Quantcast
Channel: Barbara Brackman's MATERIAL CULTURE
Viewing all 1441 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

New Museum Catalogs: Antique Quilts & Fabric

October 20, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Four Centuries of Quilts: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection

by Linda Baumgarten and Kimberly Smith Ivey

Colonial Williamsburg's impressive quilt collection has finally been documented in a catalog. Not only that, the curators in charge are two of the most knowledgeable working today. It's a must-have. (In case anyone is thinking about holiday gifts....)

Star quilt made by members of the Jones or the Terry families
mid-19th century.
Collection of Colonial Williamsburg.

Published by Yale University Press, it's 368 pages with 320 color pictures in hard-cover format. $75.00

Read more at the Colonial Williamsburg site:

...which says:

"Fascinating essays by two noted scholars trace the evolution of quilting styles and trends as they relate to the social, political, and economic issues of their time."
This catalog is available on line from the bookstore and other retail sites.

Medallion Quilt 
Made by Ludwell Harrison Goosley (1754-1813)
 and her daughters.
Early-19th century.
Collection of the D.A.R. Museum


And just as important is a catalog from the D.A.R. Museum:

Eye on Elegance: Early Quilts of Maryland and Virginia by Alden O'Brien


This catalog of the exhibit currently on display at the Museum in Washington D.C. is over 150 pages with pictures of every quilt in the show. It is scheduled to arrive December, 2014. Price $35. You can pre-order by calling the museum shop.

Read more here:
http://www.dar.org/dar-shopping/dar-online-store/product-detail/586

Here's what the webpage says:

"The item is not available for online purchase. Please call (202) 879-3208 to order."


So you'd better call NOW.

And you have to have this one too.... 
Linda Eaton's new edition of the Winterthur Museum's
Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons & Linens 1700-1850.

Florence Montgomery's catalog of Winterthur textiles
has been the authoritative book on early furnishing prints for 45 years.

Peter Floud  & Florence Montgomery

The original was by Textile Curator Florence Montgomery, who received a good deal of assistance from Peter Floud, curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum.



The original was fabulous but it was black and white for the most part.

This new catalog in full color and with new findings is a necessity. Price: $85

Here's what the Winterthur gift shop says:
"Take the 'bones' of a classic volume, rewrite with updated and newly researched material, add 450 glorious color images, and you have the makings of a new standard in the field: Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens, 1700-1850. Author Linda Eaton, the John L. & Marjorie P. McGraw Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles at Winterthur, has produced the worthy sequel to Florence Montgomery?s 1970 publication, Printed Textiles."

Here's a link to the Winterthur Museum shop:
http://www.winterthurstore.com/category/117/Textiles.html

See a preview at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580933939/ref=rdr_ext_tmb


A smaller catalog has been published by the Denver Art Museum, featuring quilts in their current exhibit. First Glance - Second Look: Quilts from the Collection is available on line. Price: $10.95.

"A fully illustrated exhibition companion catalog contains close ups and details of the quilts on view as well as additional information, comparative examples, and a brief history of the Denver Art Museum quilt collection."

http://shop.denverartmuseum.org/SelectSKU.aspx?skuid=1061026

Competition Quilt, late 19th century.
Collection of the Denver Art Museum

↧
Search

Houston Quilt Market 2014

October 23, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
My virtual Quilt Market booth for October, 2014

Quilt shop buyers and other quilt world professionals are in Houston this week for the annual Quilt Market in which designers show off their new stuff for spring.

To market, to market....

Moda will be revealing my newest reproduction prints---Union Blues--- scheduled to be shipped to shops in March, 2015.


I'm not going to Houston but I like to plan a virtual booth and invite you all to come by on the internet.

I've invited this Civil-War-era seamstress who works for a sewing machine company to welcome visitors. Her usual job is to demonstrate a machine from about 1865, but I've asked her to show how to chain-piece triangles, a skill that will be useful in making the Union Blues kit quilt.

No! She will not tell you how many
triangles you will need to piece to make this
spectacular quilt. This
project is one where you focus on the
pleasure of the process.


We're giving you a nice range of 19th-century blues
in this new collection.




 More tomorrow.


↧
↧

Virtual Sample Spree: Free Union Blues Fabric

October 24, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Union Blues:
My newest collection for Moda

Jelly Roll of strips cut to 2-1/2"

Sample Spree is one of the craziest events at
quilt market.

The fabric companies bring sample bundles of the
new lines they are showing and sell them
to market attendees for a short period of time.

