Virtual Booth for Quilt Market Fall 2015

I decided to show off my Moda collection Old Cambridge Pike

in my virtual booth at Quilt Market, October 24-26, 2015 in 

Houston, Texas. 

We're expecting a December, 2015, delivery on this mid-century

line of reproduction quilt prints.

My virtual building is a copy of the Old Middlesex Inn in Concord, Massachusetts

pictured with coaches, wagons and travelers standing out front about 1860.

The theme of  the Old Cambridge Pike collection is the New England turnpike so I thought a hotel that catered to travelers would be a good booth. Inside (due to a limited virtual budget) I recreated a few interior rooms. 

The period bedroom shows the kit quilt that Carrie designed for Miss Rosie's Quilts. That's Miss Dottie Barker on the bed. If your virtual feet get tired you could come in here for a snooze. Dot always likes a nap.

You can see the quilt a little better in this view of the library,

copied from one at the Alcott House. That's Abba May Alcott

who has volunteered to help

Wild Oats in Old Cambridge Pike fabrics

See more at this link:

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2015/07/fall-2015-repro-collection-old.html

A few of the prints.

I'll show you the Moda collection we are actually introducing at Market in the next post.

Baltimore Album Quilts: Strip Sets

Baltimore Album style quilt

Shown on the Antiques Road Show

In my index to Baltimore Album style quilts

I have mostly 5x5 block grids.

This category of exceptions---strip sets---is a small one.

Mid-century Baltimore album blocks, perhaps set together

with a Turkey red strip border about 1880-1900.

It looks like the quilt-setter had 15 blocks

and two floral vine borders.

And no interest in appliqueing two more borders.

Her solution to create a strip set is a good one, but an idea rarely followed. I only have two in this category of  BAQs.

.

Essentially the borders are in the wrong place.

Dealer Jeff Noordsy with a strip set BAQ

This quilt-setter had 4 blocks and 4 borders.

Her strip solution is interesting too, but it didn't seem to catch on.

So here's my category for Baltimore Albums in strip sets, 2 pages.

Here's a detail of the center block in Strip 2,

perhaps a strawberry wreath with a dove of peace.

The bird may be cut from a print and appliqued

Broderie-Perse-style.

I like the small categories. I'll show you some more of them soon.

Etsy Store & Retail Gossip

My retail division has been in disarray.

Not because of any weather disaster.

But from sheer disorganization on my part.

There have been many changes in the retail print business. It's tough to keep up.

Here's some retail gossip:

I've been writing quilt books for two publishers for quite awhile: Star Books from the Kansas City Star newspaper and C&T Publishing, which specializes in quilting and sewing media.

C&T recently bought Star Books. Now all my books and patterns are at one site:

http://www.ctpub.com/

If you do a search for Brackman at the C&T page you'll come up with quite a few items. If you buy $50 worth you get free shipping. And they have frequent sales so you will want to check the sale page often (it's a tab on the far right on their home page.)

You might go to used book outlets too---

But because the online pricing systems are run by computer algorithms that are not so sophisticated as one would hope you may pay more for a used copy than for a new copy from the publisher. 

Al Gorithm.

His ways are mysterious.

For example, my 2008 book Making History: Quilts & Fabric from 1890-1970 is on Amazon. On the day I am writing this you'd pay $37 for a used copy and $45 for a new copy.

If you buy it new from C&T Publishing you'd pay lots less:

$29.95

So do check the C&T page before you think you'll save money by purchasing a used copy.

Depending on supply and demand the computer pricing system might tell you something outrageous. Above: the same used book for $320.17 at Amazon on a strange day a few months ago.

Here's another alternative. Go to my Etsy store and

see what books I have in my basement.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BarbaraBrackmanShop

I try to keep the pricing consistent with what C&T is doing. If C&T is having a sale you may be able to find my books cheaper there. But you may save money by shopping in my store because I charge very little for Post Office Media Mail shipping.

And I'll be glad to autograph your copy for you or as a gift.  I'll ask Karla & Deb to autograph the books they've worked on too. 

PS: You'll find several model quilts we've made for the books at the Etsy store too.

Mary Stites Medallion,

which I made for America's Printed Fabric is on sale too.

When you buy a quilt model we'll throw in the book it's from too.

Alice's Scrapbag: Mama's Apron

Village Commons by Bettina Havig

Bettina Havig used Alice's Scrapbag prints plus a pale white print for a model for a class she teaches. 

She's donating the top to the National Quilt Museum in Paducah where quilters will finish it to demonstrate hand quilting.

"Mama's Apron" is the largest print in Alice's Scrapbag, my latest reproduction fabric collection from Moda

Photographer: Hugh W Diamond, early 1850s

English woman posed in a patterned apron

similar to the print called "Mama's Apron."

We liked this design so much we printed the floral in six colorways.

