Quilts and quilted items sewn in Nigeria to benefit orphans & women

Hi All,

As we move into the gift-giving season, I wanted to let you know about a non-profit organization that could fill allot of your quilting gift needs and help women suffering HIV/Aids. "Women of Hope is a dynamic sewing program that provides income for women and orphans infescted with HIV/AID. We believe in equipping women with skills so they can support their families." Your purchase will support them.

If you want to go straight there, here's the website- www.womenofhopecreations.com and blog
http://womenofhopecreations.blogspot.com

I receive a snailmail newsletter from the Mashiah Foundation in Jos, Nigeria and this one came with a full color brocheur of quilts and quilted items made in Nigeria. The items include David and Sarah Dolls dressed in typical Nigerian attire, fabric (prairiepoint)trivets, table runners, oven mitts, aprons, gift bags, yoyo bags (purses), notecards, cards with fabric on them, and of course pieced quilts for bed and walls.

Remember that next Wednesday, 11/11/09 my guest on Women On Quilts' tele-interview is Andi Reynold's, Executive Editor of America Quilter's Society. To get the phone number and details go to http://womenonquilts.blogspot.com



Subscribe by Email or Feed

Reminder AQS' Andi Reynolds, Wednesday 11/11 Tele-Interview

Have you ever dreamed of having a particular job, or kind of position that you knew would make your heart sing every day you were there? Andi did and she got it! This interview is for all you who have ever dreamed. But if you are afraid to dream too big or to believe in yourself enough you are getting in your way. Andi will tell us how she got to the position of Senior Book Editor at American Quilter's Society. She did not work her way up in the org, nor does she identify herself as a quilter, yet she has made quilts. it's a fascinating story that gives hope to all of us.

There is a picture of Andi and more details here about her and the topic.  She will be my tele-guest, and yours, on Veteran's day, the second Wednesday in November, 11/11/09. The lines will be open discussion. Bring your questions for her about AQS book submission, authorship, editing, writing articles or a study group magazines, as she was editor of "Pieces of Time" for the IL/Iowa quilt study group before taking the position in Paducah. If you prefer, email me your questions in advance and I'll ask Andi on the call. Reach me at interviewsbykim@gmail.com

Phone number for the call is 1-218-862-7200. The access code is 349853. Enter it at the voice prompt after you call in. You can use your cell phone. The interview is FREE. Any phone charges are yours. I believe the number I use goes to the Midwest. Please be in a quiet room so that when the lines are open (not muted) we can all hear Andi easily.

Please help me spread the word. It's only two weeks away before the holiday rush sets in.

If you missed the teleinterview with Kyra Hicks yesterday, the recording will be Women On Quiltsblog by Thursday. We had a great group and discussion. It was fun with all the input. Let's do it again on Nov. 11!

Quilt of State Flower Embroidery blocks

http://quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/2008/07/state-flower-embroidery-quilt-blocks.html  First, read this post above and the 11 comments with it to know what generated this post.

This post comes to you today with much thanks to recent comments with info and interest in the embroidered state, flower and bird block quilt pictures in the post I wrote last July for this blog.

To every time there is a season! I may walk like a snail on this blog at times, but I do get there. As promised, here are pictures of a quilt from a reader, Lisa Fisk, whose mother has had the quilt with the same elegant blocks that I featured close-ups of in the post linked at the top of this post, hanging on her wall for 35 years!

Thank you Lisa for the pictures and information you have graciously sent about the quilt to be posted here.

The quilt was made by my great-grandmother Ivy Lett in the early 30s.  100% is hand stitched even though she had a machine.  Ivy Lett quilted the Little Boy Blue pattern when my grandmother had my father in 1935, she was relieved when my grandmother had another boy and not a girl since she didn't like the other pattern as well.

(I, Kim, think the enhanced version shows the blocks better, so I have taken the liberty to enhance the pictures, back to their original coloring perhaps. Here is a side by side of the current picture (L) and enhanced (R))

Ivy Lett made mostly patch work designs, most of them did not survive her daughter's care.  My grandmother (Birdeena Dooley) put all of the quilts in the thin plastic from the drycleaners to keep them 'good' ... in a closet in her house, most of my great grandmother's best work mildewed and could not be saved.  Only two of her other quilts have survived, my sister has those.

 

My grandmother didn't learn to quilt/applique/do any handiwork until she was over 50 and needed projects for a club she was in.  Five of those quilts have survived, four of the others almost mildewed to death but were saved by my mother.

