ID Number: TQ.2014.039
Name of Interviewee: Margarite Bryant
Name of Interviewer: Binkie Thomas
Name of Transcriber: Gwen Jones
Location: Marguerite’s home
Address: Gilfach Goch, Mid Glamorgan
Date: 7 October 2014
Length of interview: 0:18:53
Summary
Marguerite has been quilting since the Second World War and introduced one of the first quilts she made, a paisley pattern bedspread quilt. Her husband’s family had links with The Quaker community in the Rhondda and she talks about how the quilters worked together at large quilt frames to make quilts for each other. Throughout the interview Marguerite refers to her family history, reminiscences about buying fabric after the war and the pleasure she gets from still attending the quilt group.
Interview
Binkie Thomas [BT]: It is a very interesting day today because Mrs Marguerite Bryant has been quilting for a long long time. Mrs Bryant, how old are you?
Mrs Bryant [MB]: 99.
BT: 99 which is a good age [MB chuckles in the background]. So what I want to know is your quilt is on your bed in the other room. Can you tell me about the quilt that you’ve got?
MB: Well the one that’s there is, uh, [hesitates] it’s a… I had… you buy a… at the time you could buy like a bedspread in a sense, paisley pattern [BT: Lovely] and they were five shillings for one of them. And I bought one and I had… and I bought material to do a blue part on the other side, so of course we were able to see the design on that one that was marked out by me, and I think, I believe it was in the chapel that I was going to, and we… the sewing class in the evenings there, but I don’t think I finished it with them, but I did finish it. And it’s quite nice, really.
BT: So how old is that quilt?
MB: Well, that one would be oh… 30… 40 years I would imagine, [BT: Right] Oh yes, because I’ve been married now since I was 26 and this was about just… not long after that. And that’s the chapel where Hettie has got her house and uh…then of course I had it and, to be truthful, I thought I had given it away then of course I had some beautiful quilts. They were also made by Hettie, wonderful absolutely, the only thing is I don’t have them because they were always for the family. I had one for my granddaughter and she was like… I can’t remember exactly what it was, but she wanted all the motifs for that. And a niece of mine she wanted, she loved Wales, so she wanted something with all Welsh one, the daffodils, everything that was there was in the daffodils in small, but in the centre was the dragon. They were absolutely out of this world.
BT: How lovely and all hand made.
MB: Absolutely, Hettie was doing a lot of them in the house, she made some beautiful quilts.
BT: So how do you use the quilt that you are describing? It’s on your bed at the moment isn’t it?
MB: Well, at the moment I haven’t been using it for a very, very long time because it is looking a bit shabby because it used to be on my son’s, I had twin sons, [MB chuckles] and the edging of it it really needs to be repaired. [BT: Right] But I put it on the bed for you to see it.
BT: Lovely. Now when did you first start making quilts?
MB: Well that was roughly when, l I’d never before never before, but it was just about 1939, 1940. [BT: Right.] Then I wasn’t married then but I was friendly with my husband at the time and his mother was chair lady of the… of the… The Quakers have them. They had, oh sorry, they opened up an evening class and there were all kinds of things that you did there. And they supplied you with, not they supplied, but you could buy them, materials with them
BT: You’re talking about the Quakers in Maes yr Haf now, aren’t you?
MB: That’s right, yes.
BT: In Trealaw?
MB: That’s right, yes. And they came over to Gilfach, we didn’t go over there to them but we used to go, my sister-in-law and I, she was secretary, I was Treasurer. So we used to go to meetings over there, but the one is… there were 42 in the class, in Maes, in the quilting one that we had there and there were four or five frames most of those were started, I think that was about… in the beginning there was only one started more because they knew more about it I think. But I was interested so I did, but I would think on my frame I was not… [Hesitates], I was doing this pattern but there were some of them doing the rag mats, beautiful patterns in the rag mats, incredible. They had that but several of them had been quilting and that was when it started. But then I did have the, but unfortunately I have given it to my granddaughter and at the moment she lives over in Porth but she’s pregnant now, she’s expecting… now look at that, [MB shows BT a picture] that’s my first great grandson. Isn’t he absolutely a taker?
BT: Isn’t that lovely.
MB: I’m, sorry about that.
BT: No, no, no. I’m just going to say for the recording really that people need to know that Maes yr Haf is a very famous place in the Rhondda. [MB: That’s right.] It was a big area where people could do classes and different things.
MB: That’s right.
BT: … and its now been taken over by Social Services and lots of things happen there, don’t they?
MB: Oh right. [BT: Yes.] Yes, they could do you, over in the Maes Yr Haf, as you say, they lived there didn’t they, the people, and they were such nice people.
BT: Lovely. [MB: Yes.] So are there other quilt makers in your family?
