Applique

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

November 27, 2012 by Margaret

Applique block

But I’m pleased to say

“that’s one block down and eight to go”

Today I prepped another block in anticipation of something good on the telly tonight,

I haven’t checked, I’m just hoping there is :-0

In progress

Click on the picture for a better view, you’ll see that I don’t mark my background fabric at all,

but I do press the halfway marks, vertical/horizontal and diagonal.

I have a large light box (but even it isn’t quite large enough to fit these very large blocks)

and I prefer to just lay the background fabric over the pattern sheet.

The applique shapes are marked with the stitch line directly on to the right side of the fabric with whatever will show up.

In this case all the fabrics are marked with a white pen except the lighter blue which has been marked with a frixion pen (heat activated) so I have to remember not to iron that one.

I have finished this quilt below which you have seen snippets of

here

and it looks like this

Quilt previously known as Vintage

Okay I know, you can’t see that much of it but a girl’s got to keep the odd thing up her sleeve.

It does have a name now, it only had a working title of Vintage which either had to go or be extended somehow.

I have decided to call it Eastleigh after the town in Hampshire where my Grandmother was born. It rolls off the tongue easily.

I can tell you that this quilt is destined for Homespun magazine next year, about mid way through so don’t hold your breath just yet.

And I thought I’d just share with you that this elderly lady is still hanging in there despite a few scares this year

" I know I forget lots of things but I don't think I've eaten yet"

Rollo has just had her summer clip and is looking forward to Christmas, just around the corner now.

I’ll be back before then of course,

’til soon

Margaret

16 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Eastleigh, Reproduction Quilts, Smithsonian Fabrics

Texas bound.

October 20, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve got to get a little more frequent with this blogging caper,

the second half of this year has flown by and many times in the last 4 or 5 months I’ve felt like a whirling dirvish.

I hinted last time about a new quilt to be introduced to you all in a fitting manner.

And I think Irene, Jennifer and I are as ready as we’ll ever be to introduce you to

Drum roll…

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose

Harmony Rose showcases the newest fabric range Arabella Rose by

Marianne Elizabeth Classically Home

Jenn and I are super excited to be taking the quilt to Fall Market in Houston next week to release the pattern.

You can read more about Harmony Rose’s inception on our new web-blog

Turn Left for Harmony

and the beautiful fabrics we used for it can be seen here on Marianne’s site.

I’m sure you’ll be seeing them at a quilt shop near you soon.

Jenn and I will also visit Festival so maybe we’ll see you there

we sure hope so

til soon,

Margaret

4 Comments

Filed Under: Applique, Design, Travel

Time flies when you’re sewing.

September 20, 2012 by Margaret

I am astonished to see it’s a month (or so) since I posted last, but I take comfort noticing that some of my favourite bloggers are doing the same. Weeks and months are whizzing by in the blink of an eye.

Since May I’ve had an internal monologue of… “life will get a bit less manic, I just have to get through July and August”.

I think I started breathing again on the first of September.

Since I was here last I have…

been on a lovely weekend away with Linda, Bev, Jenn and Debbie to Sorrento.
been working steadily on the Vintage Quilt.
enjoyed a day with lots of other quilters and the Chester County Criswell Quilt at Linda Collin’s home.
finished the last bit of embroidery and finally started quilting the Maltaville Quilt.
finished a quilt for the US with Jenn and Irene (more about that later, we’ve had to keep it very quiet until recently)
been teaching at Patch n Quilt in Gisborne.
dragged out the Welsh Quilt for more hand quilting (the weather’s been miserable)
been quilting quilts for the Goldfields Quilters (my LQG) exhibition next month ~ all customers’ quilts done, just mine to do now phew.
finally made a start on reproducing one of the Antique Quilts I bought in Paducah, but I only started that today so does that count in this list? Oh what the heck, course it can count.

Pictures would be nice wouldn’t they.

Linda blogged ages ago here about the Sorrento Retreat but here’s a few more pics. It really was a super weekend

Now that's novel

I love this one of Linda,

soooo many circles

As well as other sewing, I sewed more circles on the Vintage quilt,

We watched a wonderful movie called The Help.

We all cried, ssshhh don’t tell anyone.

Do see it if you can.

And there were so many books to browse, not just sewing but also our other passion…

cooking.

And just take a look at the quilt on the floor and keep it in your mind.

Books galore

The Vintage Quilt is coming along nicely, I finally got my design wall up in the cottage.

