird drinking, the bicycle, the bee hive and the saddle.  And I love the borders on some of them, so evenly stitched.










At the bottom of the display cabinet were these two beautiful old sewing machines.



I always find seeing something like this quite inspirational.  All those hours of concentration and dedication.  I am so pleased that it's on display for people to see now.  I think it will be sold eventually, and the museum will try and raise the money to buy it.  I do hope they succeed.

On the way out I passed this map of our area.



Almost the whole area was fields of course, each one with a name, some more imaginative than others.  There's Home Ground, Middle Ground and Further Ground, Great Hills and Further Hills, and when it comes to Five Acres and Ten Acres, I don't think they were really trying.  My favourites - Drimble and Havlands.  Wonderful.  Sadly it all looks very different now, but we are lucky to be just a very small town plenty of countryside still around us.  Long may it last.

36 comments:

  1. What a cute little museum. Looks like it was a lovely show.

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  2. How fortunate, indeed, that the quilt wasn't thrown away - what a wonderful quilt. Love the bicycle! Cute little museum. X

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  3. Wow. This post is wonderful. I would love to see this display in person but I can't, so I appreciate your sharing it here. The building itself is so interesting, how narrow it is. There were other buildings on the sides at some point, I'm assuming. The exhibit is amazing. The embroidery is beautiful and so detailed. The quilt, wow. I'm in awe of that kind of work. This was so interesting, I really enjoyed all of it.

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  4. What an amazing quilt! I can't imagine how long that would take to create and how much love and tears went into it. Your museum is just lovely and offers wonderful displays. How lucky they didn't throw that box out! I'm so fascinated by the past and all they were able to accomplish without our modern technology. Sometimes I think about how I couldn't live without my phone, but then am reminded that people lived without electricity for ages and still made beautiful works of art. Thanks for sharing, CJ!

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  5. That is the cutest little museum ever!

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  6. Long may it last indeed! This is just a beautiful piece of history here friend! Those pieces are exquisite and that quilt is wow...there are no words! All of the detail is just stunning! And I too love that bird! I have such an appreciation for the generations before us...hard workers and their makings are amazing! Oh and your new photo is gorgeous friend...LOVE it!!! Nicole xoxo

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  7. It must be an interesting museum. My daughter will love it

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  8. What a delightful small museum with such wonderful exhibits. The quilt is a work of art as well as being a beautiful creation, stunning.

    Thank you for sharing :)

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  9. Hi CJ
    What an amazing little peep back in to your local History, such a lovely way to pass an hour.
    The quilt is quite stunning, imagine it just being kept in an old box for all that time.
    Lovely post ... and I love your new photo.
    Kate x

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  10. What a lovely little place to visit, that quilt is just lovely & the work put into it must have been immense.

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  11. What a lovely exhibition! The quilt is amazing, amazing that it was made, that it was kept, found, is in such good condition and is being displayed! How wonderful that you got to see it. There are some amazing squares that have been worked. I really like the little finger loop purse as well, that is so pretty and so carefully and intricately worked! Thank you for sharing this, it is so lovely to see. xx

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  12. I'm not really one to comment on posts very often but oh my, I must comment on this. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Fascinating pictures and details you captured for us. Very interesting to read. That quilt is just amazing. It takes my breath away to think it might have been destroyed. Can you just picture someone saying "hang on now, what's this old red thing at the bottom of the box".....

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    1. Thank you for your comment Elizabeth, I'm so glad you like the quilt. It would have been so sad if it had been destroyed. Now it will be saved, and hopefully plenty of people will be able to enjoy it in the future.

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  13. Imagine unearthing something as beautiful as that quilt. How fortunate that it didn't get thrown away, so many treasures are lost for ever so it's amazing that it's survived and been rediscovered. It must have had hours of work put in to it.

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  14. What a wonderful place to visit. The embroidery on the quilt is amazing...hours and hours of painstaking work! I love the stitched map...you can just see the fax of Halifax :-)

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  15. What an incredibly quilt, so detailed.

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  16. What a fascinating post and wonderful pictures. That's the sort of museum that I really like looking round. Flighty xx

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  17. What a beautiful quilt, the detail in the embroidery is amazing. I love the bicycle and so much work in the central panel! Such a good job it didn't get thrown away. xx

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  18. This is the sort of museum I like to visit - full of local stories. The quilt is incredible, thank goodness it was saved. Such time and effort must have gone into producing it, I'm glad Mrs Chambers and her wonderful piece of work will be remembered now. The stitched county map is fascinating, too.

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  19. Really cool - thanks for sharing with us. I'm impressed with the tiny stitched map - such small details! It is amazing and interesting to see things like this from history, but I think a lot of people today aren't interested in seeing them unless they light up, or move, or a have a button to press.

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  20. The detail in that quilt is fantastic, what a lucky find.

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  21. Hey CJ,

    How lovely to see a new photo of you! We have a museum in St Ives, which I adore. It's full of higgledy piggeldy memoralbilia of the town's history. The boys have always loved it. Your museum is too cute. The quilt is a beauty. I' always blown away by craftemanship of days gone by. I would have been such a disappointment if I was alive back then ;)

    Leanne xx

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    1. I love little local museums, they're always crammed full with such interesting things. And Leanne, you definitely wouldn't have been a disappointment, I know you'd have been making beautiful things.

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  22. What a cute little muesum, the quilt is so wonderful I love the embriodered bike
    Clare x

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  23. Those hand sewn quilts really are inspirational, aren't they! I saw a quilt exhibition in the village church where my parents live a few years ago; the work was so beautiful and carefully sewn, it almost sparked a new hobby for me! Love the little museum, so sweet. Wasn't your town featured on Kirsty Allsop's latest prog a couple of weeks ago? I recall this only because my sister lives about 5 minutes from you in Alveston!! Small world, eh!

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    1. Apparently it was, although I missed it. I did happen to see Kirsty a couple of times on the day they were filming here though. They were looking at a house that is right across the road from the allotment site. Would have been perfect for me.

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  24. How completely and utterly wonderful, thank you for sharing that quilt and the history with us. I'm so glad it was discovered and displayed - imagine if it had been accidentally throw away! I love the attention to detail - each square on it's own it just fabulous. x

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  25. Absolutely wonderful, I'd love to have a look around an exhibition like that! Those old quilts really tell fascinating stories, often of everyday life which is not really very everyday to us (if you see what I mean). I think I will have to plan a holiday down your way, you make it sound all so beautiful and interesting, I want to see it for myself...

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  26. What a great quilt! I wonder if such masterpieces are still being made today? You look amazing in your new picture, CJ, your hair is just gorgeous. Cx

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    1. Thank you Christina! I'm sure there are some beautiful things being made today, and hopefully they'll all be saved for future generations to enjoy. I really love looking at old pieces of work and wondering about who made them and where they have been since.

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  27. oh the quilt is gorgeous, I wonder how it ended up in the box. and those maps, how fascinating x

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  28. How wonderful that the lovely quilt was saved. I love all the detail you have shown us. Aren't local museums wonderful? Sarah x

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    1. They are, I always like to have a look round even the tiniest ones.

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  29. What an amazing place to visit, thank you so much for sharing with us. S xo

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  30. I missed this! What a treasure ... I have been sitting here for a good ten minutes now pouring over the detail of that quilt. Wow!

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  31. What a beautiful display and that quilt is amazing - so many hours of work. The beaded pieces caught my eye, I've just been pulling all my collected antique clothing out and photographing some of it, there was an amazing beaded Edwardian mourning dress that I had forgotten I had - I LOVE beadwork. Bethx

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