Quilts from the Netherlands

Quilt from the collection of the

Openluchtmuseum, Nederlands

The Openluchtmuseum in the Netherlands has a collection of antique Dutch quilts. I read in Quilt Mania magazine that they have a calendar for 2013. In looking for it I found an online quilt show.

There are 15 quilts on the Museum's webpage.

 

Click here to see the quilts:

http://www.openluchtmuseum.nl/index.php?pid=372&sub=11

 

 

 

I will be keeping track of things in 2013 with this Lang calendar featuring the collection of antique quilts at Colonial Williamsburg.

In the comments Diana from the Netherlands has information about how international customers can order the 2013 calendar from the Openluchtmuseum. Click on her name there to find her email.
 

Snow on the River Wandle: Free Quilt Pattern

Snow on the River Wandle

65-1/2" x 65-1/2"

Here's a pattern for a two-block quilt with lots of white and an assortment of fat quarters from my Morris Apprentice collection. I drew it up in EQ and named it "Snow on the River Wandle" because the Morris fabric printing workshop was on the Wandle in England.

Here an artisan is drying printed fabric 

rinsed in the river, ca. 1910.

There's a star block. You need 25.

And a stripe block. You need 16.

I used 9" blocks so you can make the stars and stripes out of Layer Cakes.

Layer Cake= 42 squares 10" x 10"

Fabric Requirements

White: 4-1/2 yards (more if you want a border)

Prints: You can get a star out of a Layer Cake square (10" x 10") and 3 [UPDATE 2 STRIPES] stripes per square, so a pack will be more than enough. If you want to buy scrappy yardage buy13 fat quarters.

Rotary Cutting a 9" Finished Star Block

You need 25.

A -Cut 4 white and 1 print square 3-1/2"

B - Cut 4 white squares 3-3/4".

Here's a screen capture from EQ to show you how to cut the triangles. Fold them in half to determine the midpoint and press. (The pink line is a fold; the black lines are the cut.). Then cut the triangles by connecting the corner to the midpoint. Those numbers 63 are the degrees of the angle. You do not need to worry your pretty little head about that.

C - Cut 4 print rectangles 4-1/4" x 2-1/8".

Cut each in half corner to corner.

You need 8 of these triangles. [See the comment about reversing the cut below]

Rotary Cutting a 9" Finished Stripe Block

D - For each block cut 2 white and 1 print rectangles 9-1/2" x 3-1/2".

You need 16 blocks. So cut 32 white strips and 16 print strips.

The Edge Triangles

For the sides: Cut 4 white squares 14".

Cut each with 2 diagonal cuts to make 4 triangles. You need 16 triangles.

For the corners. Cut 2 white squares 7-1/4".

Cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. You need 4 triangles.

Morris workshops at Merton Abbey on the Wandle.

Snow Storm

 

 

 

Kansas Dust Storm Block by Carrie Hall

About 1935

Dust Storm? Snow Storm.

 

When I started making quilts back in the 1960s we were surrounded by them. They had a certain look.

 

 

Quilt Dated 1933

 

Here's a pair of classics from the 1930s. These were the kinds of quilts everybody had on their beds in the college dorms.

Quilt dated 1939

 

Here's a pair from the 1960s---
New colors, new fabrics, few sewing skills.
 

I didn't have any family quilts but I decided to make some. There was a book at the library.

The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt

by Carrie Hall and Rose Kretsinger

 

 

full of black and white photos of quilt patterns

And amazingly enough, these blocks were in the collection of the Art Museum at the University of Kansas, where I was a student. I looked at all of them.  Each one had a background of plain white. I was inspired.

 

 

I had dress scraps and a Penney's store with calicoes for 39 cents a yard and bolts of white cotton.

One day my friend Laurie gave me some aesthetic advice, "You know you don't have to use white in every block."

 

WHAT?

 

She was right.

I looked around.

Artists were abandoning white as a background neutral.

 

Molly Upton

Forest Fire

1976

Nancy Halpern

If they used white at all it was off-white and it was a color----not the background.

 

There were new books at the library.

 

  

So I abandoned white.

 

Forty years later, however, people seem to feel white-deprived.

Rebecca Silbaugh on the Moda Bake Shop site.

Elizabeth Dackson

 

Cathy Victor

Ann McKinney

 

From looking at the Moda Bake Shop I have to guess that times have changed. I've been using EQ to sketch out some white quilts using my Morris Apprentice reproductions from Moda. Next post: a white quilt.

 

 

How I Use BlockBase

Quilt top from about 1890-1920

What's the pattern?

BlockBase is a computer program for Windows and PC's that I wrote with the Electric Quilt Company. It's been updated for new operating systems and now is available again. I use BlockBase everyday and I thought I'd show you some of the ways I use it.

I began keeping a file of patterns in the early 1970s---I was going to make a quilt in every pattern. Note there are 4,000 patterns advertised. I gave up that goal. Then I was going to make an index card in every pattern with its published names. I almost did that.  I published small drawings from the index cards as a book ---The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns---which is out of print. But it's all digitized in BlockBase.

One of my main interests was identifying pattern.

It's like solving puzzles to me.

Here's another red and white top from about 1900.

What's the pattern?

The first step is identifying the block.

I usually start at the corner and sketch it out--- digitally or with a pencil. Then I scroll through BlockBase until I find a category that fits. The categories are based on the seam lines. In this case Four Patch blocks "Like Hour Glass"

The major visual organization here:

• The block has 4 basic units: A Four Patch
• And at least two of those areas are pieced of triangles
• With a diagonal directionality

You can see that consistency in the screen view above. 

Sometimes it helps to rotate the block to match the direction in the index.

This block is at the top of the second column from the left.

If you click on "Notecard" you get a digital view of my index card.

It's number 1312 and was published in 1929 by the magazine Wallace's Farmer as "Hour Glass."

It was a popular pattern. Here's another way to shade and set it.

This quilt is probably from 1900-1920.

Here it is again, but grouped into larger blocks and then set with sashing

The block at the top of the page has the same pattern structure, but it's slightly more complicated so we'd find it on the same BlockBase page but further down. It's right below Hour Glass in the second column. The blocks are indexed from simple to complex.

It's number 1313 and has at least three published names:

• Crosses & Losses from the Ladies' Art Company about 1890
• Fox & Geese from Carrie Hall in 1935
• Bouncing Betty from the Pictorial Review in 1911

.

Here's an Amish Quilt dated 1898 from the Stephen & Faith Brown collection, a slightly more complicated design--- more squares cut into half square triangles.

The block is numbered 1316 and has many names. If you want to see all the names click on the "View Name List" button. This variation has been published many times with many names so you have to scroll down to see them all. Do notice that it's 1316a. Popular patterns were often published in various shadings so the a or b or c refers to a different shading.

Here's another color for 1316a

This variation of 1316 with a sort of a dark stripe across the

 center hasn't been published.

All the quilts I'm showing are from the years

 1890 to 1920 or so.

Here's a similar block that's a little older---by the madder browns I'd guess maybe 1875-1890. It's slightly different from those directly above---the triangles go a different direction.

 Now I know this is a bit OCD but this is an INDEX so you have to get fussy.

The block above is 1317---

Old Maid's Puzzle is one name.

If you like puzzles and patchwork you'll enjoy finding the patterns. But the best part is you can print out the pattern any size----

Rotary Cutting, Paper Piecing or  Templates as shown below

Any pattern---any size.

 

One good way to learn how you can use BlockBase is to join the BlockBase Sew Along by clicking here:

http://doyoueq.com/blog/category/blockbase-sew-along/

Jenny Novitsky gives you a project of the week and EXPLAINS how to do it!