Making Vintage Quilts

There is no doubting that winter is here, from coast to coast. And with that comes staying in doors if you can and enjoying the cozy feel. I love the sound of rain drops falling on the skylights. Listening to the rain fall is so rare, I sit or work in silence while it is happening to take the sound and sensation it in when I can. But after a week of fairly non-stop raining and dreary skies I want color back, not to mention the sun and warm temperatures.

I don't know about you, but I think 1930s when I think about colorful happy quilts so I went to my bookshelf for some quick relief, and pulled down Link to the '30s, making the quilts we didn't inherit written by two sisters living in Texas, Kay Connors and Karen Earlywine.


The sisters are vintage style quilt and pattern makers. They design their quilts using period  newspaper quilt columns that offered mail order patterns and old quilts. Small photos of the original newspaper column pattern or quilt adorn each of the 9 quilt patterns featured in this book.

The patterns are from the columns  Nancy Page Quilt Club and Household Arts by Alice Brooks, and one is a McCall's wedding ring pattern., as seen on the book's cover.  Two signature quilt patterns are reproduced. One is from a 1931 quilt with embroidered names, and the other one is made into a contemporary quilt minus signatures.

The quilts chosen are familiar but I seldom see them reproduced at shows or on exhibit, which is nice. The patterns range in difficulty from beginner to experienced quilter. Most of them are mid range to advanced. The more difficult quilts contain curves, applique, and bias edges.

A variety of border treatments were made popular in the  Colonial Revival period between the World Wars  and are reflected in these patterns. Borders include the ice cream cone, prairie points, scallops, tiny half square triangles and the curved vine of petals (think of one Dresden plate petal).

Kay and Karen wrote a quilt stitch pattern book recently, Fancy to Frugal, authentic quilt patterns of the '30s. Here they are describing quilting  from the same time period, although Link to the '30s shows suggested quilting patterns for the borders and white or plain fabric blocks in the quilt.

These two books give you access to excellent patterns and ideas to pull from to make your own combinations of borders and blocks or to reproduce your own favorites. The templates are arranged on pages without overlapping each other for easy tracing, and illustrations are easy to see and understand. Their strip or rotary piecing directions are also easy to follow.

Please post your comments by clicking here http://www.quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/  if you are receiving this as a subscriber. Scroll down to "comments" below the post, click, and a comment box will appear. If you haven't read the great comments about Remembering Adelia, take a peek, even the author wrote in! Links top other

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Remembering Adelia was more than a book to me

Oh it is a busy time of year! I hope you too are enjoying the myriad delights of the holiday season. I do more and more each year. I think it's because I value my family and my friendships, new and old, more deeply than I did when I was younger. I love giving gifts, cards, and coming together for parties and meditations for the new year.

I was drawn to Kathleen Tracy's book "Remembering Adelia" the first time I saw it. In glancing over it I saw that  it was a book of small quilts with patterns and diary entries written by a young woman named Adelia, set in mid-19th century.  I set it aside to read nearly a year ago. During a recent rain storm
I read the book.  It's an easy cozy read in one sitting. The diary narrative of Adelia Thomas is real. She was  a young woman living in the year 1861 in northern Illinois.

My eyes lit up and my jaw dropped by what I discovered!! I grew up and still have dear friends in the same towns  Adelia writes about in her diary. There are also original photographs of the countryside, houses and people living  there in the later part of that century.

It's unique  for this to happen when I'm reading a quilt history book. These are not historically important places today or then. I was born in Minneapolis and raised in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago until I left for collage after high school and to live out west.

Adelia lived in the town of Woodstock, IL, which I have only visited a few times, but it is the other towns that she and her family visited frequently that were my stomping grounds and may be yours too: Des Plaines, Algonquin, Elgin, St. Charles,  Chicago's Michigan Avenue and State Street, and Park Ridge, where she raised her own family years later. Oh the memories!  Dear friends and family are still there  and new memories are made there because of their children growing up in the same towns.

Although the year of diary entires is during the start of the Civil War as Adelia's male friends and family were leaving for military duty and there was change and sadness in her life, the book was a joy to read for me and I think you would also enjoy it if you like diaries of 19th century women who quilt!!

The quilts Kathleen shows are scrappy style made from reproduction fabrics. She picked patterns with significance to the time period.  The quilts are adorable ranging from doll to lap size with fourteen patchwork and two applique quilt patterns and housewif and journal cover patterns.