The Moda sample booth is always nuts!

The reason it's so crazy---besides the Moda people---
is that the samples are 6 months ahead of the shipping date,
You get things NOBODY else has.

We still recall when someone stepped on
Karla's head to get at a Jelly Roll bundle.


I'm having a virtual sample spree today for all you
virtual market goers.

I have some pre-cut bundles so I will send you free fabric.

I'll give away a Jelly Roll and a Layer Cake of
Union Blues---Six months ahead of the March, 2015 shipping date.

RULES
1) Comment before midnight October 24. Tell us if you've ever been to Sample Spree.
2) One comment per person
3) Be sure I can find your email address so I can contact you.
4) I will do some arithmetical thing to choose the winners.
5) I'll announce winners tomorrow.

Now, be polite and do not step on anyone's head.


↧

Linda Makes Me Look Good

October 26, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Barbara's Birds
by Linda Frost and Barbara Brackman
2000-2014,
28-1/2" x 38"

Years ago I got an idea---to do a state birds quilt
that was sort of like the diagram below.

A Double Irish Chain quilt with alternating
blocks of checkerboards and appliqued birds.

I appliqued a lot of birds before I realized I made a big mistake. The contrast between the birds and the olive green backgrounds was so minimal you could hardly see the birds.

This is as far as I got.

Dot on the voluminous bad idea file.

So I filed the birds away in the bad idea file for a decade or more.

A few years ago I cleaned that file out and gave the poor bird
blocks to my friend Linda Frost, who loves birds
and a challenge. Do what you will, I said.

To increase the contrast between bird and background
she painted a dye remover on the backgrounds. 

Read her account at her blog here:
http://13thstreetstudio.typepad.com/13th_steet_studio/2014/07/barbaras-birds.html



Now that the contrast was better she worked on my hand applique by drawing black outlines with
her machine stitching.
She embellished the birds by adding some evolutionary details the actual robin never thought of.

The birds now look skillfully drawn.

The blocks finish to 9-1/2"




The quilt looks out of focus in this overall shot
but that's because of the repeated outlines.

It's a great quilt if I do say so myself.

Thanks to Linda...

Tumbled Stones
by Linda Frost

who has a quilt in the Dinner at Eight group's special exhibit Reflections in Houston this week. 

http://dinnerateightartists.blogspot.com/2014/09/reflections-houston-bound.html


↧

Union Blues for Spring Delivery

October 29, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0


Typical eagle from Baltimore Album quilts 
of the 1840s and '50s


Union Blues, my new Moda reproduction collection, is
scheduled for delivery to shops in mid March and shop buyers
are planning their spring arrivals now.


The collection includes a variety of blues, light tan shirtings,
and darker taupe browns and olives.


Among the blues are a few rainbow or foundue prints,

The first three eagle blocks here are from antique Baltimore
Album quilts.

which are good reproductions of the shaded Prussian blue
prints popular in the 1840s and '50s.

We have two shades of blue and two shades of 
taupe/brown in the rainbow or ombre prints.


Buy lots. The ombre prints will be very useful for mid-19th-century repro quilts.


From Sea to Shining Sea by Gaye Rice Ingram

Gaye made good use of reproduction ombre prints in this small quilt
based on the Baltimore eagles.  

See some Prussian blue period quilts from the Quilt Index at this site:
↧
↧

Scary Stories

October 31, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

I save horror pictures---the kind where a quilt fades so badly the original design is significantly changed.


For Halloween I thought I'd scare you

with pictures of quilts made between 1880 and 1920

when the new synthetic dyes were so unreliable
you could start with two identical looking reds

and after one washing wind up with a little
red and a lot of tan.

Do notice that the spiky points in this New York Beauty/Rocky Mount
quilt are almost completely faded to white.

Boo!

The worst culprit in the gang of fugitive dyes
was red.



But green also disappeared...

leaving few clues behind.

Could this happen to YOU?

Unlikely today because we use more color-fast dyes.
But that's the point of goblins---they could be under the bed.

Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin Sculpture, 1998

↧

Thousand Pyramids Charm Quilt

November 3, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Thousand Pyramids Charm quilt and Dorothy Barker

I recently got out an old reproduction quilt and spread it over Dot's love seat.

I made the triangle quilt in the early 1990s and it's been folded up
too long. I thought I'd lay it out for a week or two to get out the wrinkles
and then refold it.


The base of the finished triangles on this one measures 2". They are isoceles triangles,
with the base shorter than the side lengths.

