THE TRADITION OF RUG & QUILT MAKING
Rugs
The humble rag rug was part of cottage and farm interiors as well as the terraced houses in the industrial towns of the north. Cold stone floors were warmed and brightened by scraps of fabric fashioned into these cheerful home items, sometimes put together as a social or family activity and sometimes as a careful work of art depicting animals, flowers or events. Usually worn out and thrown away not destined to become family heirlooms.
Rugs used up old fabric, usually wool, which was cut into small strips for ‘proddy’ rugs and longer strips for ‘hooky’ rugs. Tools were very simple, scissors and a wooden handled hook or often a broken clothes peg, hence the name ‘peg rugs’. The craft began to die out after the ‘make do and mend’ era of the second world war as manufactured cheap rugs became more available and rag rugs were associated with poverty.
Ann McBeth who was the influential head of the School of Embroidery, Glasgow School of Art became very interested in rag rug making when she bought a house in Patterdale in the 1920’s. She carried out a lot of research and concluded that the craft was probably linked to Viking settlement in the north. Although rag rugs have been made in most areas of Britain the area where they are most prevalent is between North Lanarkshire and the shore of Morecambe Bay in Lancashire.
In Cumberland there was a tradition of depicting animals on rugs. One of these caught the attention of the two artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson, when in 1923 they moved to a house near Brampton. Winifred was a countrywoman and had a deep interest and appreciation of local crafts and traditions. She encouraged the tradition and also inspired women to use their own designs. A book has recently been published ‘Winifred Nicholson Cumbrian Rag Rugs’, to accompany the exhibition of her rugs in the North, 2024 – 2025.
Quilts
The meaning of quilting in the strict sense is to stitch through several layers of fabric. A quilt has a top, a back and a middle layer of wadding whereas a coverlet has no padding and no quilting, just a top and back. The crafts of patchwork and also applique flourished in the late 18th and 19th centuries as the industrial revolution made printed cottons less expensive and easier to obtain.
In Levens Hall, Cumbria, is what is thought to be the oldest surviving example of patchwork in a set of bed hangings and a quilt dated 1708. Scraps of fabric were pieced together either in a more haphazard fashion or very often in carefully cut out designs, often arranged with a centrepiece and carefully arranged borders. And sometimes with separately sewn blocks joined together.
Tullie House in Carlisle has a wonderful collection of quilts made in the 1700s and through to the early 1900s. Because of the fragility of the fabrics these are not on general show but can be seen by arrangement. Email enquiries@tulliehouse.org
The patchwork items on display in St Oswald’s use many of the traditional techniques although machine sewing and quilting are now employed, the designs and work gone into them is just as impressive as the historic patchwork.
