Saturday, 21 April 2012

Quilted piano covers

Quilting is a big thing in America: there are tons of women who pride themselves on carrying on the colonial tradition, with books documenting favoured patterns and stiches over time. The Shakers had a famous quilting tradition, in line with their use of natural materials and hand-worked items. My mother had a friend who collected swatches of cloth and embroidered signatures from all her adulthood friends and sewed them into a scrapbook quilt. But I wasn't prepared to encounter two quilted piano covers in quite different settings in England. I had never seen anything like them.


Upright piano quilt in Gainford Village Hall, County Durham
The first was a cover for an upright piano, standing in the Gainford village hall west of Darlington. It was an imaginative use of panels to replicate the music scores usually found standing on the piano as well as the keys. What fun!

The second was a cover for a baby grand piano in The Maltings, in Farnham, Surrey. This one had its origins embroidered onto the side, and music was represented in some of the patches.

Baby grand piano quilt in The Maltings, Farnham, Surrey

1 comment:

  1. Hello, could you perhaps provide the "recipe" or the pattern of the quilt on the baby grand piano? I've desperately been searching online for grand piano covers but found none for my type, so I thought I'd perhaps make one myself. I would deeply appreciate it if you could give me a hand in this.

    Sincerely, A.

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