Library of Congress Archive

The Library of Congress has a wonderful prints and photographs site that is full of surprising images including this Japanese woodblock print. Click here to see the search page: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pphome.html I think I found this by searching for the word sewing. Once the hits come up click on the button Preview Images.

Early Quilt Design

I recently received a note from the Honey Barn, a shop in Iowa, wanting information about quilt patterns that would have been in use during the Revolutionary War. It's a question I've been interested in lately. I gave her the references below about medallion quilts. Above are two medallion quilts from Cynthia Collier.

The earliest patchwork quilts in America only date to the 1780s, which is still the Revolutionary Era. Block-style quilts were rare and most quilts are made in the medallion format. On my web site on the Quilt History page I deal with early quilts at the bottom of the page. I have links to some of the earliest dated quilts and then a few patterns for Jane Austen era needlework. Click here:
http://www.barbarabrackman.com/faqs2.aspx

In my book America's Printed Fabrics: 1770-1890 I have a section on the "Fabric of the Revolution" with a pattern for an early medallion. And I do an e-Club for C&T Publishing this year with monthly chapters about early quilt fabric and style (1780-1830) plus a pattern for a medallion border for a period look. Click here: http://www.cluesinthecalico.com/

And one last medallion from Jenifer Dick who used the fabric she hand dyes to great effect. Above the finished quilt; below the center in progress.

Quilters Hall of Fame

Quilt researcher extraordinaire Merikay Waldvogel was inducted into the Quilters' Hall of Fame in Marion, Indiana, last week. She curated an exhibit and gave several talks. The photos show her gallery Walk-Through in which she talked about quilts in her collection.

Birds Eye View of the Chicago World's Fair

Milky Way Pineapple quilt with faux patchwork back

The fantastic flowers are from her friend Susan Salser who asked the florist to make an Indiana bouquet with the flowers and fruit in the Indiana Wreath quilt pattern.


This Indiana Wreath quilt is by Susan's grandmother Mary Gasperik.
See more about Mary Gasperik by clicking here:

http://www.quiltindex.org/gasperik.php

See another version of the Indiana Wreath by clicking here:
http://cindysantiquequilts.com/dynapage/IP409.htm

And for more about Merikay:
http://www.quiltershalloffame.net/Waldvogel.html

Michele Hill's William Morris in Applique

Kelmscott Sampler by Michele Hill

I've posted several simple patterns for the intricate prints in my Moda collection The Morris Garden. Another option is to do something really complex in the spirit of William Morris's tapestry designs. Michele Hill's book William Morris in Applique is available in the U.S. from C&T Publishing.
See her blog at http://williammorrisandmichele.blogspot.com/

Several shops worldwide are kitting up her patterns. I'm linking you to Common Threads because they plan to use some of The Morris Garden to do her Kelmscott design. Click here: http://commonthreadsquilting.typepad.com/threads_from_common_threa/2009/04/william-morris-in-applique.html

And see the book at C&T Publishing. Click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page:
http://www.ctpub.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1270

Bill Cunningham in the New York Times

A few months ago the New Yorker magazine featured Bill Cunningham who does the "On the Street" feature in the New York Times. I love "On the Street," a photo essay on New York fashion, and I had no idea that it has been done by the same man for the past 50 years. He has a terrific eye and can identify a trend in a few photos. Check out this link to the New York Times and watch his short essays in audio slide shows.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/bill_cunningham/index.html
It's fun to know what they are doing in New York even if you would NEVER do it yourself in Dubuque.

Both fashion photos are from the Library of Congress webpage.

Stars on Point

The bolts of The Morris Garden fabric should be in the quilt shops any day now. If you are looking for pattern ideas I'd suggest a simple sawtooth star. Set it with alternate blocks of large-scale fabric and turn it on point. It's a great way to show off complex fabrics.

My friends have been making this quilt for years. They've traded print squares and traded stars (generally 10" finished stars). Here's a collage of a few. (Roseanne Smith at top left and bottom center & right, Judy Severson in the center, Jerrye VanLeer top right, Carol Gilham Jones, bottom left)

If you made stars that finish to 9" you could use a package of Moda's Layer Cakes (fabric precut to 10" squares) for the alternate squares.

It's also an authentic pattern for an early reproduction quilt to feature chintzes and toiles. Click on the links below to see three early versions from the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/includes/photos/quilt_database/large/1997_007_0065.jpg
http://www.quiltstudy.org/includes/photos/quilt_database/large/1997_007_0281.jpg
http://www.quiltstudy.org/includes/photos/quilt_database/large/2003_003_0239.jpg

Snow Ball Wreath

I got some photos of a quilt top made in Alabama in the 1930s or '40s asking for help with pattern identification. I recognized it immediately as one of the most complex designs from the newspaper pattern source that used the names Laura Wheeler/Alice Brooks. It's number 1515 in my Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns with the name "Snowball Wreath."

The quilt in question is appliqued with leaves tucked behind the pieced snowballs but the original pattern is designed to be all pieced. You can find it in BlockBase, the computer program that is a digitization of my Encyclopedia. Here's the drawing from BlockBase. You can print out templates, any size.

It's always fun to see if any of the audience for the newspaper patterns ever made up the designs. I don't recall seeing this one actually made into a quilt. If you are inspired send me a picture.

For more on BlockBase from Electric Quilt click here:
http://www.electricquilt.com/Shop/BlockBase/BlockBase.asp

More Thrift Store Quilts

Sujata Shah, 36" x 48", recycled shirts.

A few more quilt tops from correspondents in Washington state.

Sujata writes:
"This quilt is based on the Gee's Bend quilts. I used to teach at a local shop and ran a club for couple of years. The club was called, 'Inspirations from Quilts of Gee's Bend'. I got really interested in free hand cutting and curve piecing. This is made out of shirts and I plan to hand quilt it with pearl cotton. "

Foggy Day Quilt by Dorothy LeBoeuf, 20' x 20"
Dorothy writes:
"...to dispell the fog. Made from solids in stash plus awful curtain fabric. So freeing to work with this stuff, after working with today's expensive fabrics. Also freeing to not use a ruler althugh it seemed strange at first. We are going to be sad when we run out of the awful curtain fabric."

A shirt and "the awful curtain fabric"

Scrap Challenge by Dorothy LeBoeuf, 64" x 75"

"Silk garments waiting on the muse."

Stepping Stones Nine Patch

People are asking for suggestions as to what to do with The Morris Workshop fabric. One possibility that uses simple patchwork to show off complex prints is the "Stepping Stones" pattern Moda did for our first William Morris collection. That free pattern for A Morris Garden, is still posted on Moda's Free Patterns page. Click here:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fp_a-morris-garden.pdf

The quilt top on the left is done in the Morris Garden fabrics. I found it on Sadie Bird's blog, and the other is by Rebecca Rohrkaste, showing off large scale prints. The one below is a collaboration between Georgann Eglinski, Bobbi Finley and Carol Gilham Jones.

To see more antique versions of this basic nine-patch on point check out the Quilt Index on line. Click on these for an early quilt and two by Amish women in Illinois.

http://www.quiltindex.org/fulldisplay.php?pbd=MichiganMSUMuseum-a0b7o2-a
http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=IllinoisISM-a0a0f6-a
http://www.quiltindex.org/basicdisplay.php?pbd=IllinoisISM-a0a0p1-a