WELSH quilt expert and collector Jen Jones is putting together a bid to win museum status for her Lampeter centre.

Ms Jones, who opened her second exhibition in the revamped Old Town Hall to much acclaim at the weekend, began the application process on Tuesday.

A successful bid will put the Welsh Quilt Centre on a par with a host of other museums in Wales, including county attractions in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

"I very much hope that we get museum status," said Ms Jones.

"Some of the other museums in Wales which have it — Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire, the National Wool Museum and St. Fagans — have all said they'd love it to happen, which is very exciting because we could dip into all the collections and have a wonderful time."

She added: "There's no real reason why we shouldn't get it.

''The building is good and the collection is substantial."

Ms Jones, who moved to Wales from Massachusetts in the United States in 1971, has more than 300 Welsh quilts and blankets in her personal collection.

Many were saved after being used on the back of tractors or to keep farm animals warm.

She also has the largest stock of antique Welsh quilts and blankets for sale anywhere in the world at her shop in Llanybydder.

Getting museum status is the next step in her self-confessed ''preoccupation'' with celebrating Welsh heritage and making Welsh quilting culture accessible to everybody.

Ms Jones is already recognised around the world for her expertise on Welsh quilts and has written books, given lectures and run workshops and courses on the subject. The museum status application will be overseen by the Welsh Assembly Government.

The Welsh quilt centre's latest exhibition, Unsung Heritage: the Quilts of Wales, opened on Saturday and follows a successful inaugural exhibition which was opened by Victoria and Albert Museum curator Sue Prichard last August.