That sure helped.

Progressing nicely

Just a couple more borders and it will be done.

The day at Linda’s enjoying the Chester County Criswell Quilt was fantastic.

Linda has blogged about it here

Many thanks to Sharon for making the quilt available for us all to enjoy, and to Linda and Bev for a fabulous day, so well organised.

The Maltaville Quilt went on the machine yesterday

I’m sooooo very happy to see this at the next and final stage.

Do you remember this Red and Green quilt, it was one I purchased in the US in April?

June Orr's 1849 applique quilt

I’ve been intending to recreate it as a pattern and I had drafted the blocks a little while ago.

But today, I finally got fabric happening.

The impetus?

I’m going on a retreat with my LQG this weekend and I needed some handwork ~ easy to transport, not too taxing.

But warning, it’s not Red and Green.

One of the large blocks

I think I must have trouble with two fabric quilts.

I love them~ I really do, but it’s just there are so many great fabrics that it’s hard to stop at two!

So now for the Irene’s, Jenn’s and my ‘secret’ quilt.

If you’re on Facebook you could take a little look at the link below then I’ll try and fill you in as best I can cos it’s a bit of a long story.

http://www.facebook.com/MarianneElizabethDesigns

Are you back? Did you see a quilt that looked like the one on Linda’s floor in Sorrento?

Crazy huh!

When Irene and I were away in the US we met fabric and quilt designer Marianne Elizabeth.

I could talk for an hour on the serendipity that brought the three of us together, but trust me, it was a fabulous bit of fate.

So, we chatted about fabric and quilts, then Marianne showed us some pieces from her newest fabric collection

Arabella Rose

and invited us to design a new quilt using them.

What a thrill.

So a big part of why I (and Jenn & Irene too if I can be so bold as to speak for them) have been a teeny bit quiet around blogland is that we have been sewing, and sewing and sewing and sew…

The quilt is called Harmony Rose and we want to introduce it to you properly ~ and in a special way ~ very soon.

You’ll just have to be patient a little bit longer, there’s just a bit more to do on the promotion.

And there’ll be a pattern of course.

I’m going to sign off for the night, it’s quite late oooh it’s suddenly tomorrow.

til soon

Margaret

1 Comment

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Quilt Patterns, Reproduction Quilts

Vintage

August 4, 2012 by Margaret

That’s still the working title, not even Vintage Quilt or Vintage … anything. Just Vintage, it’s the best I could come up with.

I took it to Mill Rose Cottage last Thursday, it was nice to catch up with Sue and the regulars, though I have hardly been a regular, this was the first chance I had to get there since April.

A bit of Sewing and a bit of Shopping, happy days.

I grabbed a copy of the book History Repeated by Betsy Chutchian and Carol Staehle.

I love to read about a group of women getting together through a mutual love of quilts and it leading to such a wonderful project. And of course, amongst the Divas there are a couple of names I recognise

I have been over in the studio today as I really needed to have a tidy up. I confess that I do work in a bit of a mess, functioning quite well until I get fed up with myself and get more orderly.

I get sick of rifling through stuff

The templates were piling up so they needed to be put away once finished with.

Templates so far

And my working book was looking quite empty despite the centre being nearly complete.

That’s bad, I use this as the basis of my pattern writing so it’s important that I keep it up to date while it’s all fresh in my mind.

So I updated that with instructions and fabric samples.

Quilt Workbook, plus a pile of circles

I’ve sewn on the last of the leaves and then needed to make some more circles. I have a nice little pile there but I still need about 20 more.

But I got a bit bored and decided to come show you how it’s looking so far.

I haven’t got a design wall up in the studio yet, I kept rearranging the furniture so wasn’t sure where I wanted it for awhile. But now I have decided and yesterday went to Spotlight to get some cheap Polar Fleecy (at Jenn’s recommendation)

Design Wall Fleecy, awaiting a curtain rod and a tall man.

So for now I am making do with the back of the door

Vintage centre block in progress

You may have spotted some fabric changes from the last post.

Vintage Centre Block ~ early stages.

My quits tend to evolve. I actually don’t know how big this is going to be or anything. It’s just fun playing.

Well I better go back and make those last circles.

Happy stitching,

til soon

Margaret

11 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Design, Quilt Patterns

Give-away winners

July 16, 2012 by Margaret

I decided to wait until at least Saturday night because it will still be the 13th July somewhere in the world when we’ve moved on to the 14th July here so yesterday I drew the winners for the give-away announced back here.