I had made my mother-in-law a bed-size, charm quilt like this and
I made a smaller one for me with the leftovers 


This was before I was working with Moda to design reproductions so the darks and lights were from my scrapbag, prints not really marketed at the time as reproductions. I overdyed the really bright white shirting prints with tan Rit Dye to tone them down. I was looking for madder reds and browns, pinks and shirting prints.

Sort of like this one from about 1870-1890

I remember that I was frustrated in piecing this because the differences in the measurements on the sides were hard to see and I was always attaching a base to a side and having to rip. 

I have been looking for a paper piecing project that is NOT hexagons. I think I'll make another one of these with my own Moda reproductions. But I will use equilateral triangles, in which all the angles are 60 degrees and all the sides are the same length.

I looked that pattern up in my BlockBase program and
saw that it is #111a with several names.

I like Joseph's Coat from the Joseph Doyle Company about 1910 and Thousand Pyramids from Ruth Finley's 1929 quilt book.

You can buy paper piecing patterns for equilateral triangles already cut. If you want to cut your own: Paper Pieces gives you a free equilateral triangle grid to print out. Click on this link and scroll down.

http://www.paperpieces.com/contents/en-us/d31_01.html

I fooled around with their grid: Enlarged it 110% and fit it onto an 8x11 sheet which I printed on index paper.

Click on this image and Save it to a JPG file or a Word file.
Print it out on an 8-1/2 x 11" sheet of heavy paper.
The triangles measure 2" on each of the 3 sides.

If you want to stitch triangles without paper templates here's how to cut
an equilateral triangle from a charm pack.


 I have a Charm Pack (5" squares) of my Richmond Reds reproduction line from Moda.

Cutting equilateral triangles from 
Moda Charm Pack Squares:






Begin with a 5" square.
Press the square in half so you
have a fold line down the middle.

Cut a strip off the top 5/8" wide.
Cut a line from the center top of the fabric 
to the exact corner on either side.
Your triangle will be 5" on all three sides.


You are ready to make a charm quilt with no two pieces alike.
The larger triangles really show off the prints.

Charm quilt from the 1870-1900 period

Quilt about 1880-1920 from the Nickols Collection
at the Mingei Museum.

You might be better off aiming for a charming quilt with duplicate prints. It's the
scrappy look that is so appealing. 

The quilt above looks like it was begun on the top left side
with madder browns popular in the 1870-1890 period and finished in
the lower right with blues and grays popular in the 1890-1920 period. 
Don't dawdle too long. Taste could change.


Charming quilt from 1930-1960 with the triangles shaded in diagonal rows.




Here's an updated look from Carla at Grace & Favour blog who used a Cherry Christmas charm pack
by Aneela Hoey from a few years ago. (Carla's look to be isosceles triangles---(longer sides, shorter base) They still work.
http://carla-graceandfavour.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-cherry-christmas-quilt.html

Here are links to more on the mysteries of the equilateral triangle:

Cutting with a 60 degree ruler from Diary of a Quilter:
http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2013/12/ive-been-playing-with-60-degree-or.html

Cutting with a  regular grid ruler from Fresh Lemon Quilts:
http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=2132

Thousand Pyramids from about 1880-1920

I'm making progress in just a few days. And I found I still have some scraps
left over from the first project over 20 years ago.

You have to be nuts to save scraps that small.


So I was browsing the web after writing the above and I see somebody
at Atelier Bep had the same idea using my Richmond Reds. And she's finished already.

http://www.atelierbep-winkel.nl/a-38444280/moda-quiltstof-richmond-reds-historical-1870-1900-by-barbara-brackman/quilttop-driehoeken-van-de-winterserie-richmond-reds-van-barb

↧

A Tale of Two More Chairs

November 7, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Side chair newly upholstered with the Strawberry Thief
reproduction from my 2015 Best of Morris for Moda.



On my Modernism blog this week I show some mid-century modern chairs found in Roseanne's basement. I said I hadn't seen any Stickley furniture in any one's basement in quite a while. But I did find these chairs at a garage sale last summer. The original upholstery was a green cotton duck. I immediately thought---William Morris repro.

There are no labels on the chairs. 
They aren't Stickley---at least I couldn't find any like this online.

A Gustav Stickley spindle chair

And they are quite short--although I can't see that they have been cut down.
They make great side chairs.
(I'm really trying to make my new 1970's house
Mid-Century Modern but it keeps turning out Arts and Crafts.)

See my mid-century modern chairs at this post:
http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/
It's a good thing it's a big house as these pairs of chairs have so little in common.

