New Quilts from Old

I told my husband it seemed like I had no fun at all this summer, being sick, as well as being stressed out by my daughter and her health issues, trying to catch up with work, i.e., the final revision on my next book, and designing, writing patterns and finishing the quilts for my American Schoolgirl Club after missing quite a few weeks.

Some of it was fun stuff, but work nonetheless, and I do stress out if I miss deadlines, something my Dr told me to try to avoid (stress, not deadlines). So going to one of my favorite quilt shows this past weekend, run by a local quilt shop, was just what I needed. Carrie and Katie at Pieceful Gathering in Fox River Grove, Illinois, use antique quilts for their inspiration in designing new patterns and fabric. Their quilt show (showcasing quilts made in their classes) is just lovely and full of inspiration, and so is the shop.

Many of the quilts displayed were very antique-looking and used reproduction fabrics, my favorite, so you can see why I was excited to see all of the quilts made by so many talented Illinois quilters. I would have liked to post photos of so many more, but there were almost 100 quilts and I only have room for a few here, so my apologies to those I left out.

On special exhibit was this late 19th century quilt from the collection of Sandy Schweitzer, which is the quilt that inspired Carrie Quinn's new fabric line, Rebecca's Madders, coming out in December. Can't wait to see it! The back of the quilt is pieced too, isn't that so cool?

Mary Z was there, an old friend I met in Jo Club in 2003 . . . Still happy to see me, or was it being surrounded by all the quilts and fabric?? Hmmm . . . .

(Here's a teaser for you - I'm wearing a small pin that has a picture of the cover of my next book on it!)

Here's one of Mary's little quilts - Sarah's Doll Quilt - that she hand pieced.

And here's one of her big ones - Blue Plate Special.

Here's a doll quilt made by Karen Schultz of Illinois. Simple and scrappy. Hey, Karen, sorry I missed you!

Here's one of Karen's bed-size quilts - Give and Take - which won 3rd place! Sorry if I cut it off a little. I almost fell over backing up trying to get it all in.

Love this Pineapple Table Topper made by Jan Griffith.

Who  can resist 30's Pinwheels?  Made by Vonnie Johnson.

Not all of the photos I took came out very well but here are some other quilts I loved.

     Not Everyone Likes Sunflowers made by Lorraine Tritthardt.

Mary's Stars made by Mary Landis.

                                            

Moda Club BOM made by Tricia Baldwin

Jo Morton's Baskets made by Lynn Ray.
                                                 

Christmas Carol made by Ann Fouse.

                                                    

Blueberries and Brown Sugar made by Julia Ann Thomson.

Now, don't tell me you don't have any good ideas for future quilts. I want to make all of them, sigh. Wish I had more time.

Make It Your Way

When I start out to design a quilt for a book I usually have an idea in my head but it often changes and evolves as I make the quilt. Nope, not those fabrics, try these, add more blocks -- or how about this instead of this for a border? Don't know exactly where it's going until I finish. I love to see other quilters' interpretations of my quilts and wonder if they work from my designs the same way--nope, too much blue, let's use red and brown instead.

Quite often I get e-mails from fans who want to know the name of the EXACT fabric I used in a particular quilt. They want to copy it to a T and I usually have to disappoint them by telling them that by the time a quilt appears in a book, the fabric is sometimes 2 or more years old and difficult to find. Lines change often and a fabric that's in a shop one day is usually gone the next time you blink.

The most requested fabric?

No contest, that wavy blue stripe designed by Judie Rothermel for her Regency collection that appears in the Orange Peel quilt on the cover of Remembering Adelia. Hundreds, no thousands, of e-mails asking about that fabric. Ok, just kidding, I'm exaggerating - not quite that many. But after the book came out last year, e-mails almost every day for sure. This fabric is not available anywhere now because I made the quilt in 2008. Trust me, I've looked. (Hoarder that I am, I still have a little bit left over to use in a small version I will make someday. If I'd known it would be this popular, I would have bought several bolts just for all of you.) That blue and black leaf print (also by Judie) is popular too. I have even less of that one and I still love to use it here and there in small quilts.

The good news is that the Orange Peel quilt looks great made with other fabrics too! I really love to see what other quilters come up with and always encourage them to e-mail me with their own versions of my simple designs. Apparently not everyone loves blue, I'm discovering. Nice that I can still make my quilts with blue and you can make yours any way you want.

Here are some photos Mary took of her group's projects  at  JoJo's Quilt Shop in Chesterfield, Virginia recently. They made a whole series of quilts from Remembering Adelia. Same as mine, but definitely different.

Some like warmer colors, some prefer pastels. Gotta love those pinks and browns! All very different, but all so lovely! Great job, ladies. Thanks, Mary!