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/new-zealand-then-sydney-and-a-give-away

Well actually Jenn did it, she was at my place as we had some work to do, always there is work to do!!

I have to tell you, even something as simple as drawing a give-away was not without confusion :-0

But first I had fun choosing a couple of extra pieces of fabric to go with the John Hewson panels,

Large Urn, with warm brown and light blue for the first two names out

I wanted to give you something a little different to go with the panels, something other than a companion print

Birds, with a madder and an eccentric print for the 3rd and 4th names out.

So with that all done, it was time to write out the names and pop them in a container of some description.

The first thing I did was go on to the post page to see that there were 23 comments,

I had made two replies so that means there are 21 people in the draw, yeah.

Then I wrote down all the names on pieces of paper, and just to be sure I counted them.

There were only 20!

So I counted them again, making sure paper hadn’t got stuck together. Yeah there’s only 20.

So then I read out the names and Jenn checked all the pieces of paper.

Yes everybody is there, so why does the page tell me there are 23 comments?

So I went to my dashboard to check what is going on.

Haha, but not before checking with Jenn that, uummm 23 minus 2 is 21 isn’t it, I actually said that!

There was an extra (already approved) comment that for some reason had not appeared on the list, I have no idea why but rest assured your name went in the draw CMB

Alrighty, after all that hullabaloo we were ready to pull some names out.

Putting Jenn to work... again.

Looking at this photo I have to make clear, I am ~~somewhat~~ considerably taller than 5foot1Jennifer

and Jennifer could not see in to that box.

Drum Roll, first name out is…

Marianne from the Netherlands

Then Judy

Then Ady

Then Jennifer Carlyle Shelton

Congratulations to all of you,

I’ll email you for your postal addresses.

Ready to post

Thank you to everyone who sent in lovely comments.

You all know I had the pleasure of spending a day at the Winterthur Museum, Curator Linda Eaton was very generous with her time allowing Irene and me to enjoy the quilts in their collection.

Please also enjoy and be inspired by these few pics, an homage to John Hewson

Quilt c 1830-1850 using John Hewson fabrics. Maker unknown. In the collection of the Winterthur Museum, Wilmington, DE.

John Hewson birds, detail of the above quilt.

Applique Counterpane early 1800s. Birds cut from John Hewson fabrics. In the collection of the Winterthur Museum, Wilmington DE.

Detail of above with John Hewson butterfly

thanks for visiting.

Til soon

Margaret

5 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Antique Quilts, Applique, Broderie Perse

Getting my mojo back

July 11, 2012 by Margaret

I remember a while back I was going to show you my latest project.

I’m happy to show you, it’s just that I seem to have lost my way with it.

I started with gusto, mmmmm should’ve been alarmed right there, before I went to NZ in June ~ wanting/needing something to sew in the evenings.

I spent a day in the studio, firstly doing a paper cut of a tree.

It's easy to keep trimming away but go easy. A whisker at a time, you can't put it back.

I really got into papercutting shapes while doing the Maltaville Album Quilt blocks.

It’s a quick and easy way to create shapes, sometimes it’s easier to let the scissors do the work instead of the pencil.

Having already chosen my fabrics I started the marking and then glueing the tree to the background.

A bit fiddly.

Those stems were very flimsy and had a life of their own,

but I got there and took this to NZ for pleasant evenings of stitching whilst catching up with family.

Applique tree

I did get a lot of the sewing done while I was away

Under the gaze of my Grandmother, keep working.

and finished the last of it in Sydney the following week.

And then I just lost interest in it.

Backing up a bit, several months ago I was invited to create a new design for publication in a quilt magazine.

I won’t tell you which one because the publication date for the issue is soooo far away. Light years almost.

I’ll tell you closer to the time.

But of course the quilt will need to be done and delivered by end October

I think for some people, pressure spurs them on but for me ~ my creative drive just bombed

I had plenty of ideas but mostly they bombed as well before I could get going on them.

That tree quilt was one that I had thought would be a possibility for the magazine, but then …

as I say, it just sort of went nowhere.

I’ll probably resurrect it again, but it’s just been put on the back-burner for now.

But that’s not going to help me for this deadline is it.

It’s my first time for this magazine and I want to start with something that says ‘me’, I’m not sure what that is but I guess I felt that tree wasn’t it.

So today I took the day as a Design Day, up early, heater on over in the studio in advance so no excuses.