I can't find a thing about these fumed oak chairs with 12 square spindles. I bought them because they looked so Frank Lloyd Wright.

He did several similar chairs
but none like mine.


And I found this Liberty inlaid spindle chair at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 
London last summer.
I think mine might be a knock-off, perhaps for children.

Sage colorway
I knew I wanted to re-upholster the chairs in the Strawberry Thief
but I had to wait till I received some yardage. The Best
of Morris won't be in shops till February, 2015. Moda airmails
me some early. (Lucky me!)

Indigo Colorway
The Strawberry Thief print is done in three colorways in this line.

Black Colorway
It was hard to choose but I decided on the black and blue-green.

Click here to see more of The Best of Morris:
http://storefront.unitednotions.com/storefrontCommerce/search.do?searchType=keyword&keyword=morris&emailAddress=

↧
Search

Elbe Herbert Johnson's Sampler

November 10, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Elbe's Sampler
Collection of the Sanibel Historical Museum & Village

Willow Ann snapped this picture of a wonderful turn-of-the-20th-century sampler when she was in Florida. See her post here:

http://www.unfinishedquilter.com/blog/category/travel

Here's a link to the Museum:
http://www.sanibelmuseum.org/

The initials are EHJ for Elbe Herbert Johnson, whose first name was pronounced LB. He was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1887, so we can guess the quilt was made some time between 1887 and 1907 or so, while he was growing up.

The images are fanciful and familiar.
Perhaps the goblet hopes the Elbe will be temperate.
The flag and Christian cross speak of other hopes.

Knox County, Ohio grave
of Elbe (1887-1967) and Bertha Beckwith Johnson

Elbe grew up to be a physicist who was on the faculty at Ohio's Kenyon college for 41 years. He retired to Danville, Ohio, where he is buried. He seems to have had a long and successful life.

His quilt is in a popular turn-of-the-century style
for samplers. Quilters combined blocks of
different sizes in rather disorganized fashion...

as in these three samplers from the same period.


Elbe's is unusual in it's variety of images and in the building in the center.

One might consider the center block a schoolhouse
but with two stories and two bay windows it
looks like a Queen Anne-style Victorian house...

Perry Hannah house Traverse City, Michigan

something in good supply in Traverse City.
Perhaps the house in the quilt was Elbe's home.

Minick and Simpson, Austin Bluebird Sampler, 2014

Polly and Laurie have captured the circa 1900 sampler style in their Austin Bluebird Sampler.

Here's a link to more about their pattern:
http://minickandsimpson.blogspot.com/2014/06/austin-bluebird-sampler.html

↧
↧

My Fabric in Quilts I Didn't Make (yet)

November 13, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Sister's Paint Box 
by Carla at Cora Quilts 

Carla had two packs of Moda precuts: My repro line Metropolitan Fair and Paint Box by Edyta Sitar for Laundry Basket Quilts.


She was pleased to see how well they complemented each other so she
used them to make this quilt from a how-to by Bonnie Hunter. I love her binding
of the stripe from Metropolitan Fair.


The pattern has several names. BlockBase says
Sister's Choice  and Greek Cross from the Kansas City Star
plus
New England Block.
The BlockBase numbers are 1802a
1802b
1802c
(Don't forget the "a" when you type in a numerical query)

See Carla's post here:

http://coraquilts.blogspot.ca/2014/03/sisters-paint-box-quilt.html

And the Woolen Needle has a pattern and
a kit for the quilt they call Ladies' Aid 
using another variation of the vintage pattern.


They chose my fabric line
Ladies' Album.

And it looks like #8280-17 is the border print

I'm guessing she used this two-block variation of the same design:
BlockBase #1001, commonly called Snowball.

See more about the quilt here:
http://www.thewoolenneedle.com/quiltkits.html

Jan Hutchison framed a medallion as a presentation
quilt using a chintz print from my Lately Arrived from
London collection a few years ago.


Check her blog post where you can see the masterful quilting better.
http://thesecretlifeofmrsmeatloaf.blogspot.com/2012/09/thank-you-madame-president.html

↧

QuiltMania Comes to Visit

November 15, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Last month I got a phone call from France. QuiltMania editor
Carol Veillon was on her way to the Houston quilt market.
 Could she drop by to interview me?

This Friday????

I corralled some willing friends (fans of the magazine) to help dress the set
at the new house.

We hung our Paducah prize-winning dog quilt.

Quilts everywhere...

