Quiltfest North
2023
2023
Gwenfai Rees Griffiths
‘I can’t believe that I started patchwork 31 years ago,’ says Gwenfai! She joined a sampler quilt course in Rhuddlan, North Wales taught by Rebecca Collins, and was instantly hooked. Rebecca encouraged Gwenfai to join the Quilters Guild and enter competitions.
A traditionalist at heart, but with no desire to replicate old quilts, Gwenfai aims to create a new look from the traditional using any techniques required. Invariably she finishes with hand quilting. She says: ‘There is never a meaningful reason to my quilts. I make them because I want to and enjoy every aspect from the designing to the final stitch, however long that takes. Quilting is a great hobby to have, fulfilling my creative needs. I always have ideas floating about in my head, what I’d like is more time to achieve them all!’
Gwenfai exhibits and competes nationally and internationally and has been fortunate enough to win several awards. She enjoys the challenge and finds it an excellent way to stretch her designing and improve her sewing skills.
She has passed on her obsession by teaching several classes locally in North Wales and by visiting many groups nationally. She has now retired and no longer teaches or travels to groups. She has made so many friends and met so many people through this great hobby, long may it continue.
A traditionalist at heart, but with no desire to replicate old quilts, Gwenfai aims to create a new look from the traditional using any techniques required. Invariably she finishes with hand quilting. She says: ‘There is never a meaningful reason to my quilts. I make them because I want to and enjoy every aspect from the designing to the final stitch, however long that takes. Quilting is a great hobby to have, fulfilling my creative needs. I always have ideas floating about in my head, what I’d like is more time to achieve them all!’
Gwenfai exhibits and competes nationally and internationally and has been fortunate enough to win several awards. She enjoys the challenge and finds it an excellent way to stretch her designing and improve her sewing skills.
She has passed on her obsession by teaching several classes locally in North Wales and by visiting many groups nationally. She has now retired and no longer teaches or travels to groups. She has made so many friends and met so many people through this great hobby, long may it continue.
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Serelian - 1998 This quilt was made as a commission piece for an exhibition held at The Shipley Art Gallery. Several antique Welsh quilts inspired the colour and layout. The quilting patterns are based on designs found at St Elian’s church in Llanelian, a small village in North Wales where Gwenfai was married and her sons were christened. Stained glass, wood carvings, iron and silver work were photographed and patterns drawn onto graph paper. Hand quilted. |
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Y Llyn - (The Lake) - 2000 On her first visit to the Houston quilt show Gwenfai attended a two day workshop on pieced pictures with Charlotte Warr Anderson. This quilt is inspired by a postcard of Llyn Padarn in Eryri. Hand pieced with mostly Primrose Gradation fabrics, hand quilted. |
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China Blue - 2020 Gwenfai collected the blue and white fabrics for several years knowing she wanted two single quilts for the bedroom where the Welsh Dresser quilt hangs. They did take some time to make as she would make a few blocks then move on to something else. She eventually finished the tops at a weekend retreat. Gwenfai had intended having the quilts long arm quilted but when Covid came along hand quilting was the perfect therapy for all that time spent in lockdown. Machine pieced, hand quilted. |
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Hydrangea – 2001 On Gwenfai’s first visit to Houston in 1999 she admired the large flowered quilts which were rarely seen in the UK at the time. She selected a small section of the florets from a photograph of a Hydrangea in her garden as the original design source. The fabrics are from Primrose Gradations. Machine appliqué, hand quilted. |
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Pennsylvania - 2019 The Orange Peel block was the starting point for this quilt. Gwenfai bought the fabrics on a great trip she had to see the Amish in Pennsylvania. She designed the various appliqué blocks which are inserted in the centres. Mostly hand appliqué, hand quilted using Perlé and hand quilting thread. |
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Sychwn Ddagrau - 2019 Song Title - Sychwn Ddagaru words by Ceri Wyn Jones, music by Robert Arwyn. ‘Sychwn Ddagrau’ (Dry the tears) is one of Gwenfai’s favourite songs, which she sings with the choir ‘Cor Alaw’. She says: ‘It questions our dedication to the preservation of our countryside, for it to flourish or die. Choices are given through comparisons. Do we hear the screech of the crow, or the thrush singing in the fields? Are there thorns or wild flowers in our hedgerows? Do we see dead wood or growth? To see it flourish we must roll up our sleeves, set to work, dry the countryside’s tears, plough the fields and sow the seeds.’ The larger right side of the quilt depicts the flourishing countryside where time has been spent on stitching, embellishing and its finished edge. The lower left side shows its decline through colour, minimal stitching and raw edge. |
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Calon Lan - 1995 Gwenfai had previously attended a workshop on making a North Country whole cloth quilt, but knew as a Welsh girl (well, as she says, she was a lot younger in 1995) that she had to make one using her own combination of Welsh patterns. The edge is finished traditionally. Hand quilted. |
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Harlequin - 2003 Gwenfai was sent the details of the ‘Amish Revisited’ competition being held at the 9th European Patchwork Meeting in France. This gave her the incentive to make an Amish style quilt using Primrose Gradation fabrics. She distorted and curved nine Monkey Wrench blocks for the centre. Hand and machine pieced, hand quilted. |
Sampler- 40 years - 2020
‘40 Years and Still Stitching’ was the title of the challenge for Quiltfest at Llangollen in 2020. Gwenfai decided on a sampler using some of the methods she has learnt over the years. Mixed techniques, hand quilted. |
Harrismith - 2023
Gwenfai admired the cut glass panel in the half glazed front door of her son’s Edwardian house the very first time she saw it. This quilt takes inspiration from the urn and flowers etched into the glass. Gwenfai designed additional flowers to fill the elongated size she needed to fit the very odd stairwell she has in her old farmhouse. Machine pieced background, hand appliqué, embroidery and quilting. |