Celebrate Romance

Some of these lovely fabrics will be used in a quilt I am going to make for the next challenge for my Yahoo Small Quilt  group.

I will call it "Romance Stars."

If you're not a member, join us in the fun and make a small star quilt using some of your own "romantic" floral fabrics.  If you don't have any, why I think it's a perfect excuse to go out and buy some new fabric. You have my permission, LOL.

I've been collecting some of these prints over the past year or two ( in a romantic floral box, of course) and wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with them.  While I was in the hospital, I was hooked up to an IV drip and couldn't go very far without unplugging and dragging the whole d*** machine with me so, while I rested, the only thing I looked at to relax (when the TV wasn't on) were the pretty floral drapes at the window. A very romantic pattern that made me feel like quilting when I got better.

The challenge deadline is October 4 so I think I'll have plenty of time, barring any health relapses, LOL.

Create your own little quilt design from the block directions.

I've always been drawn to the sentimental and the romantic and some of my undergraduate study centered around the British Romantic poets of the late 18th to early 19th centuries - William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats and Lord Byron. As part of an independent study through the English and Art departments, I visited the Lake District in England to see what all the excitement was about.  

"I wandered lonely as a

Cloud

That floats on high o'er

Vales and Hills,

When at once I saw a

crowd

A host of dancing

Daffodils;

Along the Lake, beneath

the trees,

Ten thousand dancing in

the breeze." 

-William Wordsworth, 1807

The British Romantic poets believed that nature and emotion were the places in which one found spiritual truth. Most of the poets attributed to children special innate gifts. According to  Wordsworth - they come from heaven “trailing clouds of glory.” Poetry to them was a “spontaneous overflow of feelings,” often inspired by nature.

"'Beauty is truth, truth beauty'—that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

        -John Keats

After seeing Wordsworth's cottage garden at Dove Cottage, I knew I wanted to plant my own someday. Took me quite a few years but I'm sort of on my way!

So yes, in addition to being a true sentimentalist, I am also a true romantic too. Make a "Romance Star" quilt to celebrate romance . . .

Time for another romantic garden party dinner?

Little Girls and Quilting

Yippee! I'm excited to let you  know that the second pattern for the American Schoolgirl Club - Martha Washington's Star Quilt -  has been mailed out to many of you! I actually stayed focused and, even though it's late, it's still technically July so I consider that pretty good considering everything I went through this month. I got sick on July 1 and went to the ER that day. What an absolutely exhausting month it was for me.  Hope this doesn't mean I'm getting old and I've lost my ability to bounce back like I used to. I'm still pretty tired.

So keep an eye on your mailboxes in the coming week (maybe "weeks" for those of you in Canada, Europe and Australia, unfortunately). This little quilt is a treasure and will be a lot of fun to make with your red and blue print scraps.

Thinking about and making doll quilts keeps me young, however, I think. If you follow my blog and books at all, most of you know by now that doll quilts were often used as practice for young girls' sewing skills in the past.

Needlework and sewing were an important part of a girl's education in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sometimes these skills were taught before reading and writing.

Doll quilts were learning pieces. It was the practicing of the sewing skills that was important, not so much the design of the quilt.

I like to think that, like early quilters, even young girls making small quilts for their dolls learned a little about color and the whole design process and it helped to give life to their creative expression in a small way.

(From the book Amish Doll Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman)

(From the book Amish Doll Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman)

(From the book Amish Doll Quilts by Rachel and Kenneth Pellman)

Some antique doll quilts were made by adults for children - out of love for the child for sure. And those can be exquisite and rare, as well as expensive. But the ones that I'm really drawn to are the ones made by children themselves - simple, unpretentious, with imperfect stitches, where you can see the frustration of trying to master the skill. Often crudely sewn. I bought this quilt fragment a little while ago because I loved that about the unevenly sewn nine-patches. Maybe it was a doll quilt in the making. More likely it was made by an adult learning to stitch by hand, but when I find the right borders I'll probably turn it into a doll quilt someday.

Here are the only 2 antique doll quilts I own and I love them for their simplicity (and the price was right too!)

A few years ago I had my daughter practice some straight stitching on the sewing machine - making little four-patch blocks from some of my reproduction fabric squares. She lost interest quickly--"that's your thing, mom" and we never did anything with them but I often think of turning them into a doll quilt to keep tucked away for her daughter someday.  
 

 

For now, I'll keep designing and making scrappy doll quilts for myself (and all of YOU too, of course). Maybe they'll be valuable to someone someday. And if not, that's ok. Like little girls' sewing samples, they were my own little learning projects over the years. It's fun to see how far I've come.

 

 (Schoolgirl Club quilt # 1- Eliza Jane's Nine Patch)

I love this quilt!