More Out-of-Control Quilts

I went through my collection of photos from online quilt auctions and found some sad situations.

Mostly planning problems

Although some quilt wrecks look like things were better a few decades ago before the fabric faded.

Here we have a planning problem. It's probably better to chop those hexagons into a rectangle rather than to try to follow them out to the edge.

To be fair here: I think some of the design problem is a blue fading completely to white.

And this old quilt was never meant to be shown on a line. It probably looked fine on a bed, when there weren't a lot of ducks in a row to contrast it to.

Sometimes you don't see the problem till you step back.

And in other situations it's hard to analyze just where things started to go wrong.

Happy Birthday Jane

Jane Austen was born 236 years ago on December 16th. This year is the 200th anniversary of the publication of Sense & Sensibility.

Bettina Havig spent the year getting ready for the party.

She printed the portrait of Jane onto cotton

and hand stitched an interpretation of the Austen family quilt.

She chose those lovely pastels that are so English in sensibility.

See the original Austen quilt by clicking here:

http://www.jasa.net.au/quilt.htm

Road to Pemberley

by Neil Chisholm

Here's another patchwork celebration:

Neil sent a picture of his quilt inspired by the Austen family's.

He writes:

"When I saw the images of Lately Arrived From London I knew I had to use the collection. For some time I had been thinking of making the Jane Austin quilt and hoped to complete it in the anniversary year but I wanted to make it with fabric of the period so your collection was perfect for it.

I decided that it would be easier to use the precut charm squares than cut diamonds particularly as I prefer to applique than piece (this is a rare pieced quilt for me). 

The 5" charm squares sashed make a great patchwork field.

"It grew very quickly and the central medallion is actually reverse applique using a fancy satin stitch on my sewing machine - it worked really well. The quilting is all my own work on my domestic machine and I have to say I am very happy with it.

"This quilt was made as a 40th birthday present for my partner who is a huge Jane Austen fan - it is going to be a much loved quilt and has pride of place already on the back of a sofa in the lounge."

Here's a snapshot of Bettina and Jane partying like its 1811. Is Jane sitting on the Prince Regent's knee? Bettina says she never liked him. And I think she's right. Jane doesn't seem to be enjoying herself all that much. So today: a toast to Jane and her novel and her quilt.

P.S. Mary Jenkins in the comments pointed out this link to information about a newly discovered possible portrait of Jane. The British press is all agog while the American press has ignored this enormous story.... Click here for the Austen Only blog.

http://austenonly.com/2011/12/05/a-new-jane-austen-portrait/

and see other posts

http://austenonly.com/2011/12/05/a-new-jane-austen-portrait/

Northern Lily Southern Rose Quilting Pattern

The quilting design for the Northern Lily/Southern Rose applique sampler is drawn from the symbol of the Grand Army of the Republic.

It's a five-pointed star with trefoils on the tips. Click on this picture and it should be large enough to print and use for a quilting design. (You have to stick that extra point on as I couldn't fit it on a sheet of rectangular paper.)

This GAR star was proudly worn by members of the Union veterans' organization known as the Grand Army of the Republic.

It's often found in Civil War Reunion and Veterans' imagery.

The GAR star fits in the alternate plain blocks in the sampler quilt and would make a good quilting design for any Civil War memorial quilt.

Free Patterns From Moda

Evening Mist by Sentimental Studios

Do you ever go to the free pattern page at Moda?
http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/fp_quilting

You should bookmark the page and come back because we are always addding patterns.

Blush by Basic Gray

Here is how you find it:
Go to Moda's home page: http://www.unitednotions.com/un_main.nsf/main?openpage
You don't have to log in or register.

30s Playtime by Chloe's Closet

I'm picking out the more traditional ideas here but there's a lot of variety.

At the top menu line it says Fun Stuff. Click on it.
Among the menu items it says
Free Patterns---it's yellow here

Click on it

Click on Quilting Patterns and you will find many free patchwork patterns. It will say:

Simply click on an image below for more information about the pattern.

Click on the quilt and the picture appears at the top of the page. Click on this button near the large picture.

A PDF will open up in a separate window with all the information you need. Save the PDF to a folder you create labeled Free Moda Patterns.

Dominique II

You can follow many other trails here and wind up with lots of ideas.