This is a pattern and story book of historical relevance a beginner would enjoy as much as the more advanced  quilt history enthusiast. I think it would be a lovely gift for a friend, daughter, or yourself, OR for someone who lives in Illinois.

I know there are other diary inspired quilt books with patterns, including Kathleen's first book on Prairie children quilts. If you have a favorite, please tell us about it, the title, author and what you liked about it, or what made it stand out for you. I'd like to have a list handy and I'm thinking some of you would too.

Please post your comment on the blog by clicking here http://www.quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/  and scrolling down to the comments box, or clicking on the word comments. You can read about others favorite diary books there too.

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American Quilts in a British Museum, New Book Shows Them to US!

Classic Quilts from The American Museum in Britain written by the curators of this wonderful museum in Bath England,  Laura Beresford and Katherine Hebert.

It was Katherine who contacted me earlier this summer, 2009, about the eagle quilt kit pictured in an article about eagle quilts that she had come across on my Antique Quilt Dating Guides website. I introduced her 9by email) to Madge Zeigler  owner of the kit, including the original packaging. The kit is by Paragon, titled American Eagle Quilt. It was first advertised in Woman's Day in the mid-1950s.

Katherine was about to put this book to bed when she saw this kit quilt and knew it looked like the one in Bath. The date-  '63 -is embroidered on the museum's quilt and due to the Federal period symbolism of the eagle in America, and the thirteen stars, swags and pots with flowers situated around its central placement. So they estimated it was likely made in 1763 or 1863, but frustratingly they couldn't say for certain. (How many of us have felt that feeling when it comes quilts we later find out were kits?)

She was thrilled to be able to validate that her quilt was indeed made with a Paragon Kit too, thanks to Madge's help of many pictures and the instructions.

In the book on pages 70-1 you will see stunning photography of the kit quilt and that the one in their collection was made in 1963. They write that this quilt pattern was based on a chintz version made in 1795. How fun is that!

Now I'll tell you a bit about the rest of the Classic Quilts book, but I know you will want it on your self if you love antique quilts.

There are very large detail photographs, including full page detail photos, as well as full views of the quilts. Quilting pattern and fabric prints are easily seen.

Sheila Betterton, formerly the textile and needlework specialist for the museum and largely responsible for getting this collection going at the America Museum, wrote the preface in 2008. Sadly, she passed away that same year. She began as a volunteer at the Museum in 1963. The book is dedicated to her.

The book begins with the history of the Museum coming to be and who do you think influenced the founders Dr. Dallas Pratt and John Judkyn? None other than our own wonderwoman of quilts, Electra Havenmeyer Webb, who founded and filled The Shelburne Museum in Vermont. It's a small world. The chapter includes an overview of the development of textiles and quilts in America. From here to the end of the book, nearly every page has photographs.

The quilts shown include a wool whole cloth, wool applique, pieced chintz, appliqués of every type and era, Amish, BAQ (looks very much like on held in the Maryland Museum of Art's BAQ collection), signature quilts, presentation album quilt, a 1848 hexagon quilt with inked centers in the typical GFG rosette pattern, and many more truly gorgeous quilts totaling fifty-five.

Two of them may be expressing sentiments of the Temperance movement. One is a red and white Drunkard's Path which they titled as Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, made by a Congregational church in Oriskany Falls, NY. c. 1889. The other is the Tumbler pattern, appliqued in red on a white block on point set with alternate red blocks on point. It was made in Texas, c. 1860 at  Mimosa Hall Plantation in Marshall. They refer to it as The Chalice Quilt. The back is machine quilted and the quilting hand pattern is the fan or elbow stitch.  The size is 87"X75".

It is here that you may want to close your eyes as a brief rundown of the Underground Railroad quilt myth is described. They also mention the ongoing disagreement about the validity of the concept followed by this- "Although the decoration of this quilt does not conceal codes for the railroad's conductor's, it none the less contains a hidden message. The repeated motif of the chalice represents not only the bishop but also, more importantly, the freedom of a better world to come, after a life of blood and suffering." This was new to me. You?

The next page shows the Harrison log cabin and cider barrel toile that was used on the back of a chintz quilt. It is the biggest and best photograph of that monochrome I have ever seen in a book.

I highly recommend Classic Quilts from the American Museum in Britain The quilts chosen for the book clearly represent American styles and the true nature of our history of quilt making is evident. Many of the quilts are like those seen in our museums and books. It's really quite fun to read what they say. The pride they feel matches ours. It's all good.

