Welsh Quilts is an expanded edition of the authoritative guide to the history and art of the quilt in Wales, which includes a foreword by textiles expert Kaffe Fassett. Author Jen Jones has updated her text and added new colour images some previously unseen which are reproduced in detail in this generously illustrated book. When Jen Jones arrived in Wales from New England in the 1970s the unique Welsh traditions of quilt and blanket making were almost moribund. Welsh Quilts is the result of her researches into the subject and draws on archive photographs of both quilt makers and the quilts themselves. Jones also began collecting Welsh quilts, eventually housing her extensive collection in the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter. Many of these quilts are reproduced in new, high resolution images in the book.In Welsh Quilts Jones explores the origins of quilting and blanket making in Wales before focusing on the industry's hey day when wholecloth, frame-made quilts became the Welsh standard, between 1870 and the Second World War. Welsh quilters varied in social standing from artisans to the gentry, though increasingly quiltmaking became a trade rather than a hobby.

It offered one of very few ways in which a spinster or widow in Wales could make a living, an important social aspect of quilt making. However, bold designs and intricate stitchwork were shared by hobbyists and professionals alike.Jones includes chapters on the origins and history of the quilt in Wales, Making a Quilt, Methods, Types of Quilt, Joining and Finishing, Provenance, Buying a Welsh Quilt, Caring for Quilts, Blankets, and Types of Blanket. The book also includes a list of public collections of Quilts and, for active quilters, four Welsh quilt patterns to work from.Welsh Quilts will be the essential book on the subject for practitioners and those interested in quilting heritage alike.