A couple of days ago I had assembled a few fabrics in readiness for an applique centre block.

Fabric choices

I love that Margo Krager Dargate Indigo at the bottom of the pile. I’ve managed to accumulate meterage of most of the range over recent months, even though the range is several years old now.

Some of the above fabrics are ones I picked up in the US, just Fat 1/4s of useful prints and colours.

I knew I wanted an urn, almost undersized for the height and spread of the foliage so as to give the block a naive style.

And I liked the idea of a rope or cable centre stem.

The stem in progress

Years ago I did a Celtic knot quilt class, LOL that over/under mantra is stuck in my head so that’s how I did this stem.

I haven’t really marked any of the background, only a tiny pencil mark where the bottom of the urn will sit and another where I want the top flower to start. I just decided to start weaving the rope stem to look reasonably even. It’s fusible bias stem so after each cable I ironed it in place.

I haven’t yet even got much of a pattern just a few reference points so that I don’t extend beyond 18″.

By late afternoon I was pleased with my progress. I didn’t agonise over the fabrics, but there were a couple of flowers that were discarded. And the flower shapes were paper cut and then trimmed if I felt the size was not quite right, so in that way I was able to work quite quickly.

A day's work

There’s plenty more flowers and leaves to go on of course but I’m ready to sew this lot down before adding more.

I’m kind of making it up as I go along.

The beauty of having my own space is that I can walk away at the end of the day and not worry about the mess, yay.

And just quickly, a very close friend is moving away next month. I’ll miss her big time but we know she’ll only be an email or skype call away.

But a little of her will remain in Central Victoria, she needed to off-load some surplus furniture and some of it has made its way in to my studio. Yippee

A tiered table now doing duty as my cutting station, perfect height.

My back (and I) thank you Jude

And her very gorgeous cupboard from her sewing studio, now filled with my fabric.

What fun I had filling this

The Fabric Cupboard

The studio is starting to look lived in.

Don’t forget the giveaway coming up at the end of this week, it’s from this blog post here

http://www.quiltstation.com.au/new-zealand-then-sydney-and-a-give-away

Leave a comment on the above blog post by Friday the 13th, there are currently only 14 contenders for four prizes.

And I’ll have a poke around in that fabric cupboard for a bit extra to go in too.

til soon

Happy Stitching

Margaret

2 Comments

Filed Under: Applique, Design, Musings

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

June 18, 2012 by Margaret

I’ve just opened up the draft of a blog post I started at Auckland airport a week and a half ago.

I thought it might have been the second fastest blog post ever, but I didn’t manage to get it finished before boarding time for the flight to Melbourne. So I’ve decided to start over

I have had a good time in NZ since last I posted, I did manage to get that post done (plus a quick cuppa) before a short flight down to Palmerston North. There was a gap in the clouds just big enough to see Mt Ruapehu poking through and that’s all I saw of her for the whole seven days. Even when I drove right past her on the return trip she was completely hidden.

Mt Ruapehu, another month and she will be covered in snow, and frequently cloud unfortunately.

I was staying with my cousin Dawn this time.

We were great mates as kids and are great mates still.

We like the same things, isn’t that always nice to be related and friends.

Dawn at work in her studio. She makes fabulous clothes from Vintage fabrics and is very creative.

Dawn lives just a short walk from my Mum so I was able to spend lots of time with Mum too.

Mum’s got Alzheimers but is getting great care and attention. She still knows who I am and we have fun together so it was important to make memories (for me) while we can. Sadly she will have forgotten I was there last week, but ‘in the moment’ all is fine.

But now I am back from gadding about the place/s and it’s time to get back to normal,

I realised it’s 2 months today since I left for the US and I have also had ‘a wedding’, a trip to NZ (that’s always a busy one)

and four days at the Sydney Quilt Show so it’s no wonder I’m a little disorganised.

Plus the excitement of being a featured home in Quiltmania magazine

Quiltmania # 89

Quilt Station has a seven page spread plus the third and final instalment of my Mid 19th Century Star quilt pattern.

I was chuffed to see Ady, who has made (yes finished) the Maltaville quilt, being my neighbour in Quiltmania, that’s one of her beautiful quilts on the opposite page.

I'm thrilled with how Quilt Station looks

Merci beaucoup to Carol and Guy, it was a real pleasure to have you both visit my home for the day

and Guy, wow I love that photo of me

So all that excitement

Woohoo

calls for a

Give-away.

