New quilts that look like old quilts. . . mostly
Doing ‘techy stuff’ on Maltaville today and I have a question…
I know the United States has a standard letter size of 8 1/2″ x 11″, but what is the standard printer size paper in the U.K. and Europe? Is it the same as here in Australia and New Zealand which is A4 210mm x 297mm or different again…help please if you can.
Thanks in advance, Margaret 
Just a short post today because I want to do a quick update on the Maltaville Album Quilt Block of the Month.
My drafting and sewing is coming along and I have completed another couple of blocks and drafted three more.
I know I haven’t actually shown a photo of the whole quilt, because I only have a photograph in the book,
American Quilts, The Smithsonian Treasury. Doris S. Bowman, Smithsonian Institution Press (1991)
ISBN 0-517-05952-5
and I won’t scan the picture and show it on the web cos that would be illegal (but if you have the book it’s on page 46)
However I can give you a link to an image of the entire quilt here
http://www.smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/objectdescription.cfm?ID=28
and I hope you like what you see.
I will be reproducing it as exact to the original as I can humanely get.
I have started a blog dedicated to the Maltaville Album Quilt and that is where members (those who sign up) can show their blocks as we all progress.
http://maltavillealbumquilt.wordpress.com/
but I wouldn’t be rushing over there just yet, you’ll only be dissapointed as there really isn’t much to see.
The quilt was made in Maltaville, New York by the women of the Presbyterian Church of Maltaville and presented to
Mrs. Mary B. Hill, wife of the Reverend William Hill.
It features 60 appliqued blocks surrounding one large central appliqued block.
I’m still working towards a start date in mid February and it’s looking more possible each day, I’m very humbled by everyone’s interest but also you are all giving me the encouragement to keep at it, so a big thank you to all of you.
til soon…
Well I’m hurtling along with this, especially after Jennifer suggested I ought to be a dozen blocks ahead just to be safe…thanks Jenn I know you’re right.
I have spent some time drawing up a plan of the whole quilt to clarify how many different types of applique blocks there are (wreath/lone flower/four elements/eight elements/symbols etc) and how many are variations of the same block or are exactly the same. I’ve also been mulling over ideas of how many blocks per month will work etc and how best to select what participants get each month (some easy/intermediate/complex for instance) so that still has to be finalised but I’m making notes of all my ideas.
However, more importantly I’ve finished stitching the Saturn block, drafted and stitched an Oak Leaf and Reel block and drafted and nearly finished stitching a Starburst block and drafted another block ready for fabric choices tomorrow. Phew…I need a drink and a lie down.
Oak Leaf and Reel block using two Smithsonian fabrics; Little Sister's Quilt, pattern Maze in Grass Green and Copp Quilt, pattern Willow in Terracotta.
I love the Oak Leaf and Reel pattern, my DD is named Ayla which is Hebrew for Oak Tree and it’s on my ‘long term list’ to make her a quilt using this pattern…one day.
Stitching late in to the night...
I decided to use the Back Basting method again… a little bit of work before hand but I like the method for these *cut as you go* blocks.
Starburst Block,
After drafting this block there was a little bit of tweaking to get the scale right, you can see I had to take just a whisker off before I was happy with it.
This morning I decided I had better cut all the background squares (in the past I had been fighting with 6 plus metres of fabric whenever I made another block)…perfect opportunity as DH and DS were out for the dayand I needed to take over the dining table for this job.
All the background squares cut, the centre square cut and (LtoR) Starburst, Saturn, Oak Leaf and Reel, Peacock and Feather Blocks.
Oh, while I think of it…6.9 metres of background (plus binding) needed if any of you are getting your supplies ready in advance. I used a Kona plain/colour Bone. I really like the quality of the Kona plains, it’s nicely woven to provide a good base for applique.
Two nights ago my DS (nearly 22) brought in to the house a quilt I had made him years and years ago (he lives in a little s/c cottage on our property so sort of still at home but ‘out of the house’) I spotted a veritable stash-full of Smithsonian fabrics in it and when I looked at the label I had started it in 1997, say no more…actually I am ashamed to say I had made the label out of Smithsonian fabric too…What was I thinking!