Classic American Quilts will be on exhibit at the museum in Bath in 2010, 13 March – 31 October 2010

www.americanmuseum.org

The American Museum in Britain
Claverton Manor
Bath.  BA2 7BD
Tel: 01225 460503 - Fax: 01225 469160

Reminder- this Thursday, Dec. 10, is my free telecasts on the Introduction to my workshop in January 2010 - 4 Ways to Access Your Guidance Within and the Bigger Vision for Your Life. Get call-in info here. 
(Scroll down to the box, fill in your name and email and the phone number and code will be sent in a few minutes. Check your spam file if you don't see it shortly.)

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.

A Scrap Bag Full of Varied Info & Offerings - Keeping You in the Know :)

Hi Everyone! Grab a cup of java or glass of whatever and settle in with me.

1.) Have you heard the sad news that Cranston (VIP) closed its printing division in their Webster, Mass company? This means that there are no companies in America printing cotton fabric for apparel and quilters. Their textile mill began around 1812, almost 200 years ago. "The plant, which still rolls out 20 million yards of printed cloth a year for people who sew at home, once employed more than 700 people."

I have had the pleasure of taking a tour through their plant three times beginning in 1997 and I was always Wowed. They grew with the times, changing and improving their machinery and adding computerized dye coloring of the roller screen printing machines and all other aspects they could computerize, they did. I saw fewer employees on each visit and no smoking went into affect.

Cranston was not weaving cotton cloth, they imported it from overseas, but all the printing was done there with the design division in NYC. Now foreign companies will also do their printing, just as all the other former quilt fabric manufacturers have done. They will only package and distribute the textiles they design from their US facilities. You can see a short video of their machinery in process and read more about their history and closing here.

2.) AQSG is offering all of the UNCOVERINGS they have in stock at 50% off through June. The order form is in a PDF, to print it out and mail in. Contact AQSG's website to find the link UC JUNE SALE.PDF This is a great deal.

3.) Beth Davis sent me this article in response to my increasing interest in the publishing world, thank you Beth! It was written today by the managing director of one the finest art and textile book publishers, Thames and Hudson. Jamie Camplin writes [bolding is my emphasis]

"If we moan about “dumbing down” in the face of the visual noise that comes our way daily, it only means that we are living in the age of “more”—more that is mediocre, but also more that is astonishingly creative.

Art has a very strong hand to play in the 21st century. In an era in which technology makes most products more uniform but in which printing technology can show art’s strengths as never before, in which fragmenting marketplaces and marketing platforms need all the help they can get, and in which the power of the visual to sway emotions has never been stronger, art’s distinctiveness, creativity and originality give any art-book programme a strong start." (the complete article is here)

4.) Camplin's statement gives me hope that beautiful textile and quilt books will continue to be published and that novice authors, quilters, and other creative people can publish too, online as eBooks, self-published or through traditional publishers. All three have their place. All three have pros and cons for an author to consider in determining which is a better fit for her.

If you have the desire to be an author, are writing your book now,or want to sell the one you have now, get this free report about building your author platform online, written by Joanna Penn, a favorite writer and blogger of mine.

Click on the icon above to read her description of the free report. If it sounds good, then you'll know if you want to buy the tutorial, Author 2.0. It is video, audio, and written text. All learning styles can use it. I highly recommend you get the free report!

Joanna just published "Author 2.0" which both shows and tells anyone how to market their book, beginning before it's written. Publishing houses expect you to put your marketing plan and current platform into any book proposal you submit. If you self publish this is also a must do for you. It can be fun!!

She will be my guest in a free open lines Tele-class, with a slide show, this Thursday, June 4th at 4 PM Pacific time, 7 PM Eastern. It's fr.ee. Ask her questions or email me with them in advance. The call-in info, conference code and link to slide show is here now. The class will be recorded and available on WOQ in the Audio Interview Library.

Joanna is internet savvy. She learned by authoring 3 books and speaks clearly, simply, and to the point. She gives you lots of info about using the internet to your benefit to increase sales and get your words in the hands of people who will enjoy and benefit from your hard work of writing a book!

Get her free report (click the icon above) about the state of the publishing world and what you can do with WEB 2.0, crucial info for marketing through social media and the newest internet forms of media and learn more about the business model for today's market.

