Quilt Traditions

“Crazy Patchwork”

kristin — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 20:43:49 +0000

This is a crazy quilt that I recently restored for a customer. Especially interesting about this, is that the middle block is an embroidered rooster on satin with the words, Cleveland, March 25, 1885. The owner tells me that this rooster was the symbol of the Democratic party and Cleveland stands for Grover Cleveland. This information makes the quilt even more valuable because it tells of it’s provenance. As in the case of this crazy quilt, the silks always wear away first since the material is the most fragile. Since most crazy quilts were made around the latter part of the 19th century, almost all of the crazy quilts that I see and restore have their silk pieces wearing away or gone. Typically too, the embroidery is coming apart or is gone. American women quickly adopted this design work for themselves and most crazy quilts were made from 1880 – 1900 although not exclusive to this time period.

A rather unusual embroidered quilt

kristin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:08:15 +0000

This quilt top was brought to me with 5 of the squares embroidered. I finished embroidering the rest and tied and bound it with a French binding. There are 6 different patterns in the squares and the emboidery thread used was Japanese. It was also tied in the same thread. The fabric is a loose weave cotton that took the embroidery very well. I think the use of alternating color thread on the fabrics was very effective! It makes a striking presentation and, as always, was just a delight to do! I loved every minute of it!

“I am so thrilled with all the work you did on the quilt – it is truly wonderful. So much time you have put into it. I will pass it on through the family so it lives forever (I hope)!”

“Wow!”

kristin — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:14:50 +0000

“It is so freeing to know there is someone I can trust to finish my quilt tops the same way I sew them – by hand. You are such a treasure Kristin! Now I can look forward to my favorite parts of quilting – fabric selection, quilt design and piecework – and leave the finishing parts I’m not skilled at, to the expert. I can’t wait to send you the next project!”

This quilt was handquilted in green in the center star by stitch-in-the-ditch, and hand quilted in yellow in the corners. A dark blue batik was used for the french binding. It was made for a very lucky 2 year old boy! The combination of colors make for a very striking presentation!

The patience of a quiltmaker!

kristin — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:51:24 +0000

I am currently cutting up all my scraps into 1 1/2 inch blocks to make what I think will come out to be 3 king sized postage stamp quilts. I made one already and love it – a scrappy, colorful mess of little fabric tiles! It is a lot of labor but is so therapeutic – both the process of doing it and knowing that I am using up scraps – I am being sustainable right? There were a few people in history who have made quilts from many tiny pieces. I came across 3 of them:

In 1892 Sarah A. Haynes of Gladwyn, Michigan made a quilt out of piecing together half inch triangles of grosgrain silk ribbon. It took her 17 years and there ended up being 33,782 pieces in the quilt!

In the early 1900s, Grace Snyder of Nebraska made a flower basket quilt designed from a piece of china, out of 87,789 pieces. Each square was a half inch in diameter, comprised of 2 triangles!

And in 1944, Albert Small pieced a quilt which looks almost like a tiled mosaic. It contained 123,200 hexagons and each piece was only 1/4 inch wide! He holds the record for the most number of pieces in a patchwork quilt, however this record is unofficial and is not in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Is that inspiring or what? We had better get cutting and sewing – we have quite a job ahead of us!

A Wedding Dress quilt!

kristin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:51:03 +0000

I just finished this quilt made from a woman’s wedding dress and her bridesmaid dresses. It is a LeMoyne Star (or Ohio Star, depending on where you live or your preference!) The woman and her Mom picked out the pattern, added some fabrics, and had lots of good ideas. They were a joy to work with and I loved every minute! I was a little concerned about how the satin was going to take the handquilting but it needled really well. The only thing that gave me a little trouble was that the fabric from the dresses sometimes were on the bias and this made it difficult to blend with non-bias fabric. But it worked itself out and now they have a beautiful heirloom to commemorate that very special day! And the wedding dress will not sit in a box in a closet for years and years to come!

