Early 19th Century Tree of Life Quilt from a Welsh Family

Tree of Life Quilt in the collection of Jen Jones, Wales, UK

 

 

The palampore fabric was painted in India and later  made into a quilt. It comes from the Court Estate, Llanllawer in the Gwaun Valley, Pembrokeshire. It was wadded and quilted in 1810.

 

 

 

It is an exceptionally large quilt, 322cmx 225cm,  filled with lambswool. This cotton fabric was made and painted on the Coromandel Coast prior to 1800.

 

 

 

 

  Photo of the Court Estate

It was sold to Jen Jones by Liz White, daughter of Mrs Mary Lettice Mortimer Ehlers (nee Thomas) of Bristol.
Mrs. Mary Lettice Mortimer Ehlers had wanted the quilt to remain in Wales after her death. It has come to the right home.

A wide variety of wonderful Welsh stitching patterns were quilted on the palampore once it arrived in the UK, including hearts which indicate it was possibly worked for a family marriage.

The four daughters of the Thomas family were married over a period of ten years and as it has never been used, it is difficult to say for whom it was intended.

photo of Anne Thomas and her family (left)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo of Anne Mortimer Thomas (right)

In 1851 it was sent to The Great Exhibition in London. It was last exhibited in London in the 1990's, prior to being on exhibit in Wales at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre in 2010. Here you can view the exhibit. Watch for the palampore on a far wall!

 

 

Technorati Tags: Jen Jones Quilt Centre,Welsh quilts,19th century quilts,antique quilts,quilt exhibit

The Jen Jones Welsh Quilts Centre graciously sent me the following info and pictures to share on my blog. I do apologize for the delay in getting them posted. This quilt unfortunately is not on display at this time, but other quilts are in their summer exhibit, "Oh that Summer would Last Forever," showing from now to October in Wales. A stunning exhibition catalogue is available for purchase.

Jen Jones sells quilts, shawls, paisleys, blankets, books and more at her shop and on line,  check it out!

Pictures from the Red & White Quilts Extravaganza Exhibit

Wow-  the exhibit  is as amazing as the promotional material said it would be! With many thanks to my girlfriend Tracy Jamar, we have pictures from her visit. Laura G. sent some links to other slide shows and newspaper articles. Thank you Laura.

Congratulations to the AFAM, Thinc, the exhibition company and Mrs. Rose , the collector of the 651 different ed and white quilts, for a one-of-a-kind quilt experience.

From Laura G.-
I saw the show today. You can see each of the quilts up close.
It was an incredible, phenomenal, stupendous show. Something tells me we are going to see many red and white quilts in the near future. Better buy your red broadcloth before it's all gone!!!

Martha Stewart's blog = http://www.themarthablog.com/2011/03/infinite-variety-three-centuries-of-red-and-white-quilts.html

Alex Anderson's website = http://www.thequiltshow.com/ - on the main screen, look for the tab that says "Red and Whilte Quilts" it will send you to a slide show.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-110701-1.htm

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/american-folk-art-museum-presents/id427267140?mt=8 - this is a lind to the apple website, where, if you have a mobile device (e.g. iphone, ipad, or android phone), you can download the app.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/finally-mrs-rose-and-the-public-can-see-all-her-rugs/?hpw NYTimes article shows the staff of Thinc setting up the exhibit plus a few photos of whole quilts

Red and White Quilts for Sale

SEEING RED - NYC ABLAZE WITH COLOR AT THE ARMORY & AT FISHER HERITAGE
Quilt Photos and post courtesy of Laura Fisher

Fired up by the forthcoming exhibition from the American Folk Art Museum of one collector’s red and white quilts called INFINITE VARIETY, in further celebration of the color red and of quilt art, NYC American antiques dealer Laura Fisher offers a diverse collection of red and white quilts at her gallery throughout the Spring.

The color red in quilts is expressive, historic, even biblical in content. Among red and white quilts there are iterations of the two colors that can give clues to age. Earlier 19th century examples feature printed red fabrics with white, and some later 19th century quilts feature printed reds with printed white shirting cottons, as well as solid red.

Interest in antique red and white quilts runs the gamut from the bold graphic clarity of the solid red and white examples to the softer appearance of printed reds that many designers select when the small scaled prints work with fabrics based on historic printed cottons.


At the 67th Street (Park Avenue) Armory from March 25 -30 will be 650 (yup, amazing!) quilts in solid red and white literally hanging from the rafters like nothing ever seen before! Up for only a week, and FREE to the public, lovers of graphic design and of quilts are coming to town to see it and the other ongoing quilt shows at the AFAM.