6.) When you are feeling down quilting can lift you up again for reasons you might not expect is the title of an article I wrote over the weekend. Read it on Womenfolk's web site. Here is a snippet of my favorite tip for relieving stress from a recent UCLA study, but applicable to quilters during these economic times:

"The friendship effect on females natural response to stress was recently demonstrated in a university's landmark study which showed that different chemicals than in male brains are released during these times of bonding. Oxytocin is the natural occurring chemical released in a woman's brain when she gives birth, breastfeeds and cares for children. The chemical dulls pain and buffers the automatic "flight or flight" chemical response. The numerous opportunities for meaningful conversations and sharing of feelings happen during a girl's night out,...."

Read the rest of my article here. From that page click on Frugal Quilts for patterns and more articles about the past and present.

In closing, I hope you are enjoying reading CHANGING TIMES:Women's Stories 1902-1942. Click the title or the icon on the upper left of this page will download it for you to read online or print out to read in a cozy chair. Lot's of wonderful comments are coming in about it. Please comment here on Quilter's Spirit.**

Wishing you each a fulfilling and creative week!

Kim

**It's easy to make a comment: See the word Comment below? If there is a number other than 0 next to it, click it to read the comments already posted, and a box for you to put in your comment in also comes up. You can write it anonymously or with your name. Please don't solicit your products there, instead hyperlink your blog or web site URL to your name. The comment box makes it very easy for you to do that if you don't already know how. Readers who are interested in knowing more about you because your comment is interesting and relevant will click on your name to "meet" in your territory. (hint-comments done this way are good for marketing)

Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts

The new bookwritten by Mary Elizabeth Kinch and Biz Storms (That Patchwork Place)

In one sentence, this pattern book is a reproduction fabric-lover’s dream.The quilts made by the authors make it clear they are bonafide scrap loving quilt makers who put as many different reproduction prints into one quilt as humanly possible.

Mary and Biz define small blocks as under 5” square and stopping short of being miniatures. Any collector knows their raison d’être for the choices they make in purchasing an antique quilt. For Mary and Biz it’s the quilts made exclusively with small blocks that knocks the wind out of their chest in a gasp of glee when seen from across a room or vendor booth. their enthusiasm is palatable through the book and you can’t help but appreciate them for this. The book came from this passion and their hands.

In the first section are pages of 19th century quilts made with small blocks of rosettes, stars, flying geese, half square medallion quilts and others, which the authors studied for inspiration. There are scrumptious pictures of fussy cut hexagons in repro fabrics that match any antique ones I’ve seen. They make me want to get out my hand sewing and try a few. They use clear template plastic and a sandpaper board to mark then cut these little pieces just so.

One of the antique quilts pictured in this section is an outstanding chintz medallion coverlet made c. 1841 in Australia, the “Rajah Quilt.” Female British prisoners on board the convict ship by the same name as this quilt made it. It is a beautiful medallion quilt with 12 borders of various widths with myriad blocks or appliqués. they counted 2,815 pieces of fabric. Biz and Mary are fabri-holics to their core.

With fabric and color leading their every choice in making small block quilt, less attention was paid to the era of the reproduction fabrics they chose. The book is does not mention fabric dating or reproduction quilt making. It doesn't tell the reader how to make their quilt look like a certain era, but their quilts have a traditional and older feel.

Mary and Biz like to machine sew, they find the repetition calming and meditative, so making little blocks with simple shapes gives them lots of quiet time!

They work in an organized manner of chain piecing mixed with liberated techniques of taking the next fabric in a stack without deliberation. The color decision and fabric choices are made at the start then the project proceeds from there without too much attention to what color ends up where. They dedicated the book to their mentor and friend Gwen Marston who inspired them to get out of the rut of worrying about each piece in a quilt. Yet, they remind us that measuring and precision in the sewn seam allowance, is extra important when making small blocks, and they prefer to slow down the sewing and enjoy the process and feel of the fabric. I like this too.

I wonder if there is a Universal move toward smaller going on as our world economy shifts... as I was typing this from my longhand, a Burger King ad for their new smaller tiny burgers came on TV. All the girls gathered around them cooing. Do we coo over small block quilts...really, do we?

