Mrs Billings' Coverlet



The original coverlet can be found in the collection of The Quilters’ Guild of the British Isles. This is the amazingly detailed quilt on which I based my Mrs Billings. A square coverlet made from fifteen frames of printed cotton hexagons, squares on point, kites and long diamonds made from triangles. Some of the fabrics date from the 1770s, and several have three blue threads in the selvedge. The majority of the fabrics are made from dress prints, although there are some furnishing prints represented. The coverlet had been passed down through the donor's family from her Great Grandmother, who was a housekeeper in a large house in the Leeds area.



March 2012...

Leigh has completed Mrs Billings! At 9.17 pm Wednesday evening to be precise!


Here is a close up of Leigh's lovely fussy cut hexagons.

January 2012...

Here are some beautiful photos of Helen's quilt, aren't the little elephants gorgeous!



Helen is now out to the hexagon rosette border, look at that fussy cutting!

November 2011...

One of my star pupils, Shirley, brought along her completed Mrs Billings' Coverlet to show us her progress. Shirley started with me at the beginning of 2011 and is now hand quilting her beautiful version. Sue Daley is having a very close look at how the quilting is progressing. Maybe Sue will hand quilt hers too when she has finished!

Shirley has finished her Mrs Billings' quilt top and has decided to quilt it by hand!
Jenny from NSW came for a visit, isn't it lovely.

Mary's bright and cheerful Mrs B, almost finished the double diamond border!

October 2011...


For those of you who have signed up for our BoM, we have just posted this months subscriptions, albeit a few days later than planned.

Here's a picture of Mrs Billings before she was quilted and I'll post one of the finished article shortly.


For anyone interested in signing up, the fabric kit may be fully subscribed but you can still join up at any time for the "Patterns & Templates" option (includes comprehensive patterns, acrylic templates and hexagon English Paper Piecing papers). See our website home page for details.

Yours in quilting, Karen

4 comments:

  1. My Mrs. Billings has stumbled at the double diamonds, but hopefully the Christmas break will see her on her feet again. I am in Melbourne for the tennis in late January ad will bring her into the shop for inspection

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  2. The original Mrs Billings Coverlet is held in a collection at The Quilters' Guild of the British Isles. If you would like to see the original, please follow this link:-
    http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/billings-coverlet.html

    Regards,
    Jan - Coordinator for Kent, Surrey and Sussex - Quilters' Guild.

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  3. Amazing quilts inspired by this antique original - which is at the Quilt Museum, York, UK, just in case you get a chance to visit. http://www.quiltmuseum.org.uk/collections/heritage/billings-coverlet.html It looks like it will be featured in their next exhibition, 'The Blossoming of Patchwork', which opens on 17th May 2013.

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  4. I see this quilt on here is known as the Mrs. Billings Quilt. I am very courious about where this Mrs. Billings was from. The reason I'm asking is that I do Genealogie and my grandmother was a Billings. She had, I believe 10 or 12 siblings. I haven't worked on for awhile and my memory has cobwebs. :) I would really like to find out this information if at all possible. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas

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