The collector concentrates on solid red with solid white. Fisher is regarded in the design trade as the queen of two-color antique quilts, offering every shade with white.

Also available are antique textiles including coverlets and ticking in the same palette.






Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, from 11:00 – 4:00 or by appointment.




Red and white used alone was a mostly 19th century phenomenon, later supplanted by the solid pastels and the pastel printed cottons of the 1930s Depression era. For Fisher, when red appears in a 1930s quilt of colorful feedsack prints, it immediately catches the eye (see her current column in The Quilt Life Magazine called Feedsacks in Motion.

You can reach Laura Fisher at:
FISHER HERITAGE
305 East 61st Street,5th floor
New York, NY 10065
212/838-2596
http://www.laurafisherquilts.com/
fisherheritage@yahoo.com





 Subscribe by Email or Feed

It's the Year of the Quilt! Are You Planning your 2011 Vacation?

 HAPPY NEW YEAR to each and every one of you! Thank you for being here, for commenting, for bringing your Quilter's Spirit to my little nook of the planet. I wish you many blessings and prosperity and joy-fulled friendships and experiences in 2011.

2011 brings an extravaganza of quilts into the fold from the American Folk Art Museum collection and a private collection, which will will be on display at various locations in the city throughout the year.

Infinite Variety, Three Centuries of Red and White Quilts will cap the American Folk Art Museum's "Year of the Quilt."  It is the largest exhibit with over 650 red and white American quilts displayed at one time! They are hung four and five high, as if floating in space, in a circular fashion at the Park Avenue Armory from March 25-30, 2011.  Entrance to the this special show is free. What a gift for those who can attend.

This will be the largest quilt exhibit ever seen in the city. All of the quilts are on loan from one New York City private collection. Fifty quilts will be chosen by and donated  to AFAM's collection after the exhibition. Wow!  What a memory to have. I've seen pictures of the installation and it's not something you can describe, you've got to see it to believe it. A café, gift and book store are also in the armory which is located at 643 Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets.

Read much more about the Infinite Variety exhibit and three more major quilt exhibits from the museum's collection being offered this year including the curator's thoughts and historic perspective.

Please post your comments by clicking here http://www.quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/ if you  subscribe to my feed or  email. Just click on "comment" at the end of the post and a comment box will appear.

Subscribe by Email or Feed

American Folk Art Museum's Super Star Quilts Opened Yesterday

Stars, some of the most important elements of the natural world, are also a beloved and enduring motif in American quilts. Stars appeared in pieced bedcovers as early as the eighteenth century and remain popular with quilt artists today. The "Super Stars" exhibit illuminates one theme in the textile masterpieces from the  American Folk Art Museum's collection that is on display in the NYC 2 Lincoln Square location  from November 16 to September 25, 2011.

Stars do not make a major appearance in American quilts until the last quarter of the eighteenth century, when they were increasingly used as a pieced field motif. This was no doubt a response, at least in part, to the design of the flag of the newly formed United States. Conceived as a “new constellation,” the canton featured white five-pointed stars against a cobalt background, evoking once again the moral certitude of the heavenly canopy, as well as the strength of America’s victory. By this time, stars were also a strong element in the neoclassical lexicon. Their presence on quilts allowed the tenets of the classical world to resonate with the new republic in a highly fashionable manner.

It was not until the turn of the nineteenth century that a single eight-pointed star moved front and center in whole-cloth quilts, usually pieced in a solid-color glazed wool known as calimanco. But with the invention of the kaleidoscope in 1816, art and science took an unanticipated and dazzling turn. Quiltmakers, especially, embraced the refracted imagery produced by the kaleidoscope. Large single stars now blazed across cotton quilt tops, pieced from multitudes of diamonds that scintillated in rings from the center to the points. Staggered rows of repeated stars danced across the surfaces of bedcovers. By the Victorian era, the aspect of stars changed once again with the influence of exotic ideas from the Near East. Star motifs were interpreted for a new age in silk, velvet, and brocade show quilts.

"Super Stars" , curated by Stacy Hollander, highlights the dazzling diversity of this variable pattern as interpreted through more than one hundred years of quilt artistry. The museum has published a book of 200 of their most significant bedcovers in their collection to coincide with the exhibit. If you can't make the exhibit, get the book;  Quilts, Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum or give it as a gift.

 I have long pointed to the the museum's first quilt book, Glorious American Quilts,  as one of my  most prized books on the subject of quilt history. Beautifully written and photographed, it gives so much information helping me learn about the periods and influences on American quilt making.  I learned how to date quilts in part because of this book.