Like the Verna Bag from Kate Spain. It's under Sewing Patterns.

Park Avenue from Three Sisters

Pashimina by Sentimental Studios

Morris & Company Anemone

"Anemone" is the largest print in my new Morris & Company collection.

It comes in six colorways in this line.

It represents a new direction for the firm of Morris & Company as designer John Henry Dearle took over the artistic management in the late 1890s. The Arts & Crafts aesthetic developed by William Morris had evolved into Art Nouveau with sinuous lines, stylized florals and a flatter look. 

Dearle was born in 1860, the year before William Morris designed his first textile. As the younger generation, he adapted the end-of-the-century style to Morris design. This particular print was drawn for wall paper and seems to be the perfect wall-covering for the Edwardian home.

It makes a great fabric too.

I notice that I have put a date of 1876 on the selvage edge of this print.

It can't be! Dearle was 16 and Art Nouveau was still in the future in 1876.

I can't actually find a specific date for this design in my notes but I am thinking I meant 1896, the year Dearle took over as Director of the firm.

So let's say late 1890s.

Take a marker and change that 7 in the selvage to a 9 when you get your fabric.

It makes a great border as in this project from Moda

And this one from Planted Seed.

See these designs in the PDF you can download at Moda

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_morris_and_company.pdf  

5 Yards in a Stickley Morris chair

Dutch Quilts

Reproduction quilt by Petra Prins

 from an antique quilt found in

An Noonan's A History of Dutch Quilts.

Somehow Americans have lost most memories of our Dutch heritage. Nineteenth-century writers focused on England when they wrote about the sources for American culture from holidays and foodways to needlework and quilts. It's time to explore the Dutch history of quilts and Petra Prins has a new book to guide us.

Treasures from Holland  has patterns for a dozen reproduction quilts based on Dutch antiques..

The publisher is the French QuiltMania and the instructions are in Dutch, French and English.

See more Quiltmania books here.

http://www.quiltmania.com/livreVirtuel/index.php?livre=treasuresfromholland  

The cover quilt by Petra

She owns a quilt shop in Amsterdam called Den Haan & Wagenmakers, which sells wonderful reproduction fabrics.
http://denhaanenwagenmakers.blogspot.com/ 

Petra recently showed her quilts at an exhibition in Alsace. I found a post with pictures here at Journey of a Quilt Lover's blog:

http://journeyofaquiltlover.blogspot.com/2011/10/some-of-dutch-quilts.html  

 I first read about her quilts on Moda's Cutting Table blog. http://modafabrics.blogspot.com/2011/09/wonderful.html 
Petra's source for inspiration is An Moonen's book fromVan Gruting, Westervoort 2010.

Which is also in English as A History of Dutch Quilts

An's book is harder to find in the U.S. You might have to go to Amsterdam.
See a gallery of antique Dutch quilts at An's site
http://www.antiquetextile.info/dutchquilts.htm 

And if you think the Dutch influence on American culture is minor consider this man Sinter Klaas.
Happy St. Nicholas Day to everyone.

Tree of Life Reproduction

Tree of Life

By Roseanne Smith

Roseanne Smith has been working on her appliqued center in the tree-of-life design for a new medallion. She's using my Lately Arrived From London reproductions from Moda. Here's how she did this. It's cut-out chintz or Broderie Perse.

I exaggerated the contrast here so you could see that she has appliqued the Seaflower print to a very similar plain-colored background.

The reverse

But she did not cut out every flower and leaf in the traditional fashion. You can see on the back here that she appliqued a large chunk of chintz to the plain colored background. She's cut out the backing so she doesn't have to applique through so many layers.

She cut a shape out of the plum-colored Seaflower print...

My mock-up gives you a rough idea.

...And appliqued that to the background. Then she added other flowers and leaves for more complicated foliage, making the tree more detailed. She added the traditional hillock (a range of small hills).

Brilliant I say!

Roseanne found a very close solid color on the shelf at her quilt shop. One source for solids is Moda's Basic line of Bella Solids

Click here to see the selection:

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_bella-solids.pdf

They are all numbered 9900. Shades 9900.18 or 9900.45 (over on the left on the color card here) look like they are close in color. Ask your shop owner if she has this color card any time you are looking for a match.

For more on Broderie Perse see December's War of 1812 posts, where it will be the featured technique for the month.

http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/