***Not to be missed! Do we coo over wonderful old dresses too? Yes!! Check out this just published online article that features a pre-Civil War dress in Nancy Kirk's collection, The Story in a Dress written by Suzanne  Arney. It is also published in the March/April issue of PieceWorks magazine. Click on the link for a full color article PDF.***

Piece,

Kim

What? is on a Wall? & Catching Up on Loose Ends

Where has the time gone? Every day is so busy and often it's spent out of town being a teacher or a student. In January I was a student at The Freedom Formula Experience a four day seminar that was, as promised by Christine Kloser the hostess and main speaker, a  profound experience.  The tag line of her book by the same name as the seminar is "how to put soul in your business and money in your  bank." She taught us her way of doing business that is practical and spiritually based. I will blog  more about the event and speakers on my Women On Quilts blog  which "seams together business and spirit for women in the creative arts." (my tag line :)) The entire time we were there, our focus was on  finding our purpose in life or if we knew it, how could we best express it and make our living doing it, giving us the best of both worlds.

When I returned home, with a notebook of my journaled ideas that took me to places I would not have imagined prior to going, there was an email from Patti Williams. We do not know each other, but she is a lurker on QHL, the Quilt History List, for those of us who adore antique quilts. She tells me about a museum's exhibit in Washington state that she has helped with and attaches this picture. The wall is at the entrance of the quilt exhibit and it reads "Quilts can open our eyes and our hearts to share who sewed before us. It is a wonderful way to learn history." Kimberly Wulfert, PhD

Do you think anything could be cooler to me? Me who shares quotes as often as possible and who buys the books of themed quotes and reads them!  On Women On Quilts I place a new one in the margin each month. A great quote is a marvel to read and hold in your mind, to take in and manifest. This is an honor I will cherish forever and I thank the Northwest Museum of Art and Culture from the bottom of my heart for thinking my quote was worthy of being on their wall. The exhibit will run through May and I hope to make it up there. I want to place my face under the quote for another picture for posterity. In the meantime, take a look at their terrific collection of quilts displayed online.

CATCHING UP ON LOOSE ENDS
Thank you to all of you who wrote me by email or posted a comment with your heartfelt sentiments about the passing of my dear friend and friend of quilter's everywhere, Giles Wright. Your sharing meant allot to me.

Remember the Case of the Mouse Who Ate My Quilt and the Hunt for Green 1840s Fabric? Alls well that ends well, but we hit a snag in the middle of the hunt. When a real swatch that matched was not to be found, reader Kathie Holland graciously sent me her remaining yardage of matching acid green from Judy Rothermel's Lancaster 3 collection. But, it never arrived, anywhere. I searched for more, found none and then went to Road to California last month, and when I got to their booth, Schoolhouse Quilt Shoppe, on Sat., the cupboard was bare! I mean seriously- their booth was nearly empty! Bob knew what I was talking about and said he thought he had some at the shop and to contact him there, so I did. He was able to scrounge 1/2 yard and now, finally,  it is in my hands and soon will be in Kathie's too. lesson learned, never give up on the hunt for fabric. :)

Is the match perfect, not quite. The pattern is exactly the same so you wouldn't realize the difference unless you held them side by side (and it will look fine enough in the quilt top, certainly better than the mouse holes). The difference is the background color is darker on the old fabric than the reproduction. Here's a picture. You probably think, what is she talking about, they  match! I think it will work just fine even though they are not the same color. The original fabric has more contrast between the two greens that form the background.

Katie Pasquini Masupost has written another new book that is fabulous and easy enough for beginning art quilters and the more advanced that need some nudging to expand their techniques will love it too. The text Katie writes is focused on her own thinking processes of analysis and alternatives as she plans a quilt from finding the initial concept to the various ways you can turn your idea or photo into a one-dimensional design. She includes her methods known as ghost layers, fractured landscape and the painterly painterly approach.  Check out more details in my book review of "Design Explorations for the Creative Quilter: easy to follow directions for creative art quilts."

A quilter who is also an expert in traveling for business, Carol Margolis, will be my guest on Monday evening, Feb. 23, on a fr.ee tele-interview where we will ask her all kinds of questions to  make traveling easier for quilters, authors, vendors, teachers and women in business. Carol is  the Founder of SmartWomenTravelers.com

This coming Monday evening, on WOQ,  I will  bring you Part 2 of the quilt history study group discussion with Beth Davis and Karen Parrett. Join us from the comfort of your home and share your group's experiences, struggles and highlights, or ask questions. All input is important and welcome.

Have a great weekend everyone. May you be warm, dry and cozy. Piece, Kim

String Quilts Match Economic Times & 2 new books

On my way to my quilt guild Thursday evening I drove through Montecito and saw the begining of the fires there. The sky was so black, the ocean on one side and the hills on the other, with two big orange flames that could be seen from afar. During the meeting we were told the electricty had gone out for some of the homes in the fire area. If things weren't bad enough for those in dangerous areas, some people were unable to get their cars out of their garage or their private gate. Can you imagine, seeing the flames, receiving the 911 call to leave immediately, and then be stuck isnside your property with a car loaded with gas! I don't know how this is so, but no one was killed in the fires there.

