Little squares in Welsh Blankets

Welsh blankets are "in" at the moment and this spectacular one has just been sold by Jen Jones.

 

At first glance I thought it was a quilt,  which is probably why I am drawn to this pattern of blanket.  I first saw one at the cottage of my friends the Havards and then again the Prince of Wales has one in his Welsh farm house and Jen of course has them in her collection.

Here are some images -

Christine and Philip have chosen to decorate their sofa.

In the reception area of the farm house of the Prince of Wales.  He has another on a table covering the TV - he hates seeing TV sets apparently!

The tress decorating Westminster Abbey at the Royal Wedding are now planted in front of the farmstead.

Decorating the Study Room at the Jen Jones Quilt Centre

When I first saw these blankets I was inspired to make a quilt with little nine patch black and white squares and made quite a few before running out of steam.  I then had a rethink and put them together in a slightly different way.  At the moment this little quilt is at the quilting stage and so is not very photogenic.  When I finish it, soon I hope, I will show you!

Inspired by Welsh Blankets

Welsh blankets are now widely collected,  I don't own any and am reluctant to start because I have so much other stuff.  However, their colour and design content does inspire me and it all began with this simple quilt owned by Ron Simpson made with pieces of blanket -

I love its subtle colours and as I don't usually work with this colour palette, it was a challenge and I had to dig deep in my stash to find suitable fabric and use what I had creatively.  This is the result -

I used my then limited collection of shirtings and added a few fabrics that a Japanese friend had left me before returning home.  I enjoyed working with these shades so much I began to collect Japanese woven fabrics and I have used them in quite a few quilts since.  This is a better picture of the quilting -