So I need to am going to give it a wash before I photograph it and show it to you but it got me thinking about my other quilts which have a fair share of these most beloved of my fabrics. Here’s one for today…(I have quite a few and I’ll try to show you one every few days)
Fair Isle
Fair Isle is so named because it reminds me of the Fair Isle knitted jerseys my mother knitted for me. (translate…Jersey is a New Zealand word for Pull-over/Jumper/Sweater)
Mum and her older brother (was she knitting for him too) about 1948
My quilt label says 2004 but that would have been when I finally finished the hand quilting (a job which took several years of intermitent quilting) I started this in 1997 when the backround fabric was released.
Fair Isle close-up. Background is my fave pink. I have heaps of the Green Smithsonian left; Copp Quilt pattern Berry Leaf in Avocado but would give my eye teeth for more of the red.
Like the Welsh Quilt I got my inspiration for Fair Isle from a British decorating magazine.
They're probably telling me what bedside lamps to buy but I only noticed the quilt...sorry about the sticky tape through the page.
10 pm, time to do a little stitching before bed.
Thanks for visiting…
Do you just refer to your local quilt group as Quilting… I just yell to DH from the door “Ok I’m off to quilting…see you” even though I don’t actually quilt there. I belong to quite a few different quilt related organisations and always refer to them by proper names, it’s only my fortnightly Wednesday group (The Goldfields Quilters) that has lost its moniker. Do you do the same?
Anyway tonight is quilting, the first one after the Christmas break, and even though the rain is pouring down (and thunder has just started) and the roads will be yuk I will be steadfastly going because I can and many of my quilting comrades in Qld and NSW can’t go anywhere due to devastating flooding, so I’m going for you guys and will encourage everyone to go through their stashes to help you replenish yours.
After my last post a couple of you asked about the Maltaville Album Quilt being a kind of quilt-along or pattern.
Well, Jennifer (my technical support and 5foot1quilts ) had suggested just that very thing last week so your queries were very timely, thank you.
After talking with Jenn about it again and working out how best to do it, I can say that yes I will be doing a pattern which people can join in and download the patterns each month.
I do just want to get another block or two ahead before I start though and I’ll have to spend a little time learning how to do downloadable patterns etc, and there’ll probably be a blog to go with it that participants can post their blocks on too. Stay tuned and I hope to get it happening in the next few weeks.
In the meantime… I have spent the morning preparing some hand stitching ready to take to ‘quilting’ tonight and my next Maltaville block is one I’ll be taking.
Maltaville Album Quilt ~ Saturn Block
This is now all tacked and glued down but I though I’d show you some of the process. What I needed was something 5 1/4″ round to trace around…you know how hard it is to draw a circle. My Perfect Circles templates don’t go that big so I started hunting around the studio then the kitchen where I spotted these…
Gotta be something close in that lot
Perfect...it is 5 1/4" exactly.
Choosing the fabrics
At the last minute I decided to make the little moons out of three different Smithsonian fabrics for a bit of tonal variety so the bottom fabric has been joined by two more. I’m really happy with how it’s looking and this one won’t take long to stitch (I hope).
However as this is going to now be a Quilt-along it may have been smarter for me to start with the centre block (doh). At present I’m just doing them in any order that appeals but I should probably start thinking about a more orderly approach.
Connecticut Quilt
I spent a blissful Monday and Tuesday further planning and sewing on the Connecticut Quilt. I have added the small Ohio Stars to ‘square up’ the quilt in readiness for the next border (red and cream squares).
I stared gung ho by making a little block and then rejected it
I really like this striped fabric and it certainly ‘went’ with everything else around it but when I put up on the wall with the quilt centre it lacked definition…
That’s better against the baskets.
These blocks are tiny…3 1/8″ finished, so it was easier to make the units oversized and trim them down.
And the light fabric is very fine so starching it helped to stabilise it for such small pieces.