I left guild early thinking the freeway may be closed and fortunately it was not. Since then our local news has been about nothing but fires; east and south of us, they continue to rage. So much beauty is lost when the fires come. Arnold, our govenor, said today that there is no longer a fire season in California. Now fires are all year long. That's true. He said it was due to the climate changes connected to global warming.

In one mobile home park over 500 homes were desicrated. Many many families are homeless today since the fires began on Thursday evening. And we Americans, me included, are focusing on the economy, unemployment and stock market thinking that things couldn't get much worse. Let's take a moment and count our many blessings.

This week I put a new article on my website String Quilts Match the Economic Times, Past and Present. The quilts shown are from my collection. I think there is a surprise in it. Let me know if you found the surprise. It's a connection for lack of a better term. No, it's not candy or fabric- sorry! It may bring a smile to your face though, and that's worth getting. :)

Diane Shink, my friend and quilt history buddy has co-authored a quilt book with Karen Neary, Canadian Heritage Quilting — Quick Creative Designs, a 128-page book that delves into 16 vintage Canadian quilts, many with a strong Maritime connection... Ms. Shink researched and wrote the historical details for each quilt featured in the book. Ms. Neary created the modern patterns. click here for a Canadian news article about the book

The book has just been published in Canada and I am thrilled for Diane. She told me last week that it's on Amazon. Diane lives in Montreal, collects antique quilts with a star pattern, any star, and she collects Aprons. She teaches, writes, is an appraiser and a member of AQSG.

Are you looking to make some fast but wonderful quilts or wallhangings for Christmas gifts? Are you aware of the technique that uses no bias, no set-in Y seams and no diamond shapes, yet results in a Star of Bethlehem, or Lone Star pattern?

Big One-Star Quilts by Magic is written by Nancy Johnson-Sebro. It is her second book using this technique for big stars with 14 new star patterns, I recommend in my review that you use an all-over tight print or marble or hand dyed looking fabric for the rectangles and squares that form the Star's diamonds. This will trick the eye, leaving the horizontal or vertical seams in the Texas dust. No one will be the wiser.

It looks to me like a weekend would take it from start to finish. Nancy goes green by providing 14 patterns for the back that use the scraps from the front.

Piece,
Kim

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Hand Quilting Patterns

Hand Quilting Patterns on Antique Quilts is an article I just wrote and posted on Ezine Articles. It is available for downloading from them to your website, guild newsletter, any public media as long as it includes my name and information at the bottom. The entire article must be used, not portions.

There is a new article on my website about Welsh Quilts. Mary Jenkins is my guest author this month and she wrote the fabulous book "Making Welsh Quilts" which is in it's second printing. In her article,'Making Welsh Quilts: Necessity is the Mother of Invention' Mary talks about quilting and quilts in Wales where she grew up, then and now.

In the book, Mary describes how Amish quilts were inspired by Wale's quilts. In the book she features 10 patterns for medallion style Welsh quilts all shown completed in glorious reproduction fabrics.(one of Mary's recent samples is in the article) They are yummy quilts. Mary and Clare Claridge, the co-author, have pages and pages of Welsh quilting patterns they are known for; spirals, fans, leaves, pears, flowers, hearts, borders and more. The quilt projects have quilting patterns and templates. They are easy enough for beginners to piece by machine or hand.

The beginning of the book is a quilt gallery of antique quilts, one of which is pictured in her article. To find out more about their book, there is a link to Amazon at the end of article and another to Mary and Clare's webpages.

A big thank you from me to all of you who responded to my SOS call for fabric to mend my tasty antique quilt top. You guys are so great and so helpful!! I am following your leads, checking out different original fabrics first. If they don't work out, then the repro has been discovered. It is by Judy Rothermel in Lancaster 3. The red fabric remains a mystery. Further ideas are invited.

Piece,
Kim

Contemporary Websites

I come across some pretty darn wonderful out-of-the-ordinary websites while cyber-cruising around and I thought you might like to know about some of them too.

The first is written by Serena Renton, an artist and college teacher currently in North Carolina. Her website is a thinker and a looker Layers of Meaning. She offers her personal comments on design and textile arts and the creative expression of them.