“We are so very pleased with how the quilt turned out. The pictures do not do the quilt justice and it is just so so so much more beautiful in person than we anticipated. Your work is lovely and everything came together so very nicely.”

Antique Shop Hopping

kristin — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:42:09 +0000

During this Christmas season, I had the pleasure of visiting some great antique shops. It was fun! But it also tugged at my heartstrings…there were quilts for sale and they were the real deal antiques. They ran the gamut of scrappy to patterned to applique and they were ALL beautiful, even the torn ones. I was really tempted – especially to “rescue” the abandoned quilt tops! I am thinking, “I could soooo handquilt that right up and have it looking polished and whole in no time!” (My subconscious thought quickly remembered that I have about 10 lonely, undone quilt tops sitting in a trunk in my sewing studio!) What pulled on my heartstrings is the thought that these quilts that now call an antique shop home, used to be part of a family. I let my mind wander as I wistfully turned them over in my hand…They were made by someone who intentionally constructed them for whatever reason. Perhaps the quilt was given to someone special or maybe it was made to just cover a bed for warmth. Perhaps it was made to use up fabric. Maybe it was made to teach someone how to quilt. Whatever the reason, those quilts were probably special in a family. Without the story behind the quilt, they are devoid of meaning. That is the wonderful thing about quilts – they hold so much meaning! Without the story behind it, they are just simply beautiful cloth. Do you have an old quilt in your household or somewhere in your family? Have you found out it’s “place” in your family? 2012 would be a good time to identify your heirloom!

What a lovely idea!

kristin — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:57:48 +0000

I recently completed this Tree of Life medallion quilt. A woman contacted me to make a quilt for her grandmotherfor Christmas. It was to be a family tree quilt which would include the names of her family in it. She didn’t have any other specifications except that the fabrics were to be of French Country design. I immediately thought of the tree of life quilt pattern. It is set on point, with the names embroidered in the small border which frames the tree. What a lovely idea and what a nice heirloom piece to give to one’s grandmother! Needless to say, I had sooooo much fun doing it and half the fun is pleasing the customer!

Cathedral Window Quilt

kristin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:24:59 +0000

A few years ago, I was commissioned by a woman to finish her mother’s cathedral window wall hanging which was 3/4s of the way done. I had no idea how to make these little squares so I slowly taught myself and completed the job. It piqued my interest though and so I just had to make one for myself. What drew me to this type of quilt? It is a one-of-a-kind type of quilt! There is no batting, no backing – you just build as you go, adding squares until you get it the size you want. I am also surmising that the women of history made these as another way to use up scraps as the “window” fabric is only 2 inches square. This is a time-consuming, test of patience quilt to make, but the upside is that one can take it anywhere to work on! Very transportable! This quilt took me 400 hours of labor but it has been worth every minute.

A Quilt Reborn

kristin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:08:37 +0000

This is a quilt from about 1940 – 50 that has been well- loved and well-used! The woman who sent it to me used to wrap herself in it when she was a child. It needed some TLC and some fresh fabric and thread to make it live on for another 60 or so years! I wanted to show before and after photographs of what can be done with major tears in quilts. After I repaired the major tear and other minor tears, I trimmed the edges which were badly frayed, and rebound the whole quilt. Care was taken to match the repair fabrics as closely as possible to the original fabrics. It is stronger now and the owner says it will be virtually retired. What a beauty!

Watercolor Quilt

kristin — Wed, 25 May 2011 11:10:45 +0000

Watercolor quilts are fashioned after the famous watercolor artist, Claude Monet. In assembling the quilt, the attention is paid to the values of the fabrics, not the actual colors and patterns on the fabric. The overall effect is a watercolor painting! It is, in a way, painting with squares of fabric and it is loads of fun to do. This quilt is 85″ X 99″ and will be used for a bed. The backing fabric is a large leaf print in rusty red.