After a flurry of activity things looked pretty good.

Carol was primarily interested in my antique quilt collection.


They photographed a few reproduction quilts.

Here is photographer Guy working with one of Roseanne's Smith's
star quilts.

Combination Log Cabin/Crazy about 1900
The new living room became a photography studio.
Is this not a fabulous quilt? I've got room to hang a lot of quilts now.

Zig-Zag quilt of 60 degree diamonds, about 1915.

I never get to see these so it was great to see them up.




Carol and I went through the quilt closet.
Deb and Linda hung quilts and Deb photographed.

Here's a mid-19th century ten-pointed star.

Pretty soon all was in gorgeous disarray


But we all had fun, including Dottie Barker.

We are planning the article for spring, 2015

See QuiltMania's English page here:
http://www.quiltmania.com/english/home.html

See more about the reproduction Birds in the Air quilt in the last photo here:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2014/08/backstitch-at-national-quilt-museum-in.html
↧

Threads of Memory BOM Coming to a Close

November 18, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Threads of Memory Sampler by Rosemary Youngs

Over on my Civil War Quilts blog we've been doing a free Block of the Month called Threads of Memory on the theme of the Underground Railroad and the history of slavery. The history
may be serious but the fabric choices are fun.

Above: Rosemary has set the January to October blocks with a Flying Geese set. The stars are all new designs based on traditional patchwork.

See the blog here:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/

Suzie at Oz Farmer is planning to use the same set
with the blocks she's made from my Voysey reproduction
prints Morris Modernized.

BeeJayM at the half way point.

The blocks began on the last Saturday of January, 2014
and will go till the last Saturday of December.

Model-maker Becky Brown has been making two sets of blocks each month. She designed
the Flying Geese set for one group of blocks.

Here's her spiky triangles sashing idea for the other set.
She'll alternate different stars.

When Jean Stanclift made these blocks
a few years ago we used a 
stars-in-the-sashing set.

The Civil War Quilts group has been meeting informally through the blog and our Flickr pages. I design the blocks and maintain the blog, Becky Brown and Dustin Cecil make the models. Dustin maintains the Flickr page.

Inspired by Becky's skills at fussy cutting you can
see a real style has developed in the group.

SylvieD


And then there is Dustin's set done only in tickings.

See more blocks and stripes at this post:
http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2014/04/yipes-stripes.html

I must say the group works very well together. Each new Block of the Month we do (or Block of the Week) inspires some very creative uses of fabric and set designs.

Terry's designed her own set. This is Block 10
Britain's Star.

She's going to put each of the stars I designed
into another star. Quite clever.

Sheila is thinking about strips
of leftovers.

Keep your eyes on our Flickr page:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/threadsofmemory/

What's the plan for next year? Stay tuned.
↧

Sampler Sets in Traditional Fashion

November 21, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Cookie's Creek's version of my Dixie Diary BOM
12 Blocks Set with Sashing

I've been designing block-of-the-month (and block-of-the-week) samplers for several years for my various blogs and books. I'm thinking about sets for next year' series on my Civil War Quilts blog so I've been collecting ideas. I've often used some basic sets.

20 Blocks set with sashing from my book Facts & Fabrications

Cass County (Missouri) Historical Society's
 version of my Butternut and Blue sampler.

But the stitchers who follow the samplers sometimes come
up with great sets.

Setting the blocks and sashing on point gives you a different look
(and a bigger quilt.)

Stitch & Knit's version of my 2012
Grandmother's Choice sampler of 36 blocks

She alternated half-square triangle blocks, which can give you
the look of  a strip set when sampler blocks and HST's are
set on point.

The alternate block

Lori Smith has used this set to great effect in her
Road to Freedom sampler pattern for 5" blocks.

Westering Women 

You get a diagonal set if the blocks are set on the square rather than on point.
This is a sampler I did for my guild several years ago.

Ruth in Dallas's prizewinning version of my 
Civil War Sampler

If you shade the alternate blocks correctly you 
get the illusion of a medallion quilt.

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-medallion-set.html

Back Home Again by Kaye England

Another good period look is a true strip set
in which the blocks are set on point with large
triangles. A striped print between them separates the strips.

Jo Morton and her Leesburg sampler.


Vintage quilt about 1870-1890

If you offset those block strips and forget the separating
strips you get the classic zig-zag set.

Here's a diagram of how the blocks are set in strips.

In this case the 12th block was cut in half
to finish out the edges. The photo is one
of those Pinterest orphans, floating around the
internet with no i.d. Maybe you know whose
clever design this is.