Sue Spargo is a folk art quilter. She designs all of her own pattern designs which . are quite different than what you may think of when you think of folk art quilts. Sue uses wool, decorator fabrics, trims and cottons all together in a pattern to make her appliqued quilts, pillows, and gifts. Her designs are whimsical and wonderful and some are even useful, like needle cases and pin cushions,. She draws from the old but they are decidedly contemporary.

Fiberella is an art quilter's website with a gallery of quilts made with machine needle felting, machine embroidery and quilting and thread drawing techniques that make quilts very exciting and intriguing. Paula Scaffidi, the quilt artist invites quilters to submit photos of their own work to post in her gallery!

Mildred's Lane.

Recently I watched a teaching video for beginning art quilters and those quilters who want to know the art school terms and thinking about composition and drawing to add to their repertoire. It was terrific, like being with friends in their studio, they being the teachers on the video Jan Davila and Elin Waterston. You can read more about Teach You Art Quilt Basics and my thoughts as a student. After that, why not check out my other book reviews, they offer quite a variety of topics in the quilting field.

Brackman's NEW Book

First I'd like to welcome all of the new subscribers to my newsletter blog! Thank you for subscribing to the Quilters Spirit circle. Knowing you are interested makes it more fun writing as I imagine you out there listening, like when I give a lecture. Smiles on faces in the audience are a barometer of how I am doing.

Sometimes when the audience is real quiet, I worry. Afterward I ask the program chair about it and she tells me it was a sign they were really into it- mesmerized, wanting to hear every word. Well in that case- silence is golden, but with blogs, silence is, well, silent. Feel free to join in and comment any time! The opportunity is at the end of a blog, right beneath the line. (I have tried to place it to be above the line, but no luck so far.)

Now it is my pleasure to tell you about Barbara Brackman's newest book- MAKING HISTORY Quilts and Fabrics from 1890-1970." Of course it is excellent. Although this time frame is not at the top of my favorites list, Barbara's analysis of changes seen in quilts and fabrics from these later eras brought my other favorite field of study into focus, decorative arts for home interiors. For details read my review. To see her book's Table of Contents page scroll to the end. (be sure to stop and read paragraph 5 as you scroll down)

MAKING HISTORY is the sequel to America’s Printed Fabrics, 1770-1890s and together they comprise the updates to Clues in the Calico. Anyone who is serious about learning to date fabric will want to have all three, but Clues is OOP and therefore $$$, if you can find one for sale.Her update books are still in print and affordable, especially through Amazon.

My review of America's Printed Fabrics,1770-1890s(2004)is here.

Enjoy!

Kim

NEW Quilt History website

Dear Readers, I am pleased to tell you about a brand new website dedicated to Illinois's quilt history. Illinois Quilt History . Included are the avenues and links available online and by mail for researching this states many contributions to the field.

The Chicago Tribune was home to patchwork pattern columns, such as Nancy Page. The 1933 Century of Progress Sears Quilt Contest was in Chicago. Two quilts made by Bertha Stenge were included in the 100 best quilts made in the 20th century. The Mid-western Amish quilters reside in Arthur, Illinois. There is more history originating in Illinois than this, and Illinois presented their documentation project in 1993 and other books about Illinois quilts followed.

As one of the founders of the Illinois/Iowa Study group, today Susan Wildemuth lives in southern Illinois. Her interest in quilts and research started a long time ago when she was growing up in Iowa. On Saturday mornings she took her Barbie suitcase with her notebooks, pencils, library cards, pop money, and little brother in tow to the Davenport Public Library in Davenport, Iowa to set about finding out the answers to her many questions as she was a very inquisitive girl- a researcher in the making!

Hand piecing and quilting came into her life in 1985. After the first class, her oil paints retired to the “things I’ll never do again” shelf in the basement, and quilt making became a permanent part of her life. Sue shares, “it just felt right.” Her interest in Quilt history came later after attending an Illinois Quilt Research Project Day at Bishop Hill, Illinois.

Thanks to her neighbor Betty Angus, who gave Sue all of her mothers quilt paper items, this then twenty-something quilt maker fell in love with and began collecting vintage quilt ephemera. It should be noted that Sue turned down stacks of vintage 1920s and 1930s fabric in mint condition, but reports she has recovered from that brain malfunction and now never meets a yard or fat quarter of fabric she can’t find a use for.

