Seaside, applique quilts & monograms

I have been away for a few days break down to the North Yorks coast. We stayed at Gisborough Hall - dating to the 1850's.

It was a warm contrast to the beautiful but bracing weather in Whitby

It was sunny but the wind was straight from the North Pole!

And Saltburn beach was even more windswept - but it didn't seem to bother the jet skier and canoeists that were out there in the thundering waves!

I  found some more delights to sell on eBay now that I have returned - these textiles are from Yorkshire too. This is a very sweet applique hand stitched quilt with tulips on a lilac background.

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                And my favourite - lots of monogrammed linens - sheets, pillowcases and tablecloths.  This is a sheet but there are also matching pillowcases with an alternative mongram

 I wonder if the needlewoman was trying out different styles of monogram as the rest of the embroidery decoration is the same. From a different house came the more angular style monogram below

                                 This is also the same house and initials but in a different style again.

 A useful site to look at the differing styles and designs of monograms can be found at http://www.embroideryarts.com/cgi-bin/intarsia/monogram_tn.cgi 

Patchwork and Queen Victoria!

This week I have been down to Yorkshire and back to the North East buying lots of lovely linens and textiles - Irish linen sheets, pillowcases and tablecloths are always in the lots that I look for but this week I have also come across some more unusual, even quirky, items.  The photo above shows a hand stitched patchwork quilt top that I found in the bottom of a box. 

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Queen Victoria at the time of her Jubilee - 1887 - so presumably this fabric was made around that time to comemmorate the event.

Then these fabrics have Chinamen on donkeys and dogs and hens and roosters.

I also came across a great example of 1950's - 60's kitsch.

A collection of soft dusters with a dishcloth folded to look like the body of a cat and the motto underneath

And finally, for today at least, some tapestry work - some completed but never used and some obviously used but treasured and put away to "do something with later" ( I have boxes and boxes of textiles waiting for "later" too!)

All the items featured are going onto eBay this weekend.