The collection has seven reproduction colorways

Formal portrait about 1865

Library of Congress

You don't often see mid-19th century-women posed in patterned aprons.

More often you see a show apron like the pleated example on the left

 or a starched white apron.

Black silk aprons were part of presentable dress.

Cotton calico aprons were apparently not, although they 

were common everyday dress.

Despite the hard wear they saw many cotton print aprons survive.

The American Textile History Museum owns

a calico apron made from an 1876 Centennial print.

This vintage photo from about 1910 pictures a woman who looks like she could be from my family. She's glowering because somebody is taking her picture in her everyday dress. I can still hear my mother saying, "Wait a Minute," as my dad snaps a kitchen scene in the 1950s. She takes off her apron and her glasses. Then she's ready to pose.

I think the only reason the woman above has been captured in her patterned apron is because she is living in a mental institution. Dr. Hugh Diamond photographed patients at the Surrey County Lunatic Asylum in England in the early 1850s.

A patchwork apron?

Apron or pinafore?

Antique Quilt Exhibits: Fall 2015 & Winter

Time to plan an excursion to see some antique quilts

in these museum shows for fall 2015 and into the winter.

California, Santa Ana 

Bowers Museum. The Red That Colored the World; Cochineal. 100 objects-textiles, sculpture, paintings, manuscripts, decorative arts, clothing and more- the exhibition explores the history of cochineal and the seductive visual nature of red.
Through March 21, 2016
http://www.bowers.org/index.php/exhibitions/upcoming-exhibitions/417-the-red-that-colored-the-world

Kentucky, Paducah
Quilt Museum

Red Cross quilt from World War I

The Eleventh Hour: Quilts of World War I, curated by Sue Reich.
November 13, 2015 - February 9, 2016
http://quiltmuseum.org/

Massachusetts, Lowell
New England Quilt Museum.  Red, White & Green: Antique Quilts from the Permanent Collection

November 5, 2015 - February 20, 2016
http://nequiltmuseum.org

From Quilts of Southwest China

Michigan, East Lansing
Michigan State University Museum. Quilts of Southwest China. American and Chinese museums, led by the MSU Museum and the Yunnan Nationalities Museum (Kunming), have documented Chinese patchwork tradition for this exhibit up through April 30, 2016.

http://museum.msu.edu/?q=node/1312

Quilt by an Unknown Maker, Cargo Collection

Nebraska, Lincoln
International Quilt Study Center & Museum/Quilt House

Plus: African-American Quilts from the Cargo Collection. Through May 25, 2016

Lover's Knot, mid-19th-century

Favorites from the Byron and Sara Rhodes Dillow Collection, showcases beautiful and rare chintz, toile, and calico in quilts and textiles that express the Dillows’ passion for fabric. Through August 23, 2016.

http://www.quiltstudy.org/exhibitions/nowshowing/

Applique quilt,

 Ernestine Eberhardt Zaumseil, ca. 1865. Chandlerville, Illinois. 

Gift of George E. Schoellkopf, 2013 (Detail)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, Manhattan
Metropolitan Museum of Art. American Quilts and Folk Art includes recent quilt acquisitions in two rotations: The first with 8 quilts through January 8, 2016. The second through August 7, 2016.
http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2015/american-quilts-and-folk-art

Oklahoma, Kingfisher

Seay Mansion. Charity, Companionship & Comfort- A Historic Quilt Show. Chisholm Trail Museum will show 40 quilts from November 1, 2015 through the winter.

http://www.ctokmuseum.org/quilt-show.html

Oklahoma, Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Quilts and Color from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Nearly sixty quilts with bold palettes and inventive designs from the Pilgrim/Roy Quilt Collection.

November 7, 2015-February 7, 2016

http://www.okcmoa.com/quilts-and-color-from-the-museum-of-fine-arts-boston/

Detail of Wheels Quilt

Collections of the Quilt Museum

Pennsylvania, Doylestown

James A. Michener Art Museum. Blanket Statements: New Quilts by Kaffe Fassett and Historical Quilts from the Collections of the Quilt Museum and Gallery, York, UK.  Fifteen historical quilts from 1780 and 1949 and twenty from Kaffe Fassett's studio. November 14, 2015 - February 21, 2016.

The show will travel to the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in spring, 2016.

http://www.michenermuseum.org/ 

Virginia, Harrisonburg
Virginia Quilt Museum. The American Quilt Study Group's Civil War Era Quilt Study will be up from November through March 1, 2016.
100 Years of Quilts: The Unger Family.
Treasures of the Vault: Curator's Choice.
http://www.vaquiltmuseum.org

Virginia, Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg, McCarl Gallery. A Celebration of Quilts. Through June, 2016.
http://www.visitwilliamsburg.com/events/a-celebration-of-quilts/