The Barrett Friendship Quilt Display
Sun, 29 Nov 2009 11:31:31 GMT
The ‘Barrett Counterpane’, an 8ft square linen and cotton embroidered quilt, forms the centrepiece of this display, calling to mind William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement. The counterpane consists of a series of squares, each of which is embroidered differently with historical, decorative or personal information together with the name of the respective embroiderer. Surrounding the squares are brown linen rectangular borders containing appliquéd quotations.
The knitted and hand-embroidered squares, each created between 1899 and 1909, were made separately by the wives, daughters and friends of Victorian painters and engravers, many of whom were Quakers or the descendants of Quakers. The embroiderers, all women, were of various ages – the youngest in her early teens and the oldest born one year after the battle of Waterloo in 1816. Each square is personal to its embroiderer and holds details and clues that shed light on forgotten lives, resulting in numerous intimate snapshots of life in the late Victorian age. The counterpane was given to the Quaker Tapestry in April 1999 by a friend of a descendant of one of the embroiderers involved in making it.
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