Today in Textiles

A couple of interesting textile notes:

A piece of a skirt worn by Elizabeth I (bearing striking resemblance to the skirt she's wearing in this 1602 portrait) was found in St. Faith, Bacton, a 13th-century parish church in Herefordshire, England, where it had been cut up and used as an altar cloth for hundreds of years.

Two fascinating quotes from Eleri Lynn, curator of historic dress at Historic Royal Palaces in the January 7 article in the Guardian:

"In Tudor times, clothing was so expensive that it would be passed from one generation to the next, or taken apart and reused for something else, like cushion covers."

"On top of that, Oliver Cromwell sold off every item of clothing in the royal stores, so the only things we have, including a hat which might have been worn by Henry VIII, have come back to Hampton Court after they have survived elsewhere."

(I was drawn to this story, in part, because I lived in Hereford in the mid-1980s. Hope to get back there this fall.)

And an amazing quilt collection is on sale this weekend in Berkeley.

Eli Leon, quilt collector

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2017/07/27/vintage-quilt-collection-passionate-local-collector-eli-leon-sale/

Quilts for sale

Log cabin quilt from Eli Leon collection

Double wedding ring quilt from Eli Leon collection

I remember hearing about Leon when we lived in Berkeley—at the time (late 80s-early 90s) he was collecting quilts made by an African American woman in Richmond, CA, among others, and years later an exhibition of his quilts appeared at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA. Boy, do I wish I was in Berkeley (although it's probably a very good thing I'm not)!