This pretty quilt from Liz Nally has 9 strips ,plain white cotton sateen alternating with a faded pink floral fabric.

It has cable strips, a worm with a single chain running through it with square diamonds, a double lined cable and interestingly a half fan which is quite large . It is 14″ wide, has 20 petals and is repeated 6 times along the length of the quilt.

I chose this motif to do as a sample and enjoyed stitching this pretty design .

This mauve and white strippy is an unusual colour combination and the first I have seen in this colour way. I really like it and love that the lady wanted something a little different .The designs are well quilted and drawn out thoughtfully.

There are the popular North Country Quilting designs of running feather, plait and cables. The more original design is a repeated loop enclosing a leaf with square diamonds on the outer edges .

This is my sample, a design I will use in my own work.

I wonder where she got the idea from , a magazine, an architectural detail, a piece of fabric or braid  or just created it out of her imagination. It would make a lovely border design on a skirt. Quilted petticoats were popular in the 1800s and we have had such a cold spell in Yorkshire I am thinking of making one !

I found this delightful shell pattern on a strippy quilt in the book by R. Allen ‘Quilts and Coverlets’.

Shells have been drawn and sewn on quilts though out the north, this one which could be described as a fan as well, is in a diamond block shape with parallel lines to one side and square diamonds on the other.

The following shell embroidered motifs are also seen on quilts and make an attractive addition today on home furnishings for the bathroom.

They could be added to a small project quilted or embroidered.

The rose design is repeated over and over again in North Country Quilts and is an attractive motif used on any design. The templates can easily be  made by folding paper and cutting out an ice cream shape .The rose can be 8 petals or 16. Sometimes on quilts they have been drawn on freehand and in these instances you can get a different number of petals.

The design can have straight petals or curved ones and can have various circular centres .

This rose has concentric circles in the middle and surrounding it. The rose has 16 curved petals.

On the strippy quilt I was studying from the Beamish collection this motif is repeated  to create a linear design.

Another favourite !

This pretty quilt has 33 strips!, but has the traditional 11 quilting designs as seen from the back. Each design is over three strips as seen in this square cable .The design is really hard to see on the front but is clearer on the back. I like this idea of a surprise on the back. I have come across it on other quilts were the patchwork conceals beautiful quilting patterns.

Back 

Front

When studying the designs on this quilt I worked out they had all been constructed with three templates an oval plate, a 45% triangle and a diamond .

This diamond template was used to create the square cable.

The design below is made with the triangle and oval plate. I have drawn it freehand then drawn it out on squared paper to use for my quilted sample

These designs are quite unusual in being  geometric and very accurately drawn out, I wonder if someone in the family was a draughtsman. 

My set of samples 

The pretty fabric is a simple printed rose motif.

I am having difficulty dating this quilt any help with the dating of the fabric  would be much appreciated.

I have really enjoyed studying this quilt and again I have to thank Kate Smith for her generosity in trusting it in to my care.

This bright bold colourful quilt is thought to be a club quilt, the motifs are quite large and spaced out and the stitching is not quite so tight as others of the same period. It is still beautiful work and it was nice to feel a connection to someone who for whatever reason needed to earn a living from quilting for herself or family. Ladies often took to quilting after their husband had been injured or had died in a mining incident.

The  motifs include a 12 petaled rose , a feather wreath,  geometric square diamonds and a combination of a diamond structure with lines and squares in .

The fabric has a lovely sateen sheen to it and all the stitching is of the same white cotton. The flowered fabric looks like it could have been a curtain fabric, but I need to investigate the dating of fabrics and styles available and learn more about this area of quilts to be able to say for certain. 

I enjoyed studying this quilt , thanks to Kate Smith who learnt it to me.

The next quilt I am looking at  is completely different , which is one of the things I love about strippy quilts, they are so creative and original. 

This striking peach and white strippy has a variety of motifs on including a horse shoe , which may have been for good luck . The quilt has not been used much and still has the blue pencil lines on. For the sample I chose the rose joined by cords .

Thank you for following my blog and my research into North Country Strippy quilts . I wish the best for you next year and I hope you will continue in joining me in my textile journey. 

The Heritage Search of the Quilters Guild 

The Quilters Guild between 1990 and 1993 examined more than 4,000 quilts . Quilts were brought to centres dotted around the UK to be documented on by experts in the field. The resultant book has a wealth of information on the history of quilts, their social context and the different types made.  If you have not read it , it is well worth a look.

This salmon pink and gold sateen strip  ( 20 century ) took my eye and the photograph was clear enough for me to draw the patterns out. 

I chose the geometric design to do a sample of , the eight petalled rose is repeated in the bellow design and over all the quilt has been well thought out.