Given that the same author, Elizabeth V. Warren , and former curator of the museum, also authors their new book, it must be fabulous as we know more than we did in the early 1990s when Glorious was written (published in 1996). Also the museum has added about 100 bedcovers to its collection, including a  late 18th century patchwork quilt made with the Hewson panel in the center.  And yes,  it will also be on display for a time during their Year of the Quilt, in the Masterworks Quilts exhibits. (more on that in another blog post.)

Quilts: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum  By Elizabeth V. Warren, with a preface by Maria Ann Conelli, a foreword by Martha Stewart, and an introduction by Stacy C. Hollander. New York: Rizzoli International Publications in association with the American Folk Art Museum, 2010. 336 pages.



 Please post your comments by clicking here http://www.quiltersspirit.blogspot.com/

Subscribe by Email or Feed

Welsh Quilts on exhibit at the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Center

THE JEN JONES ELSH QUILT CENTRE 2009 exhibit photos

The Welsh Flannel geometric patchworks were the focus of the inaugural exhibition at The Jen Jones welsh Quilt Centre. They are thrilled that, at last these wonderful artifacts have become universally recognized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening March 6^th 2010

Their new exhibition, 'Unsung Heritage: The Quilts Of Wales'  will be a further revelation in terms of the enormous spectrum within the Welsh quilting tradition.

They will feature the fiery reds including red paisleys and paisley shawl quilts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alongside these will hang the contrasting and diverse cotton patchworks and whole cloths that represent a major portion of the output during the 19^th and early 20^th century.

Early Cotton patchwork Merthyr Tydfil C1840

 Email quilts@jen-jones.com

www.jen-jones.com

My thoughts:

There is joy in viewing Welsh quilts due to the simplicity of the patterns, the contrast of the fabrics and a WOW in the incredible stitched quilting patterns. Welsh quilter's seem to bring the art of quilting (stitches) to the forefront of their work and of the times.

They share quilt styles with the English, and wool contrasting concepts with the Amish, but the quilting, it stands alone, in an outstanding way from most quilts through time. Our American made whole cloth wool quilts, or  are the closest quilts I know with ornate quilting. French made quilts have stuffed quilting with ornate designs, but they mostly favored channel quilting, or straight lines and angled quilting, not the swirls that are common on Welsh and fancy wool whole cloth  quilts.

If any of you visit the exhibit, please let us know more about it. We'd love to hear. You can email me, or leave comments.

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.

Welsh Quilt collector Jen Jones is Opening A Center for Welsh Quilts in West Wales this July PLUS Updates on Former Topics

  The Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre will open in The Town Hall, Lampeter, West Wales  on July 28th 2009.

 1.Town Hall from High street (before restoration)

 

Jen Jones, the famous collector of old quilts made in Wales, is opening a center for the study and display of Welsh quilts!! (Be sure to hover your cursor over the photos on the link above to see more of gorgeous Jen's quilts.)

The first exhibition will feature quilts entirely from The Jen Jones Collection and will be representative of the entire spectrum of Welsh quilting.

The Old Courtroom on the first floor makes a fantastic exhibition space. The gallery entrance on the ground floor

2. A pink satin cotton quilt made in Cardiganshire in 1933. The central medallions surrounded by various patterns with fans predominant. Jen Jones Collection 

will house an exciting new shop featuring superb copies of some of Jen's famous geometric flannel quilts. These are being made by a women's group working through a convent in Ethiopia. The other Courtroom provides a wonderful place for classes and talks.

  3. Detail of a tailor's sample Welsh quilt with red stitching Made by Davies Brothers of  Llanelli, 1875-80 Jen Jones Collection

 

4. Lovely early Victorian Patchwork from Cilgerran Cardiganshire.

Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre
Phone 0044(0)1570 480 610
email quilts@jen-jones.com
web site www.jen-jones.com

Photograph captions, photos courtesy of Jen Jones

Updates about the Story Challenge and Ghost Hunt Tour

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

Artist's Statements at Quilt Visions exhibit- some thoughts & links to past quilts

This year I was especially interested in discovering why or by what the artist was inspired.  I much prefer it when I can see what the artist is saying she or he is making visible in the piece.

Their statements for the most part were meaningful, and added to my understanding of the purpose of the quilt for the artist (from their perspective). What the artist wrote about in their statement that she/he wanted to say or project, was visible in their wall art.

It was interesting to see how the artist made the leap from a mental cognition to the fiber visual.

There is no right or wrong of course, but sometimes I just don't get the connection. 