MB: No, not really, no because… my sister… no, not really.
BT: Because you started quilting during the war then didn’t you?
MB: Well that’s right.
BT: Second World War.
MB: Yes, well of course, they were making, I just started to make them then but my sisters were… there you are [shows another picture] there are six of them there.
BT: Oh how lovely. Six sisters and none of them quilters.
MB: No but they’re beautiful, oh… knitters, my sister she has nine children. [BT: Gosh.] And she had four girls and four boys, well five girls but the little one died. And she’d do the smocking absolutely straight too, so two of the younger ones Till and Joan. [BT: Oh how lovely] They would come up, they were like two little princesses, beautiful smocking and she’d sit down and she knitted. I can’t… yes she knitted.
BT: Oh, we’re being shown a picture of a beautiful shawl with a baby on it. That is gorgeous.
MB: That’s my little… so there you are and she’s expecting one now in January.
BT: Lovely, well I’m going to put that down and I’m going to ask you, do you have a preferred style or a technique.
MB: Do I myself, well I can’t…
BT: Do you use a machine or is it all by hand?
MB: Oh yes! I’ve got a machine there.
BT: What machine have you got?
MB: Well that one is a New Home but I used to have the old fashioned my mother’s old [BT: Oh yes] hand machine. Yes a Singer but my cousin, my sister had it, this one here, she was very smart, sorry, she was in the Land Army during the war, very, very smart and um…but unfortunately I‘m the only one left out of 11 yes, yes.
BT: So what do you enjoy out of making quilts and sewing?
MB: I don’t go do much now, well the only.
BT: You do because I met you there. [MB: That’s right.] You go to supervise [MB laughs]
MB: Pardon?
BT: But what did you enjoy about it?
MB: Well, let me say… the atmosphere, such friendliness. Every, doesn’t matter if we were 40 or two, how many… and you’d’ always go in there, whatever the time, ‘Yes, I’m fine’, ‘life’s lovely’, ‘how are you?’ ‘Alright?’ Everybody was… what can I say…
BT: It was the social side.
MB: Absolutely.
BT: Brought you together.
MB: And there was such a nice atmosphere, there wasn’t a lot of spitefulness. Sometimes we would… [lot of hesitation here] borrow the pattern but I must tell you this, this is about a pattern and I also, we also used to make them out of heavy brown paper and that was our pattern and I had a star pattern that I had and I think I must have lent it to somebody because I didn’t have it. So my son, I’ve got twin sons and they were about 10 year old at the time, so when I went home I said before I went out that night I said to David, he was teaching up in the valleys, I said ‘Look a draw a star pattern for me now and put my name in it too, so that nobody is going to take it if my name is on it.’ But I didn’t realise until I got back down to the class [chuckles] that ‘Mrs Bryant’ wasn’t on it, ‘Mam’ was on it [Both laughing].
BT: Oh that’s funny.
MB: Oh, honestly I couldn’t stop laughing, because it seemed such a funny… you know [laughs].
BT: So when you were going to make a quilt did you sit down and do a design or did you just do it as you went along.
MB: No you would have an idea what, no you’d measure it and then measure the pattern and then think perhaps I could put two, three or four in those, no it took a while to set it out. Well you could see the one in there, nothing special and no individual pattern and sometimes some of them didn’t want to put a pattern like they had, which seemed a bit ridiculous. You know some of it… well in some respects, yes… well not jealous in a way perhaps they might like… perhaps they thought that yours looked better than theirs [both laugh]. I don’t know.
BT: That’s human nature I think.
MB: Absolutely, absolutely, yes but on the whole basically, no, that wouldn’t be it. On the whole there was a lovely atmosphere.
BT: Bearing in mind that things were hard after the war and things like quilting were quite expensive.
MB: That’s right, yes.
BT: How did you cope with buying your goods, your things for quilting?
MB: Well, as a matter of fact they used to bring it from Maes Yr Haf. [BT: Right.] We could buy the material with them.
BT: So the Quakers would actually buy it?
MB: That’s right.
BT: And they would sell it to you and they would sell it a bit cheaper.
MB: Absolutely yes. And they were selling it [both speaking together here]. And they had some and I have some there now, they had the white pillowcases but they didn’t press the embroidery on it, pattern on it, and then you could… we could do the pattern. I’ve got them in there now white pillowcases with a lovely pattern on them.
BT: Oh how lovely
MB: Yes, they were but of course we would have to pay for them but for ourselves really. But whatever it was I think the quilts we were doing were five yards roughly they were at that time and then you would do some in half and then you would cut the other half of the other piece to measure, you know, but we didn’t want to have a centre seam so we would that there and put the other odd piece on the outside of one.
BT: Right. [MB: Yes.] Did you have much choice in colour or design?