I would love to give away a couple of the John Hewson panels/fabrics which were reproduced by Andover last year.

I bought extra at Seventh Heaven Quilt Shop in New Braunfells, Texas anticipating I’d want to pass some on.

John Hewson panel from the Winterthur Museum collection

There will be two chances to get one of these large urn panels, above

and two chances to win eight birds as shown below.

John Hewson Birds

to have a chance just leave a comment on this post, oooh let’s say,

by the 13th July. That’s a Friday ~ Friday the 13th. What fun!

I will mail to anywhere in the world and no doubt between now and then I will have unearthed a couple other treasures to add to it.

To leave a comment you need to click on the title of the blog post. That will re-open the post with the option to comment visible at the bottom.

The Sydney Quilt Show came hot on the heels of returning from NZ,

five of us from the Goldfields Quilters (Alison, Chris, Jennifer, Kathryn and myself) flew up on Thursday morning and were joined on Friday by Irene so you can imagine the fun we had.

The six of us piled in to a taxi van straight after breakfast on Saturday morning and headed over to

Material Obsession.

We were not going to miss out this time, adding an extra day to the itinerary as last year Jenn and I just ran out of time.

It’s a beautiful shop, I follow Kathy Doughty’s blog and her shop is a great reflection of her style and flair.

Here’s just a little of what I bought

These aren’t Repro’s as such but they could be. It’s all about how you look at it I suppose.

The Blue (Prussian like) with the Brown, once cut up, could go in to a mid 19th century quilt quite well I think.

And the Brown and Red diamond print wouldn’t look out of place either.

And if you are familiar with Material Obsession quilts you may be surprised to know you will find 19th c repro’s at Material Obsession.

I wasn’t expecting to find any but was very pleasantly surprised.

It’s true, I found (and came home with) quite a few. It is a very diverse and friendly quilt shop.

After that we grabbed two taxis and made for Quiltsmith (but lunch in trendy Annandale shopping precint first)

We left a couple of hours later with bags bulging, this time catching the bus back to Darling Harbour.

I was so pleased Jenn was methodically going through the bargain boxes, I had completely missed this much needed fabric.

Beth Ann Bruske fabric.

Jenn kindly shared the last of the bolt so I have *Plenty* to do *Whatever* on the Cradle Quilt. It had come to a stand still as quilts sometimes do.

Cradle Quilt, no excuse not to get a wriggle on with this now is there?

And these found their way in to my arms as well

Bits and bobs as they say, just for the stash

It is lovely to be home again. It’s winter and it’s cold.

I like to hibernate just a little, well sometimes a lot and I have plenty of work to do ~ both quilt designing and quilting on Violet.

It’s a good time to be at home and in the studio.

We have an elderly dog and she’s all of a sudden showing her age.

She’s given us a few scares in the last few months and she seems to want one of us around more during the day,

so it’s another reason to be not too far from home for too long. We’re watching and taking it as it comes if you know what I mean.

The other day I was measuring and photographing my quilts for showcase and she was trying very hard to be noticed

Rollo

I’ve just realised I have no sewing prepped for tonight,

oh well, I shall sit by the fire and look at a quilt book or two instead.

Keep warm (or cool) and happy stitching

til soon

Margaret

28 Comments

Filed Under: 1800s Reproduction Fabrics, Applique, Cradle Quilt 1826, Design, Musings, Travel

Antique purchases

May 31, 2012 by Margaret

This may be the quickest Blog Post ever,

photo’s are primed and ready to go,

I am sitting with Laptop on lap at Auckland airport waiting for my domestic flight to Palmerston North,

or Palmy as Palmerstonians like to call it.

One of the reasons why I’ve felt in a real muddle since getting back from the US is that there were many boxes of goodies arriving intermitently over the last week, cluttering up the place. I’m not great when things aren’t orderly. I’m pretty sure it’s a Libran thing.

Irene came up last weekend and we made an attempt to go through some of it. We couldn’t even remember 1/3 of what we bought.

That's three boxes worth

Then yesterday my final box arrived, it was from Stella Rubin Antiques and contained this very charming treasure.

Late 19th C Star star quilt with cheerful Yellow applique

It was the cheerful yellow applique which charmed me so much, what an unexpected and delightful addition to a simple quilt pattern.

I also bought from Stella a few ‘orphaned’ blocks which appealed.

