How long does it take to make a quilt? 

A machine quilt is about a week’s work. Quilting a double bed quilt by hand takes between 60 and 90 hours, usually distributed over several weeks. 

What's the difference between a machine quilt and a hand quilt? 

You make patchwork by sewing multiple smaller pieces of cloth into a larger whole. It isn’t a quilt until you’ve stitched it into a sandwich with a backing sheet and a layer of filler or wadding between the patchwork top and the backing. This is quilting. If you do it on a special sewing machine called a long-arm, you get a machine quilt. If you stitch the three layers together by hand, stitch by painstaking stitch (as in the picture at the head of this page), you get a hand quilt.

Can you wash Pemberton quilts?

Yes you can; just not frequently, regularly or aggressively. Every quilt is sold with care instructions, and they are on the website.

Are Pemberton quilts available in different sizes? 

Yes. A Pemberton quilt can be made to order in any size you like, with a cost adjustment if it’s larger than our standard (double bed) dimensions or requires significant modification of the pattern.

Where do the designs come from? 

Some designs, such as the Shoeman’s Puzzle, are traditional patchwork designs, scaled up and made bold in solid colours. Our own designs come from looking at the structures all around us in the world – sometimes in abstract art, sometimes in nature, sometimes in the built world. The colour palettes all come from things we’ve seen and places we’ve been.