Fun, huh? If you have information and pictures of any vintage state flower bird quilts and want to share them, send them to me and I'll post them on Quilters Spirit.  Any comments on this quilt or pattern, please leave your thoughts below. We'd love to hear more about this genre of quilts.

Piece,

Kim

Andi Reynolds, Executive Book Ed. at AQS & and Old Menswear Made into Quilts Exhibit

Join us Monday evening, Sept. 21, when Andi Reynold's is my guest on Women On Quilts, with open lines for your questions. For much more info about Andi and the call in number go to Women On Quilts.  Tell your friends about and gather around your phone (It's Andi's Birthday!!! No charge for girl's night out)

All cotton, men's shirting stripes and a variety of conversation prints depicting men's sports, especially baseball.

MASTER PIECES: Haberdashery Textiles in Antique Quilts. Curated by Laura Fischer at NEQM NOW until Nov. 15 in Lowell, MA
The antique quilts on exhibit are made of menswear fabrics recycled from suits and shirts, neckties, pajamas, military uniforms, work clothes—even woolen underwear and socks. Some also resulted from the artful salvage of menswear swatch sample books and fabric mill remnants.The tradition of making unique, often very personal quilts from repurposed menswear textiles gained popularity around 1850, and lasted through the 1950s. The quilt below is made from their vests and hatbands.

The 40 quilts made from menswear, much of it recycled clothing, are intriguing, graphic works made from simple utilitarian fabrics long overlooked in the study of antique quilts.  Popular for about a century, these quilts are compelling and often whimsical. Simple squares arranged in a diagonal pattern prove on close inspection to be made from scraps of patterned jersey socks.

A shimmering kaleidoscope of diamonds in rust reds and yellows is pieced from 1950s neckties. Thin lines going in every direction look like a contemporary drawing are actually random scraps in a c. 1915 crazy quilt pieced of fine, striped silk shirting.

The narrow serpentine strips in the blocks of a 1905 Amish quilt are cuttings from woolen long johns. Bright, dimensional flowers are embroidered on a century-old, unlikely foundation of tailor's wool suiting swatches, as are a flock of vividly colored birds on branches.

Visually stunning and strikingly modern, these antique textiles make distinct graphic statements out of the most everyday materials.

The quilt on the left is made from suiting material.

The guest curator for the exhibit is noted antiques dealer and author Laura Fisher of FISHER HERITAGE in New York City.In addition to the quilts themselves, the exhibit will feature historic advertisements, swatch books, and catalogs from menswear companies, dating from the 1880s through the 1950s, including several items from the vaults of Brooks Brothers, the chief sponsor of the exhibition.

Today, the tradition revives in memory quilts made from old T-shirts and clothing that has personal sentiment. Recycling these materials is now considered environmentally aware, adding further appeal to their inherent design potential. Contact the New England Quilt Museum for programs and more info. Photos courtesy of Laura Fisher

For Andi Reynolds interview info go here.  It's happening this Monday evening, 5 PM Pacific, 7 Central, 8 Eastern.

Fabulous Antique Eagle Quilt Collections Now on DVD!

I want to tell you about my dear friend Susan Wildemuth's new DVD of quilts with eagles on them dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Sue describes her DVD, Eagle Quilts – Antique, Vintage, and New this way --  "My Eagle Quilt History Study CD is a mixture of photographs and descriptions. It is part quilt exhibit – part quilt history study – part timeline of the evolution of the eagle quilt motif in the United States.”

Here is one of my favorite quilts in her collection -- (scroll down for another unusual 19th century quilt).

Sue told me, "The reason I collect eagle quilts is because I love quilting, and the eagle motif reminds me of my dad. Dad had his own brand of magic. Like Ben Franklin, my dad read everything he could get his hands on. His intelligence did not come from college studies; Dad went to the University of life, and like many parents from my generation, got his post-graduate degree in WWII. He is “the eagle” and the reason I collect eagle quilts."

This will be the first in a series of Quilt History Study CDs created by Sue  The other CDs in this series are still in development. Each focuses on a one-of-a-kind quilt history topic and will be uniquely different from the others. All are carefully researched and thoroughly documented.

“Eagle Quilts – Antique, Vintage, and New” is a PowerPoint-formatted presentation of the eagle motif in U.S. quilting history.  Utilizing photographs and descriptions, the study eagle quilts DVD is $9.95 --http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/sale.html to order.

