A collection of Welsh quilts would not be complete without at least one flannel quilt. The fabric
was purchased near Lampeter, Mid Wales at Melin Teifi. This mill still produces the finest traditional
Welsh woollen flannel and was chosen by the National Museum of Wales to house the Museum of
the Welsh Woollen Industry.
The bold pinwheel design was inspired by a wonderful flannel quilt in Jen Jones’s collection. The narrow border on the much larger original quilt was represented here by the addition
of a wide dark blue binding.
Traditionally flannel quilts are also backed with flannel fabric. Red flannel was used to make
petticoats and was a favourite in these most distinctive and unique Welsh quilts.
As flannel fabric has quite an open weave it was felted prior to piecing and quilting. To accommodate
the extra thickness of this fabric the quilting designs were kept simple.
Six horizontal paisleys were arranged with the spirals facing outwards to form the central motif.
The central space was filled with echo lines and a rose added to give focus to the centre.
The Welsh trail border was rotated around the quilt. By centring the long sides on the diamond part
of the motif and the shorter sides on the centre of the cable, the diamond motifs met at the corners
to form a grid pattern. Fans were used to create a sense of flow around the corners.
The outer border edges were confined with tramlines on both sides. This defined the remaining
inner rectangular space. Fans were used to fill the corners and the remaining space filled with
diagonal lines.
A rose motif was added top and bottom to fill the larger spaces of background fill.
Marking the quilting designs onto such soft fabric proved a challenge. It was eventually traced onto
a layer of thin water-soluble Vilene which was then basted onto the quilt top prior to quilting.
Thicker thread and a much larger needle were needed to stitch through all the layers, consequently
the stitches were much larger than usual.
When all the stitching had been completed, the Vilene was washed away in cold water. It then took
three days for the quilt to dry!