If you'd rather think innovatively Jen Kingwell's 
Gypsy Wife sampler set is
nothing but new!

↧
↧

AQSG Quilt Study 2016 19th-C Basket Quilts

November 24, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Star and Flag Quilt by Dawn on her 
Collector with a Needle Blog

See Dawn's post about this Civil War Study Quilt here:
http://collectorwithaneedle.blogspot.com/2014/10/traveling-quilt-can-you-help.html

One of the ways that members of the American Quilt Study Group learn about vintage quilts is by interpreting them in today's fabrics. Every other year the organization does a Quilt Study on a theme. This past year's was Civil War Era Quilts.


Dawn interpreted this Civil War era quilt from
the collection of Jeananne Wright.
The original has faded; Dawn did the quilt as it
once was.

In 2016 the theme is Nineteenth-Century Basket Quilts.
The entries will be shown at the fall 2016 AQSG Seminar and then selected entries will tour for several years beginning in 2017. That seems like a long time away, but the Quilt Study event is so popular that they have to put some kind of a limit on entries. You have to apply to enter your interpretation. That deadline is coming right up in the new year---January 2.

A page of basket patterns from my BlockBase program for PC computers.

Here's what their webpage says:
"Your application forms may be postmarked or emailed beginning on January 2, 2015. We will treat postmark and email dates equally as we accept reservations for the study and assign participant numbers."
If this sounds interesting do go to their webpage and read the rules.
http://americanquiltstudygroup.org/Quilt%20Study.asp

The Chase is On by Vicki from her What a Load of Scrap blog. It's 42-1/2" square.
http://whataloadascrap.blogspot.com/2014/10/sunday-shopping.html

I was one of the judges on the 2014 Civil War Quilt Study. We selected about half of the quilts to go in a touring show. Our informal criteria for selection included:

  • Accuracy of the reproduction.
  • Points for overall attractiveness and workmanship.
  • How well the quilt would hold up physically touring for several years.
Here's the schedule for the 2015-2018 tour of the selections from this year's Civil War Quilt Study:

February-June of 2015: Monroe County History Center, Bloomington IN
July 1- October 2015: New England Quilt Museum
November 2015- March 1, 2016: Virginia Quilt Museum
March 11-13, 2016: The Dallas Quilt Show
April 1- July 30, 2016: Quilter's Hall of Fame, Marion, Indiana
September 15- December 15, 2016: Northern Michigan University, DeVos Art Museum
December 20 -February 20, 2017: Baldwin Reynolds House Museum, Meadville, PA
March 1 -May 31, 2017: Gilbert Historical Museum, Gilbert AZ
June 2017 - October 20, 2017: Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum, Boulder, CO
November 1-February 28, 2018: Sheerer Museum of Stillwater, Stillwater, OK
June 1 - August, 2018: La Conner Quilt and Textile Museum, LaConner, WA

And see the entries in the 2010 Star Quilt Study here:
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/qs_star_study15.asp
↧

HUMOROUS QUILTS: Keeping Us In Stitches

November 27, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Sunbonnet Soup by Bette Kelley

HUMOROUS QUILTS: Keeping Us In Stitches is currently on display at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts through December 27, 2014

http://www.nequiltmuseum.org/2014-2015-exhibitions.html


I noticed  a familiar face in their show description---well a familiar hat. Bette Kelley's
"Sunbonnet Soup" is from the Seamsters' Union's 1979 quilt.


The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue, The Seamster's Union (Local #500), 
Lawrence, Kansas

A few details:

The quilt, which I worked on, is now in the Kitty Cole Clark collection at the Museum at Michigan State University. MSU must have loaned it to the New England Quilt Museum.

See more details here:
http://museum.msu.edu/glqc/collections_2001.158.01.html

The Humorous Quilt show features other satirical Sunbonnet quilts.

Barbara Barber and Friends
Sam & Sue Do It Better in the Nude


Teddy McMahon Pruett
The Salacious Secrets of Sam and Sue

Sue represents a well-mannered pillar of the community who just begs for needling. Read a 1979 a newspaper article about our quilt when it was denied display space at a regional fair. If our job as artists is to Épater la bourgeoisie (Shock the middle class) we did a fine job in 1979.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=19790909&id=65UyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=QOcFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3264,1582747


Sue Breaks Bad by the City Sewers
2014

And we continue to do so today. Last spring the City Sewers displayed an altered Sunbonnet Sue quilt at our local guild show. Some people were gravely offended by Anarchist Sue, Tagger Sue, Meth-Making Sue, etc.