Susan Wildemuth is a city-raised Iowa native who has lived most of her adult life in Illinois on a grain farm near Geneseo with her husband, son, and an assortment of dogs. She considers herself a writer and researcher who loves quilt history and so a web site seemed like a perfect fit for a soft-spoken soul with an inquisitive nature

Sue developed this website for several reasons-

1. To encourage Illinois Quilt History Research
2. To document and save the history of the “everyday Joes and Josephines,” individuals who did or didn’t make the papers, but went about the business of creating quilts that have an Illinois connection.
3. To give people a forum to share Illinois Quilt History stories.
4. To provide tips to people doing research in the State of Illinois
5. As a collector of quilt ephemera, Sue wants to introduce or re-introduce this artful and educational collectible to others.

Not only is her website pretty, informative and easy to understand by any quilt researcher, beginner to accomplished, but it fills a need (gaping hole) in our field's efforts to grow in understanding and documenting a region's quilt history. Just think if every state had a website such as this, with links and recommended places to search for information from a distance, how much more we could accomplish in a shorter period of time. It's a brilliant idea whose time has come. It's the next step in developing our field and building our resources with the general public as the end user.

Check out Sue's website http://www.illinoisquilthistory.com/ Put her on your links page if you have a website that would coordinate with hers and let us know what you think by posting a comment here or to Sue at quiltingbee73@yahoo.com Enjoy!

As always -Piece to you and those you quilt with,
Kim

Living with the Amish

Oprah's Inspiration page -- A Thought on Lessons Learned

"Listening to the whispers of my soul really stretched my heart, and I had more to give to my husband."
— Sue Bender, who took a retreat from her marriage to live with the Amish

If you have not read Sue Bender's book about her experience living with an Amish family, it's a lovely read. The title says it all Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish

"Modern-day career woman and homemaker Bender tells of the compulsion--for Amish dolls and quilts that seemed to evoke a simpler life--that took her from New York State to Iowa and Ohio, where she lived with sympathetic Amish families and began the journey of self-discovery here described." Publisher's Weekly

I read it in the 1990s when I was hectically working as a psychologist, but made time each month to meet with my quilt guild. I was collecting quilts by then and this was where I found my relaxation and exercise- shopping is hard work you know, all that walking and stooping down to pick up a wad of cloth from the corner of an antique shop. So often at that time, quilts were unappreciated and just heaped somewhere. Ah, the good ole days.

Anyway, the point is, I related to the author as I imagine many of you reading this will. Her book is about her experience inside of herself resulting from her experiences living with the Amish. I found reading the book to be an opportunity to relax, as it was a relaxing read, not difficult or mentally demanding. When I wanted to take a break from my busy life, I could ponder what Bender's writing was about. From this perspective I eventually rearranged some things in my mind and in my life, so to increase my joy of what life was bringing me.

Since then Bender has written a journal to guide you on your personal journey to your self based on Plain and Simple. Next she wrote the book, In Everyday Sacred: A Woman's Journey Home telling us how she applied the Amish experience to her demanding life when she returned home.

In a review "Bender speaks to our longing to make each day truly count. She chronicles her struggle to bring the joyful wisdom and simplicity she experienced in her sojourn with the Amish back to her hectic, too-much-to-do days at home. Bender discovers for herself, and in the process shows us, that small miracles can be found everywhere in our homes, in our daily activities and, hardest to see, in ourselves." And she wrote a reader's Journal to accompany this book too.

Nancy Crow

I think quilt artist Nancy Crow would wholeheartedly agree with Julia Cameron's words "For many of us, our artists [within our self] have been waiting to speak with us for years....We are spiritual beings and when our spirit grows larger, so must we. There will be no comfortable resting in yesterday's definition of ourselves." WALKING IN THIS WORLD.

Nancy's new book is; CROSSROADS Constructions, Markings and Structures. It is a beautiful book showcasing her latest work showing 25 new quilts, never before seen outside Nancy's studio. This is actually a catalog for a 2008 exhibit which will continue to move about the country. Nancy works in series, and this book covers three series. All of the quilts were created over a two-year span and mark a new direction in Nancy's work, including her experimentation with screen- printing and direct-to-fabric blocking. The quilts are shown in incredible detail. Work-in-progress shots taken inside Nancy's studio, along with excerpts from her private sketchbooks provide unique insight into the life and work of this incredible artist. It was this that I most liked about her 2007 book, NANCY CROW. CROSSROADS cost less than half as much at $22.95, as that one but the photography is just as beautiful and the impact is too. This book shows quilts that are completely different from her earlier quilts, and the other book is a retrospective.

Piece,
Kim