Quilt materials- wool

Wool is a traditional quilt material, though since cotton became available in abundance, the time of woolen patchwork quilt came to an end. Still lots of woolen quilts were made in the 19th century, one of my favourite kind-the Crimean quilt. One more favourite-Irish tweed quilt and one can't be indifferent to the beauty of simple Welsh quilts with elaborate hand quilting and stunning contrasting colours.I made examples of the latter two last year.




The exhibition "Welsh-Amish connection" in Birmingham this year showed beautiful woolen quilt from Wales.




But what is absolutely not typical for quilting -is knitted wool because it stretches easily. Only with the invention of stabilizers of all kinds it has become possible to make quilts from T-shirts, sweaters and other very flexible fabrics. I was a keen knitter about 15-25 years ago, and both of my children loved their sweaters, mittens and scarves. I still do knit an occasional scarf for my daughter who can't get used to the idea of buying them. I was particularly proud of my jacquard sweaters, I even invented patterns for most of them.


Now you understand why I loved Czech exhibition. The theme was "Wool" and most of the quilters didn't just use woolen fabrics, they incorporated knitted and felted fragments in their quilts. I particularly loved this quilt of Jana Haklova.



Beautiful colours, thick knitted woolen squares contrasting the surface of the quilt, cosy and contemporary at the same time.



A couple of more photos with pretty and clever use of woolen details. Jana Lalova:



Dana Velehradska:




Helena Fikejzova:


Mirka Faberova:


I immediately started making plans for a couple of knitted sweaters I don't wear anymore. My plan is to wash them first in a washing machine to felt the threads a little, then cut the sweaters into pieces and then .. I don't know yet what I'll do but I want to make something with knitted wool for my Module 3.