Tattoo Sue


Pole Dancer Sue

Hate-filled Sue
See more photos at this post by Deb:
http://debrowden.blogspot.com/2014/04/sue-breaks-bad.html



We have dropped the ball, however, in the metaphorical game. Urban Threads offers machine embroidery patterns for the Seven Deadly Sinbonnet Sues. Above: Sloth.

Envy

See more of their Sinbonnet Sue designs:
http://www.urbanthreads.com/search.aspx?s=sunbonnet+sue+machine&df=Machine%20Embroidery

The perfect holiday gift for someone on your list.

Read about our motive for creating the 1979 Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue at this post:
↧
Search

AQSG's Past & Present Quilt Challenge

November 30, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Circa 1825 collection from In the Beginning

The American Quilt Study Group  is sponsoring a repro fabric challenge in collaboration with In the Beginning Fabrics. In the Beginning has a fabric line currently in shops called Circa 1825.

A portion of the profits for the fabric from Circa 1825 go to benefit
the American Quilt Study Group.

Jason and Sharon Yenter of In the Beginning Fabrics.

Thanks to the Yenters.

The challenge theme is Past and Present. The deadline for the contest is February 28, 2015. Your small quilt needs to be finished and a jpg photo sent with your name to AQSGchallenge@gmail.com by that date.

The Awards:
  • One year gift membership to AQSG
  • Fabric tower of In the Beginning Fabrics
  • Top 20 quilts will participate in a traveling exhibit for a year
Photo from Dawn at Collector with a Needle blog

You must use at least 8 prints from the Circa 1825 line.

The Rules:
  • All items must be three layers and quilted
  • Each quilt must use at least 8 fabrics from this line
  • Additional fabrics may be used
  • Size: No larger than 160” perimeter

Semi-finalist quilts will be exhibited at AQSG Seminar 2015 being held in Indianapolis September 9-13, 2015


See the AQSG webpage here:
http://www.americanquiltstudygroup.org/circa1825.asp

The collection is full of great repro prints from
the first decades of the 19th century---styles that
are hard to find.
I especially like this coral stripe



See more pictures of the line here:
http://www.inthebeginningfabrics.com/cgi-server/itb/displayfab.cgi?product=crca1825

http://americanquiltstudygroup.org/circa1825.asp

Old Sturbridge Village, the Massachusetts museum, is doing a similar challenge with their latest reproduction line. Click on the link for more information:
https://www.osv.org/third-annual-members-quilt-challenge
↧

Di Ford & Miss Porter & Me

December 3, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Miss Porter's Quilt by Di Ford, 66" x 66"

You can find the pattern for this terrific interpretation of an 18th-century quilt in Di's 2013 book Primarily Quilts...19th Century Inspirations published by Quiltmania.

It's not a copy of an antique quilt
but rather an interpretation.

 R. Porter's quilt, 177_, Collection of the American Museum in Bath



The original inspiration is a quilt in Britain's American Museum signed in damaged cross stitch  "R...Porter 177x." The star quilt is one of the earliest dated American quilts. Ms. Porter combined piecing and applique done in limited fabrics, the type of prints that might have been available to an
American quiltmaker in the decade of our Revolution. The dyes seem to be the old reliables: indigos and madders, producing shades of blue and reddish-brown.


Di used the field of stars to frame a larger feathered star block. She echoed the natural dyes but shifted the browns from reddish brown to a bluish-gray brown.

I recognized some of the prints,

Hampton Roads from my 1862 Battle Hymn collection for Moda  came in gray-brown and reddish-brown.


For some of the alternate unpieced blocks she used one of my favorites. In the top center here is a tan on white, medium-scale print from the first line Terry Thompson and I designed, Floral Trails, in 1999.

Di must own a heck of a scrapbag. 

See about buying her must-have book here:

http://www.quiltmania.com/product/L/GB/1496/primarily-quilts-.html

I did a post a few years ago on the borders on this quilt
http://quilt1812warandpiecing.blogspot.com/2012/01/swag-borders.html
↧
↧

Two New Books from Friends

December 6, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Sujata Shah's living room full of quilts
for her new book
Cultural Fusion Quilts: A Melting Pot of Piecing Traditions

Sujata at Quilt Market last October

Sujata is what we'd have called a penpal when I was young---Someone I've never met in person
but who is a great friend via correspondence. Sujata lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is a native of India where she became a professional graphic artist. My 3-D friend Deb Rowden who lives next door and I were quite taken with her quilts and her ideas.

