A wonderful thing…

I did my second trainee shift at the Folk Museum this morning.  As part of it I took a look at the exhibits in detail so that I could be sure to know something about them if asked.

As well as the splendid exhibitions on “Toys were Us” (which displays some “antique” toys – many of which I had as child) and “No Smartphones” (a display of old maps, cameras and clocks), I noticed this which I had not seen in detail before.

It is the most fabulous hand made patchwork coverlet.  Each patch is hand embroidered with a different image, many of them straight out of daily life (there is a muffin man, a dog, a pig and sundry flowers).  Among the images there are key dates – 1885 for her marriage, and others which are probably the birth of her children.  And then it suddenly stops with the quilt unfinished, and I think this means she probably died – quite possibly in child birth.

The quilt is a thing of real beauty – it has set me thinking whether I could make something like it.