British Wholecloth Quilts

Carolyn Gibbs shows you the design features in antique wholecloth quilts from her collection, and identifies the variations from different regions of the UK.
See more British wholecloth quilts with plenty of information and photographs on her website at www.carolyngibbsquilts.co.uk/...

[@amarie9497]

Beautiful hand stiches. Thank you for keeping the history of quilting alive.

[@lisawagner6076]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful quilts! Just beautiful!

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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/

[@sunniemalesky1019]

Thank you so much for this lovely overview of the wholecloth quilts and their designs!

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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

[@NolaTheAlamoChiliQueen]

These quilts are beautiful! Thanks for sharing the info.

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

I'm glad you enjoyed them

[@mariannecamps8309]

Thank you for showing your lovely collection of wholecloth quilts. I definitely prefer to do wholecloth motifs when I quilt by hand. For some reason I always struggle when I try to hand quilt patchwork blocks. In wholecloth my stitches are much neater and far more even.

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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"

[@mariannecamps8309]

@@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.

[@StephRenee812]

Wow.. beautiful... I am finally ready to finish my first quilt. And I'm afraid to try the quilting on my little sewing machine... so I am going to try to hand sew this. I have watched so many videos.. I think you are the best I have seen.. love, love.. amazing

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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.

[@beverlybenson9981]

Beautiful ❤

[@flossie5432]

Thanks for this.i love looking at and making wholecloth pieces,although I've never made a full size one.Baby quilts and samplers were enough to make at any given time. The designs are surprisingly easy to draught/draft and sew.I particularly loved the wineglass and cable paatterns--very useful to extend the size of any quilt .I can't hand sew through cotton wadding -- it's waaaay too dense for tiny stitches.

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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/

[@Dm-kq6os]

I’m very intrigued by this beautiful traditional whole cloth quilting. Did the Welsh use double layers of wadding? Was filling (wool) placed iside motifs as stitching progressed? I would love to know of the traditional techniques. Thank you!

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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.

[@Dm-kq6os]

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!

[@GodwinAnne]

Thanks for sharing these gorgeous quilts. I'm an art quilter in Alabama. I wonder if some of my British ancestors quilted? I love these designs. I'd love to design a machine quilted whole cloth, using these designs. Do I understand the flat iron design to be the cast iron of old? Thanks, again, for sharing.

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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

[@sheilawilliams2875]

How did they mark these quilts before quilting?

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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.

[@1958shiner]

Are these done by hand? Where can I see the process. So interesting. Thank you for teaching about them.

[@CarolynGibbsQuilts]

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/