"I have been making quilts since 1990. My initial interest was in patchwork, but seeing a hand stitched North Country satin wholecloth quilt by Amy Emms at a quilt show sparked what has turned into a lifelong passion for designing and making hand quilted wholecloth quilts.

"After several years of creating traditional wholecloth patterns, I started combining Colonial knots and beads with my quilting. These new designs were mainly cushion patterns but one, Lilac Ice (2008) was expanded to make a cot sized quilt. The quilt (below) was made with Lilac Colourshott fabric as it co-ordinated perfectly with my Iced Lavender Caron Watercolours thread, and I have been a fan of Oakshott fabrics ever since.

"Oakshott fabrics lend themselves well to wholecloth quilting as the sheen and the subtle play of colour in the shot fabrics shows both texture and stitching to excellent advantage. The weave makes stitching by hand a real pleasure.

"Stribedi Profucio (Strip Tease 2015) (below left) was a traditional strippy design on plain Oakshott fabric. It is very much in the Welsh style to stitch a strippy design onto plain fabric rather than strips of two different coloured fabrics!

"Dawns Squâr (Square Dance 2016) (below right) was designed as a repeating block pattern and stitched on one of the wonderful Ruby Red fabrics.

"Briallen Bach (Little Primrose 2016) (below left) and Briallen (Primrose 2015) (below right) illustrate the preferred traditional Welsh design of a central pattern surrounded by a series of borders. 

"A second series of Welsh paisley quilts was made for a gallery at the 2019 Festival of Quilts.  5,4,3,2,1 (2018) (below left) was one of the more non-traditional designs. It was stitched on Copenhagen, a favourite from the Scandinavia range.

"Finally, one of the most visually-striking paisley quilts was Y Croes (The Cross 2019) (below right)which was made using a bold mixture of Colourshott fabrics."

Discover more from Sandie and her quilts at sandielush.co.uk and visit her web shop wholeclothquilts.biz for patterns etc. Sandie’s Paisley Renaissance and Paisley Parade Exhibitions can be viewed at welshquilting.design, along with details of her book Welsh Quilting Design.