Antique House block

Antique Block

Love a good paisley as you know

Antique Pieces

When I was at the New England Quilt Museum, I found a couple of treasures there too

Fabric pieces approximately 1785 - 1845

Vintage Prussian Blue Album Block

I’ll be whipping off that border of course

I’m going to leave it there for today, I’ve got time for a cup of tea if I don’t dilly dally.

Internet connection permitting I will be back in a day or two and will have a give-away as there is so much fabric!!

til soon,

Oh by the way,

all fine in NZ just took the opportunity to ‘nip’ home to see Mum before the rest of the year gets really busy.

Margaret

2 Comments

Filed Under: Antique Quilts, Applique, Travel, Vintage Fabrics

USA continued, visiting D.C.

May 29, 2012 by Margaret

Warning, you may need to make a cup of tea before sitting down.

I could go on indefinitely with posts titled USA continued,

but I think we might all get sick of that

So I will make this the final post about the USA trip even though I’m sure I’ll still post the odd photo of USA quilts, people and places over the months to come.

I saw so much to inspire me that you can imagine I have quilts dancing around in my head and I have this morning started on Something New, which I will want to show you a little of before long.

As promised this post will be about the time in Washington D.C.

Don't let the summer blouse fool you, it was brisk on that bus brrrrr

Irene and I actually stayed at a Holiday Inn hotel in Alexandria, VA

(just across the river and more to our budget than being in DC itself)

It was suggested by Fiona of Country Threads ,thank you Fiona it was perfect for us. We were riding that subway like locals over the four days.

The main purpose for being in D.C. was of course to visit the National Museum of American History.

I have been in fairly regular contact with Associate Curator Doris Bowman since embarking on my Maltaville Album Quilt and was keen to see the original quilt if possible.

To say the half day at the Smithsonian was “brilliant” is an understatement. I was bowled over by Doris Bowman’s generosity in allowing me to view, touch ~ gently, and photograph the original quilt as well as allowing me time to just look and learn.

"How have they finished that edge?"

Now I know, after the red piping there is a 1 1/8″ finished folded binding ~ left unfilled.

The quilt itself threw up some surprises and answered some of my questions, but with those answers comes more questions.

Detail of centre block

Cleverly using the wrong side of the green fabric to create subtle shading, I have done that myself in the past but it was a nice surprise to see it here. There is a lot more embroidery than I had realised though ~ not my strong point!

Harriet Able's block

I didn’t do my stems or leaves like that, but I like the way it looks. I think I will be a convert to Harriet’s method.

On Earth In Heaven block by Delia Burr

Mrs William Thompson Maltaville block

As I say, embroidery is not my strong point which is why my bird block is still waiting for that embroidered detail.

I showed Doris my version of the Maltaville, which looks so stark and *white* next to the original which is so warm and mellowed with age.

I posted a photo of me grinning like a cheshire cat here on the Maltaville Blog.

I was also able to view some other quilts which are of interest to me, it should come as no surprise which four quilts topped that list,

The Rising Sun Quilt, The Little Sister’s Quilt, Benoni Pearce’s Groom’s Quilt and the Copp Family Quilt.

It was such a privilege to view these quilts, even tucked away in their drawers.

Benoni Pearce's Groom's Quilt 1850, detail

Betsy Totten's Rising Sun Quilt, detail

Little Sister's quilt, detail

It’s not known whether Susan Holbert (born 1834) made this quilt herself or if her older sister Emily Holbert made it for Susan.

But Emily Holbert did make this quilt in 1847, Emily died in 1858.

Emily Holbert quilt 1847, detail

Copp Quilt early 19th century, detail

I saw even more quilts than these and will share them with you over time. I am very, very thankful to Doris Bowman for being so generous with her time and knowledge.

While in D.C. we also visited the DAR museum.

Hexagon quilt, Vermont Room DAR Museum.

Penn family 1850s Baltimore Album Quilt (left) and Mary Mannakee Quilt (right)

We visited the DAR twice, the first day we didn’t get there til 3pm as we had taken a drive out to visit Stella Rubin Antiques , more about that another day! So another visit was needed to really study the quilts on show at the DAR.

You may like to put the kettle on again as there are just a few more things I want to share.

I don’t want to sign off from the US trip without mentioning the day Irene and I spent with friends Marsha, On the Go Quilting and Stella ~ no blog, yet

Back row: Irene and Moi. Front row: Stella and Marsha.

