Background to the exhibition (links to further info in bold)


Inspiration

The inspiration for both collections was a motif that appeared on the cover of a traditional quilt group newsletter, which was later tracked down to that used in a quilt made by Mrs May Thomas in the early 1900s and currently in the collection of Jen Jones. That large quilt contained a central ring of Paisley motifs . It was the design potential of that simple motif that led Sandie to design and make around fifty cot-sized quilts over the last three years or so.


Other motifs

The Paisley pear, in one design form or another, features in every single quilt in the collection. Amongst other motifs used, an important one that features in many of these quilts is the Welsh trail; again, this is a very flexible motif, and is very suited to forming borders. Other motifs include the rose, the petal and the fan.


Welsh quilting styles

Welsh quilts, while not following any particular set of 'rules', nevertheless have a distinct style. Welsh quilt styles can be divided into four broad categories.

All four categories of quilt feature in this Paisley Parade collection.


Materials

Where possible, Sandie tried to use fabric from whatever was stashed in the cupboard - which proved challenging at times! One design principle was to try to get the 'flow' of quilts around the gallery to match in terms of design and colour (ie to form a 'patchwork' in its own right ); this necessitated, at times, the purchase of additional material. For the traditional 'windmill' quilt, the flannel came from the Melin Teifi mill at Llandysul, Mid Wales. The traditional filling for Welsh quilts was wool, so for all the quilts in the collection wool wadding (Hobbs Organic Wool) was used.


Techniques

All quilting was done by hand on a 14" hoop (which Sandie uses for all her quilts, even double-bed sized ones) using the 'rocking' technique. Piecing and the initial sewing of any binding fabric was done by machine, with the final edging of the binding done by hand. Two types of binding technique were used; firstly, using strips of binding material; secondly, using the more traditional technique of 'edges to the middle' (turning the front and backing material in on itself and hand-sewing the resultant double edge with a running stitch).


Sandie Lush

Sandie Lush is an internationally-known, prize-winning quilt designer, hand-quilter, teacher and - as of Nov 2018 - author (her book, Welsh Quilting Design, is available on Amazon).