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Quilts in context: Irish patchwork and quilting in everyday life
Special guest Valerie Wilson, Curator of Textiles at The Ulster Folk Museum, (National Museums NI) presents a lunchtime lecture that looks at the crucial place patchwork quilts holds in Ulster’s history, culture and heritage, and the important role of women in Ulster’s textiles industries.
The collection of patchwork bedcovers at the Ulster Folk Museum (National Museums NI) has developed, over almost seventy years of research and acquisitions, into one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in Europe. Planning for the Ulster Folk Museum began in earnest in the late 1950s and by the time it opened to the public in 1964 patchwork bedcovers were amongst some of the first household items to be donated to this new heritage visitor attraction. Over the years, as the collection has grown so have the questions about the makers, the lives they led and how quilting techniques and traditions passed from one family member to another and within communities.
Using examples from the Ulster Folk Museum Quilts in context examines the origins of patchwork and quilting in Ireland of the early 1800s before taking a detailed look at the ‘utility’ bedcovers made in the period 1900- 1950, closely linked to the stitching factories at the time based in Belfast, mid-Ulster and Derry/Londonderry. Patchwork bedcovers made from shirt, pyjama, apron and suiting remnants created their own unique aesthetic which is only now acquiring the recognition it richly deserves.
Quilts in context is an opportunity to share recent research on this collection and to highlight the significant work of named female makers. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Kith & Kin: The Quilts of Gee’s Bend.