It seemed to me in this exhibit that their statements fit the quilt, even when one or the other was quite abstract.  So what changed I wondered, me or the artist's statements?

Here you can view http://www.quiltvisions.org/visionsarchives.html  quilts from past Visions exhibits.  2004 and 2006 show all of them.

This http://www.quiltvisions.org/v2006/v2006.html was one of my favorites in 2006, Cosmic Bicycles. Also "Primitive Door Series #30, Haunted House" was realistic looking and another favorite. Click on See All Quilts slideshow to view it.

I just came across an interesting article from an Australian magazine about a woman economist who found a connection to weaving, quilts, darning and photography. the article doesn't have pictures unfortunately, so it's a bit hard to visualize what she is referring to at times. But it fits with this post in my mind. See http://tinyurl.com/46kotc

Maybe some of my Australian friends and subscribers could post a comment on this with a link to visuals? it would be most appreciated.

I hope your Holidays are filled with love for you this season.

Piece,

Kim

Quilt Visions 2008 exhibit- Contemporary Expressions

You are so lucky!! No photography is allowed at this art quilt exhibit in Oceanside CA, but they have wonderful brochures with pictures!  I liked many of the quilts in the exhibit, but the two that took my vote (only in my mind, it's a juried exhibit) were on the brochure- yeah!

  This all fabric quilt was made by Diane Goulston Robinson, titled Facade. It was like looking through a window when I first came upon it hanging alone on a short wall. It is an incredibly accurate depiction of a building reflected in a glass building across the street.  Can you believe Diane used upholstery fabrics among many other types of fabrics?

 

My other favorite is in aqua and tan shades of layered  illusions on shear fabrics, AND upholstery fabrics, rough cut to blend in ways you hardly noticed but made perfect ground and wings. A beautiful quilt that felt delicate and powerful at the same time.

 

 

This is Red Temple by Miriam Nathan-Roberts. Looks like a wooden ceiling or furniture. All fabric. Amazing.

 

 

The top quilt photo(right) is only a small section of a raw edge 8 or 10 foot long wall hanging. I am guessing on the length, but it is very wide and less tall. BIG. Close up you see layers and layers of myriad of fabrics; stand back and a scene of friends sitting around and one playing music forms. Exquisite.

 

The second photo is also smaller than the wall art, but shows what it mostly looks like. It keeps your attention for quite awhile, as it is interesting to look at. Symmetry is no where to be found, yet you think you can find it. I also liked the colors.

 

Quilt Visions 2008 will hang at the Oceanside Museum of Art (just north of San Diego) until March 1, 2009. It is without question worth your time. There is a book if you can't make it. The quilt exhibit is every other year. For directions and hours, www.oma-online.org.

Piece,

Kim

PIQF Reproduction Quilts

Happy November everyone! It's getting to be quilting time. Yellows, golds, oranges, browns and greens fill my mind and my eyes. Fall colors are warm and inviting. Fall foods are too.

I love the taste of pumpkin anything. I am a sucker this time of year for The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf's or Starbucks Pumpkin Latte. MMMmmmm. The first one I ever tasted was in Golden CO at the AQSG conference in 2005. It was a cool and crisp day and this latte was a taste of heaven on a fun day at the Rocky Mountain Quilt museum. Do you have foods that bring a good memory with it to you?

The quilts I'll show you today are filled with Fall colors and they just so happen to be made of reproduction fabrics. One quilt is made in French reproductions and the other American reproductions. It is Stunning. She has keen sense of color use in a quilt. Wow. Margaret McDonald made it and she lives, no, not New England, but Australia.

Click on this link to see about 16 slides.

A quick note to close- this coming Thursday evening (5PM Pacific time, 7PM CST, 8 PM EST) Pat Sloan will tells us really how she balances all of the quilt business hats she wears with great success and how she keeps creativity flowing. She has written 19 books, has a P&B fabric line, her pattern company and she teaches all over the world, so how she has time is another mystery. Pat is lots of fun and full of energy. And she is courageous - as she is my first Woman On Quilts to be interviewed! Please join us on the telephone or listen through your website. There is no charge. Register here to get the log in link or phone passcode.

The next batch of pictures you'll get will be of arty and embellished quilts in the exhibit. One of the makers is going to be a Woman On Quilts in December!

May you have a happy Monday and wear a smile all day. Tuesday, get out to vote!

Kim

PIQF's Quilts Begin

Hi Everyone!

It has been a very busy and exciting time. I see no end in site and I do apologize for the delay in sharing pictures of the stunning and fascinating quilts I saw on display at Pacific International Quilt Festival earlier this month.

