British Wholecloth Quilts 

Thank you - they are so wonderful and varied, aren't they?

I'm glad you found it interesting. There are lots more photos of my wholecloth quilts on my website if you would like to look at them www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk/antique-quilts/wholecloth-quilts/

I'm glad you enjoyed them

I agree - its always easier to quilt wholecloth, as you have no seam allowances to stitch through. Try to plan your patchwork pressing to reduce the bulk as much as possible - it gives better points too. I have some other videos about this too - search for "Pressing for Perfect Points"

@@CarolynGibbsQuilts Yes, seam allowances make it more difficult. I bookmarked your website, because I found so much useful information for future projects. Definitely focus more on my ironing. Thank you! For the time being I'll stick to wholecloth quilting. I know how to do the quilt stitch, but I'm still fairly inexperienced. The more practice the better. Thanks again, I'm so glad I stumbled upon your video.

Thank you! I hope that you have found the whole series of pages on my website about hand quilting - starts here: www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk/techniques/quilting/hand-quilting-basics-fabric/ I'm sure it will make your first quilt feel really special.

I agree about the cotton wadding - many of my antique quilts have quite large stitches because the cotton wadding is really thick. It's great that you draft your own designs - so many people don't try this. If anyone else is interested to try this, I've written about this on my website at www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk/techniques/quilting/quilting-design/

The Welsh did use thicker wadding than in the North East of England ; this was usually wool, from local sheep, but cotton was sometimes used too. A whole layer of combed wool was laid between the quilt top and the backing, and the quilting lines stitched through all three layers.

Thank you! I reside in Washington State but I once lived on a Sheep farm near Allendale, Northumberland for a while. I’m so looking forward to trying my hand at this gorgeous technique!

I'm glad you love these beautiful designs too. Sadly it's very rare for these wholecloths to be signed, so unless the family history records it, the makers are usually unknown. People do use these traditional motifs ( yes, they would draw round household objects such as irons!) to inspire machine quilted designs, but as hand quilters can travel through the wadding, the designs are not continuous line, as needed for machine stitching

North Country quilts often had the complete design marked onto the quilt top before it was layered with the wadding and backing. To achieve such a well balanced design, it is clear that it must have been carefully planned and marked all at once. They often used a waxy blue pencil, which was long lasting - traces of this can sometimes be seen, but not on this quilt.

Yes, these were all stitched by hand. You can discover more about how hand quilting is done on this page of my website: www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk/techniques/quilting/