Sue has so much to offer you online and in print. She is an author, historian and quilting aficionado. Her research, writing and photographs have been published in national, regional and local quilt and textile history publications. Her web site Illinois Quilt History: Quilt History from the Midwest http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/ was established in 2008, and her blog Eye of the Needle: Quilt History Conversation from the Midwest http://sew-eyeoftheneedlequilthistory.blogspot.com/ followed in 2009.

New Book about African-American Quilters, Past and Present

Hi Everyone!

It's been a fun filled, busy working, magical summer. I hope you are having a good summer.

Whew! It is hot hot hot in my town, going on 3 or 4 weeks now.  With the a/c on I can get allot of reading and writing done, but when I am trying to hold off to help prevent electrical overload it is dripping hot. I moved my "office" downstairs and I love it. I am using a 19th century sewing table as my desk. it is exactly 36" long with a yardstick measurement carved into it near the bottom edge, but not on the edge. It is 18" deep and the legs fold up!!

I wanted to link you to this touching video, seen on ABC news, about quilts being made in the Black community today. Black quilts: From slavery to the White House 

This new book is written by Patricia Turner,  a professor of Cultural Studies at University of California at Davis.

"Crafted Lives, Stories and Studies of African American Quilters"I have not read the book myself. The publisher's summary follows:

"

In Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters, Patricia A. Turner explores the culture and recent history of African Americans through the creations and wisdom of nine quilters. Turner profiles quilters who exemplify the range of black women and men dedicated to the making of quilts, and she shows how their craftwork establishes order and meaning in their lives. The artisans comprise eight women and one man, ranging from teenagers to octogenarians, representing an array of education and income levels, and living across the United States, including Alaska.

Turner also probes the ways in which African American quilts and quilters have been depicted, discussed, criticized, and characterized. From the displays of Harriet Powers's creations at the turn of the twentieth century to the contemporary exhibits of such black art-quilts as those promoted by Carolyn Mazloomi, and such utilitarian expressions as the celebrated examples from Gee's Bend, Alabama, Turner uses quilts to assess the level of control African Americans have had or have not had over the materials they craft and the art they leave as legacy to new generations.

 

Stay cool!

Review of Kyra Hicks new book "This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilts and Other Pieces"

 This I Accomplish: Harriet Powers' Bible Quilt and Other Pieces is the new book by Kyra E. Hicks. In it we learn facts never revealed about Harriet Powers, the former slave, born in 1837, who became the recognized quilt maker known today for her primitive style appliqué quilts depicting tales from the Bible and American history.

Kyra’s intimate style of revealing her research findings, step by step, feels like a Nancy Drew mystery unfolding before me. It is a page turner. “This I Accomplish” is intended for adults, but certainly would be enjoyed by younger history buffs too.

What little has been known, until now, of Harriet Power’s life has been documented in several publications and exhibits. Her workmanship displayed in her quilts have always been heralded as joyous, remarkable for their colorfulness and creativity. Yet, often Harriet’s illiteracy was used to justify or explain the primitive quality of her symbolism of Bible stories in appliqué figures and shapes. As Kyra’s research findings prove, Harriet was reading the Bible herself from a young age.

Mary Lyons, author of “Stitching Stars, the Story of Quilts of Harriet Powers,” shows a corollary between her animal shapes and those of appliqué cloth-workers in Abomey, Dahomey, (now Benin) in West Africa.

The intimate quality of this delightful book about a wonderful African-American 19th century woman is Kyra’s passion and joy exclaimed at each successful juncture in her discovery process. Reading her portrayal of the process of researching quilt history is like watching a reality show. Her highs, lows, questions, assumptions, hopes, surprises, searching and deciphering are all included in this informal yet packed with details book. The genealogy of all persons involved, a little to allot, is a large part of the book. The impact covers a broad range of people in America’s history.

Kyra establishes beyond a doubt that Harriet made more than two quilts. She delves deep into the history of the Pictorial quilt, which features blocks depicting both Bible stories and weather events in America’s past. Kyra’s deep respect and admiration for Harriet is easily sensed throughout the book, making Harriet became a real person and furthering my appreciation of her life.  (Read more here)

This I Accomplish is available on Amazon.com now. It is a book of high value for  many genres of people, not only quilters and quilt history students, but women's history, genealogists, those people wanted to see research in process, and American history enthusiasts.

Kyra Hicks, with her book, will be my guest interview in October on Women On Quilts. The lines will be open for Q & A.