I prefer the Best Press on the left (no residue) but had to resort to Crisp when I ran out
And just because there’s no time like the present to start playing around with something new (I am still en vacance after all) here’s another little bit of hand stitching I prepared this morning.
French Quilt
French Quilt
18 months ago I bought some very gorgeous fabrics when I was holidaying in the south of France (from Les Olivades in St Etienne du Gres near St Remy de Provence) and have been pondering possible quilts to use them in. Last week I found a pattern for a variation on the Double Wedding Ring, the pattern was by Deb McArdle who is a designer and tutor from Ballarat (Deb was one of the quilters whose work I noticed and enjoyed early in my quiltmaking days and in November I had the pleasure of being a judges’ assistant to Deb when she was one of two judges at the One Step Further Exhibition in Melbourne)
Deb has come up with this really interesting way of creating a Double Wedding Ring using a square and bias strips.
Making Bias Strip using fusible paper
Super quick and easy.
Now I’ve just got time to tidy up the mess I’ve made in the studio after all this morning’s activity before organising dinner for the family and heading out the door to Quilting.
Happy 2011 everybody.
I didn’t intend to have such a long hiatus from blogging but my little holiday break seemed to lapse in to a bout of computer laziness.
Christmas day here was lovely with family and good friends in abundance…and thankfully my children have reached the age where they can allow me to sit back (just a bit) and enjoy the day.
DD, slicing and dicing; Mumsie no where to be seen but no doubt enjoying some of that Champagne.
DH and I had a couple of nights in South Melbourne at DD’s place early this week (cat and house sitting) so we got to do a few city things… balmy Melbourne evenings/sitting on the upstairs balcony/relaxing/restaurant dinners/G and T’s.
And during the rest of the summer break (which still has a week to go for me) I have thoroughly enjoyed taking the time to get back to some projects and to-do lists.
One quilt (top) I am really pleased to have finished is the Nebraska Basket Quilt.
You may remember this pic from an earlier post
Work in progress
Well now the top is finished and ready for quilting.
Nebraska Basket Quilt circa 1854
This quilt is one I started a couple of years ago. My inspiration was a quilt by Mary Novotny Lahowetz (1835-1907)
Mary and her quilt are featured on pages 20 and 21 of the book
Nebraska Quilts and Quiltmakers;
Edited by Patricia Cox Crewes and Ronald C. Naugle, University of Nebraska Press (1991)
Mary’s quilt features this unususal basket block whereby the piecing of the basket extends into the space usually left open below the handle.
Does spotting an unusual block variation get you rushing for graph paper and pencil too?
I have drawn up another block for the Maltaville Album Quilt 1847 and managed to get that sewn over the break.
I decided to have a go with the ‘back basting’ method which I have seen on various blogs over time…I thought it would be perfect for this Scherenschnitte type block.
Back-Basting in readiness for applique. Dargate Prussian Blue C. 1830, patt # 24413 by Margo Krager
Back-Basting, reverse side shown.
Then I cut the fabric a little way ahead and unpicked just a basting stitch or two ahead of where I was sewing…
…turning the seam allowance under as I went.
I found the method worked very well, thank you to those of you who have shared it before.
Voila…
The Maltaville Album Quilt (1847) is in the Smithsonian Institute.
It contains 61 applique blocks (one large central block surrounded by 60 smaller blocks) and now I have finished two with another nearly drafted and ready to go.
The original features a lot of Prussian Blues so I am enjoying trialling different options from my stash.
The other bit of ‘whimsy’ I’m frittering hours away on is my Drunkards Path. I’ve no idea what this will end up as …a whole quilt or just a border for something, but in the meantine it’s a bit of enjoyable evening hand stitching or something to take to ‘quilting’ if I haven’t got anything else organised.
Drunkards Path Blocks
I’ve been cutting 5″ squares out of my stash including bits of Smithsonian, I need to add some Prussian Blues though.
Okay, one week left of the hol’s…Focus,
Connecticut Quilt, you’re next.
