Quilters Guild in York

May 27, 2026 8:33 am Published by

Last week our museum team had a training day at the Quilters Guild in York. We had a wonderful time looking at their collection of quilts, pockets, and padded petticoats.
We were taught how the colour of dyes and printed patterns can help to suggest the age of a quilt. Not all quilts are made with brand new fabric, they are more often an accumulation of old and new materials, as well as reused fabric from old clothes, and textiles. This was a great way of recycling, but tricky for museums and conservators when it comes to dating.

We watched a conservator painstakingly sew a fine net mesh to the front of a quilt to stabilise the fabric to allow the quilt to go on display and she talked us through stabilising smaller areas of fabric that might be more fragile…apparently iron was used in late 18th C brown dye and over time this makes the fabric more susceptible to fracture….if this happens all the pieces of damaged fabric stay with the quilt, allowing the possibility of conservation in the future.

We all really enjoyed our day, learned a huge amount that will help us with our collection of quilts and textiles and saw a lot of amazing textiles. Many thanks to Heather and her volunteer team for a great day.

Fiona, Jane, Ben and Jenny

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This post was written by alsionj