MB: Well I don’t think. No I think whatever people liked they just had really. There was no absolute um… and there was nothing as regard, there wasn’t, um.., what can I say… there was no teacher there.
BT: No.
MB: No and everybody was doing whatever we were…
BT: So everybody helped everybody else?
MB: Well no I wouldn’t say that they helped everybody but you helped a little group most, perhaps there would be six of you round a table, round a big frame, well then that was the group and then you would have a turn and if you went in you didn’t expect to go and have one made immediately you would expect to wait your turn. You might have a turn once in a couple of years.
BT: Right. So you are actually saying that a group of you would get round a quilt and you’d sew that quilt for somebody? [MB: Yes.] So that’s like the old American way of doing it.
MB: Yes, yes that’s why we always sat there and there was a nice atmosphere. Well mostly anyway with them.
BT: But I’ve got to ask you. What happened if somebody wasn’t very good at quilting that was doing it? That must have come up.
MB: Sewing?
BT: Yes.
MB: Well to be honest, I know and I didn’t like it my… personally. And I used to go down in the… I had the keys and I could go in the afternoon and I would undo it.
BT: Oh!!! [Both laugh].
MB: I know, I know…
BT: I think that is so funny, but I think I’d do the same.
MB: I didn’t like to do it to be quite honest but um, because I was marking it, and then of course you would look at it and I thought, oh I couldn’t… But I wouldn’t say anything to them about it.
BT: I quite understand.
MB: Oh, no I wouldn’t, because they were genuine, people were genuine, people were genuine and I never said that I’d unpicked anything, and if it wasn’t too bad I’d leave it because it would go in but if it was a bit outrageous I would think ‘no’, I wouldn’t like it for the people that the quilt belonged to if you understand. But on the whole, basically, we had quite a good group the one on our table. There was one table they did more marking and they did rag mats rather than the quilting.
BT: Tell me if you were looking at a quilt today what would you look for in a quilt?
MB: Well probably the design I think I might and I probably would look at the stitching and whether it was machine stitched or hand stitched.
BT: What would you prefer?
MB: Oh, the hand stitched. I saw hand stitched quilt, funnily enough when I was out with my son, my eldest son lives up North and we went to a department store up there. I could see the curtains and that and I could also see quilts hanging up and they were really nice and when I went across to look at them, but they came from France.
BT: Oh…
MB: And I was really surprised. But I didn’t the work on them was like our work, personally. And they were £300.
BT: Oh gosh.
MB: Mind, the material was nice, it was, I can’t think of the name of the place now. My son lives up between Newcastle and Durham, as a matter of fact it is Tony Wedgwood-Benn’s village.
BT: Oh right. [MB: Yes.] Oh right. So what do you do with the quilts you’ve made? Well, what have you done over the years?
MB: Well, um, I’ve given them to some of the family and Hettie’s made for me, is it two or three Hettie? You’ve made for me, [Hettie answers in the background] one for Judith and one for my grandson and but I couldn’t ask her to… I didn’t like to ask because she’s pregnant now… she will be the last one and she is expecting now in the New Year and that will be the last one. Well really in a sense it was just for the family.
BT: So Mrs Bryant you know the quilts that you made during the war and after the war, they were to be used, were they?
MB: Oh, absolutely.
BT: They weren’t decoration.
MB: Oh no, no, no.
BT: To be put on the wall and shown.
MB: On no, no, no.
BT: They were to be used on the bed.
MB: You look at that and you’ll see there because all of the edging needs to be done properly again but…
BT: So why is quilt making important and why was it important to you?
MB: Well, I love the atmosphere for a start and I loved the sewing, because I like sewing anyway. I took in sewing for a long time. Handmade. I made for the um… my niece in America, made some of the dresses for her.
BT: Have you always lived in Gilfach Goch?
MB: Pardon?
BT: Have you always lived in Gilfach Goch?
MB: Well I was born here, yes, yes.
BT: Oh right. So you are a real trouper here. [MB laughs] [MB: Yes]. One of the original ones.
MB: Yes, I think so, my parents, they lived up the top end of the valley there was at one time, because my grandfather was the choirmaster and there was a [indecipherable] Church up the top, right, until they built the church down here. And that’s going back, as you can imagine, considering…
BT: You are 99!
MB: That’s right. But he was, and my uncles they were always in the choir at the time.
BT: Well Mrs Bryant this has been fascinating and on behalf of the Talking Quilts Project I would just like to thank you so much for giving up your time this afternoon.
MB: Well it’s been a pleasure.
BT: Well it’s been wonderful for me I’ve loved it. Thank you very much.
MB: Well, I’ve loved it too.
BT: Brilliant, you were brilliant. That was absolutely wonderful.