We had a great day together at the New England Quilt Museum and the Lowell Textile Museum. We even squeezed in a trip to Candlelite Quilts to do some more shopping. Marsha, we made a dash to the USPS on the Friday for our final mailing home, we had three mailings home in all for a grand total of five boxes!! Marsha has blogged about our fabulous day together here and here

And Stella, I will be in touch real soon about ‘you know what’.

I’ll finish with a few odds and ends

Dress 1845-1848 American History Textile Museum, Lowell, MA

Mill building, Springfield, Vermont

I wish the above photo had sound.

Rockport, MA

I know I will have to do another USA cont. blog post because I haven’t shared anything from the Winterthur Museum yet.

But that will have to be another day, next time I want to show you a little of a new project.

And the latest Quiltmania magazine is out, with the final instalment of my Mid 19th Century Star quilt along with the photo shoot Quiltmania did here last year. Very Exciting. I will try to be back in a day or two.

til soon

Margaret

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Filed Under: Antique Quilts, Applique, Design, Maltaville Album Quilt 1847, Travel

USA continued

May 20, 2012 by Margaret

I am enjoying looking through the photo’s of the trip, but I fear my intention to post chronologically is doomed to fail

You can imagine the thousands of photo’s I’ve taken on both camera and iphone still being filed in to assorted folders on the computer.

And yesterday was my son’s wedding day and naturally I want to show you how happy he and is beloved are.

The happy couple, Dylan and Jacinta, dancing up a storm.

And yes my dress still fitted just fine, despite eating my way across the US.

I would love to show you a little more of Natchez, Mississippi.

Irene and I loved this place and are keen to get back there with Jennifer.

Street scene, Natchez Mississippi

It might be a great place for a quilt retreat.

The hotel we stayed in was the Eola Hotel, a grand Southern style hotel.

38 Stars and 13 Stripes, United States Civil War Battle Flag

In Paducah I was able to put faces to a couple of familiar names which was really nice.

Christine is one of the Maltaville subscribers, I just happened to read her name tag and introduced myself.

Me and Christine. Lunch at CrackerBarrell, then just sit a while

Gail is another Maltaville quilt friend, I knew she had a few quilts accepted in to Paducah so was excited at the chance to see her work, then I found out that she was going to make it to Paducah as well.

Here’s just one of Gail’s three quilt entries, they were all exceptional quilts

First Baltimore by Gail H Smith

We met up at the National Quilt Museum and spent a lovely time enjoying the quilts together.

We had emailed with what we were wearing that day, and when I walked in to the museum I saw a lady who I thought could be Gail.

The funny thing was, she was standing next to Irene who was waiting for Sherry and me to arrive as we had being doing our own things for the morning.

And even funnier was that when we did all the introductions, Irene and Gail had been corresponding in the past and knew each other’s names but Gail hadn’t realised I was travelling with ‘that’ Irene and Irene hadn’t realised I was meeting ‘that’ Gail.

Sherry, Gail and Irene. The smiles say it all.

I was especially happy to see one of Margaret McDonald’s quilts.

Margaret is a quilt designer/teacher I really admire and like a whole lot.

School Days by Margaret McDonald

There were so many quilts I took photo’s of but will show just a few more today.

# 579 Forever In My Heart quilt by Lahala Phelps, Washington.

I would love to make a quilt ‘one day’ using a brilliant deep yellow background. It’s stunning.

# 925 The Compass Quilt by Kathleen McLaughlin, Connecticut

Circular blocks are also a favourite, and I really like the darker background used here.

Applique detail from #125 Album of Roses quilt by Rita Verroca, California

# 125 Album of Roses quilt by Rita Verroca, California.

The workmanship in the quilts at Paducah just took my breath away. Congratulations to the winners but also to everyone who had quilts accepted for exhibit. It was a delight to see them all, thank you.

I’ll pop the occasional quilt in to a blog post for a while to come I think.

Pat and Arlan Christ had a display of antique quilts and Arlan gave a very informative floor talk each day.

Sawtooth Bars quilt c1870, Pennsylvania

Next post I will fast forward to Washington D.C. and the Smithsonian Institute.

I am still reliving the morning spent in the Quilt Room at the Institute, studying the original Maltaville Album Quilt.

Being a bit of a slow coach with this one

Texas bound.

Time flies when you’re sewing.

Vintage

Give-away winners

Getting my mojo back

New Zealand then Sydney (and a give away)

Antique purchases

USA continued, visiting D.C.

USA continued

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