We encouraged her to put them all in a book, which Deb edited and I provided an introduction.
Are the three of us proud!!! 


A few words from my introduction:

Sujata, a professional designer raised in the colorful textile landscape of India, is in a unique position to add to the quilt's recipe for the 21st century. How lucky we are to look over her shoulder as she puts her colorful spin on everything she sees, absorbs and interprets. Ideas bounce from Gee's Bend, Alabama to India by way of Philadelphia thrift shops back into her studio.

Preview Cultural Fusion Quilts here:

http://www.amazon.com/Cultural-Fusion-Quilts-Traditions-Free-Form/dp/160705809X

And see more of Sujata's quilts from the book here at C&T Publishing:
http://www.ctpub.com/cultural-fusion-quilts/

Denniele Bohannon and Janice Britz
have published another book with a world view. This one features traditional
blocks, new design ideas and a historical perspective.

Where Poppies Grow: Quilts and Projects Honoring Those
Who Served in World War I


Block 7
Where Poppies Grow

See a post I did about the series when it began earlier this year in the Kansas City Star:
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2014/01/world-war-i-remembrancequilt-block-of.html



Another digital friend, Colvin Kiwi Quilts from New Zealand, is making the monthly blocks in the colors of her Grandpop's WWI uniform. See a post here:
http://colvinkiwiquilts.blogspot.com/2014/10/where-poppies-grow-in-september.html


Other projects include quilts, a pincushion
and the poppy pin above

See a preview of Where Poppies Grow at the Pickledish Website:
https://www.pickledishstore.com/useruploads/files/WherePoppies_Preview_JPG.pdf

Two good holiday gifts for quilters, whatever their style.
↧

Austen Family Album Last Block

December 9, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0

Block 36 Modern Envelope from the Austen Family Album
by Becky Brown

Last Sunday I posted the last block of my 2014 free block of the week The Austen Family Album. The 36th block was for Jane's friend Anne Sharp.

Here's Anamaria's plan for setting the 36 blocks.

 Each week I've told a little history about Jane Austen, her family and her times, and given a pattern for a pieced block that symbolizes her family and friends.

The blog address:
http://austenfamilyalbumquilt.blogspot.com/

Marie-Louise's Block 7 for Aunt Phila

Blog-readers post their blocks every week on our Flickr page.
https://www.flickr.com/groups/austenfamilyalbum/pool/

Marie-Louise Ardonceau's Flickr Photostream

I'm quite intrigued by Marie-Louise's set of blocks.
In every post I include a portrait of a member of Jane Austen's world,

such as this one of Aunt Philadelphia Austen Hancock.

Marie-Louise's Block  for brother Frank Austen

Marie-Louise is printing the portraits onto fabric and
piecing or appliqueing them into each block.

Marie-Louise's Block  for Sister-in-law Eliza

Marie-Louise's Block  for brother Edward Austen

Can't wait to see this set together!

See Marie-Louise's Flickr photostream here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125609684@N04/14288200069/in/photostream/

Remember, Jane's birthday is December 16th. She'd be 239 years old. Have a party.


Time travel can be upsetting to one's sensibilities, however.

↧

Jason Pollen. Unfurled: Thirty Years in Kansas City

December 12, 2014, 4:00 am
$
0
0
Jason Pollen, Havana, 2014
Silk

Don't miss the second phase of Jason Pollen's two-part show at the Kansas City (Missouri) Public Library's Main Branch.  Unfurled: Thirty Years in Kansas City comes down on January 4, 2015.

http://www.kclibrary.org/event/jason-pollen-unfurled

Friends and I went on our seasonal holiday outing to get some culture, eat well and shop. The show was a high point in a great day.

Jason Pollen, Forest/Trees IV

Found sticks, wrapped on a dyed background.

Jason Pollen, Forest/Trees

Jason Pollen, Forest/Trees Detail

See an interview in The Pitch about how Pollen came to make these assemblages:
http://www.pitch.com/kansascity/jason-pollen-unfurled/Content?oid=4958824

Jason Pollen, Metamorphosis I

Felted Wool

Jason Pollen, Metamorphosis I

Jason Pollen, Prophets






The faces looked familiar. The catalog notes his inspiration
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection
of Fayoum or Fayum funerary portraits of Egyptians.


He also is showing his sketchbooks.

The man mixes media in wonderful fashion.

↧
Viewing all 1441 articles
Browse latest View live
Search