Starting today I'll share them with you on a more frequent basis than usual for QS. There are so many and I can't just show you one full shot- No Way! I would hear you yelling through your monitor "tease, selfish, oh come on now" and I don't want that! I want you to send me happy, upbeat, WOW thoughts of gratitude and that's what I'm sending your way too.

We'll begin with this crazy style modernized quilt of a flag. Nancy K. McLerran made it. She named it "Betsy Ross Never Imagined This." Aptly named I say. Nancy embroidered minature symbols of the America Revolutionary War such as the Liberty Bell, flag, Washington's profile...




Nancy is from from Santa Rosa, in the wine country of California.
I think she did a great job of blending new and old and older styles of quilts. Notice the reproductions indigo fabrics in the canton. Very cool quilt!

Tomorrow I'll send some more pictures. This quilt will use loads of my favorite early 19th century reproduction fabrics!

Boo! from your Patchwork Queen (tee-hee)

Happy Halloween everyone- don't get a tummy ache.

Kim

Heading north to PIQF

I am leaving early tomorrow for northern California to attend a wonderful quilt festival. They bring in quilts from all over the world, hence the name Pacific International Quilt Festival. This is a Mancuso Brother's event.

I'm taking a full day's class with Barbara Olsen about breaking out of your box and trying something new and arty. Barbara is known for her black and white spiral quilt among others. Before I return I'm teaching at guild near there about my other favorite subject- antique quilts. It's going to be a great get-away with wonderful people, who knows who I'll meet? I'll post pictures and tell you all about the event when I return next week.

Speaking of that, today I announced the first guest I'll interview on Women On Quilts. I emailed those on my VIP list and registrations are coming in. If you sign-up now you'll receive her name, topic and all the info right away. If you want to be there you'll be assured of getting a "seat." Its fr.ee. There are other benefits, besides first notice, to being on WOQ's VIP mailing list. Hope to "see" you there.

Piece,
Kim

Green Quilts

If you read these topic labels for an article "Environmental Politics, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, New Mexico, Philadelphia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Alabama, Missouri, Google Inc." would you think it was about quilts?

Here is a terrific take on recycled cloth, which starts by introducing the Gee's Bend quilt exhibit opening at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From Recycled Scraps To Museum-Quality Quilts, by Sandy Bauers for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ok, that's not really new news to quilters, but how about this?
"...clothing Swap-O-Rama-Ramas started by New Mexico's Wendy Tremayne because she "wanted to find a remedy for consumerism."

"The idea is for women to bring in old clothes, experience 'total abundance' when the stuff is piled together, then start taking things to nearby sewing machines and design experts to learn how to alter them to fit or refashion them into other clothing."

Have you ever been to such a swap or heard of them? I read articles about people remaking old or out-of-fashion cloths into trendy clothes. It's chic. And there is an upsurge in sewing one's clothes at home. No doubt Project Runway has contributed to the surge in fashion designing at home and in schools with such a degree.

I wonder if this particular swap came from this trend or from the green generation who thankfully are taking our trash seriously too. Either way, its a fun and exciting expression in the wide world of fabric lovers.

A Google search is full of info. Wendy began the swaps in 2005.Please comment below if you have personal experience with the Swap-O-Rama Ramas!

Piece,

Kim

Antique Qlt Vendors Finale!

Last but most definitely not least are two vendors whose quilts you can enjoy seeing here as they do not have internet access.

Antique Qlt Vendors Finale

Labors of Love can be found at large quilt and textile events and festivals. I saved their pictures for the Labor Day weekend. (If you believe that, I have a genuine UGRR quilt for sale...)

Cotance, owner of Scarlet Ladies Antiques, describes herself as a gypsy, traveling from shop to show to shop to show across the country.

This concludes my photo journey through the first International Quilt Festival in California.

Have a great time for the rest of your long weekend.

Piece,
Kim

More Antique Qlt Vendors

I promised you more pictures of the vendors selling gorgeous antique quilts at the Long Beach quilt show and I follow through on my promises! It seems uploading them is another story completely and each photo has to be repeated many times before it actually uploads. This is taking longer than piecing a king size quilt and I am just too busy to acquiesce.

So, as not to disappoint, I have found a way around this temporary obstacle.
If you will, click on this album

Antique Quilt Vendors

To see more of the quilts these vendors offer you, here are their websites.

Email Sandy White ~ sandywhiteAQ@adelphia.net

Cindy's Antique Quilts

Mary Koval Antique Quilts

Believe it or not- I have two more vendors to share with you! Since a holiday weekend is upon us, I will blog them to you before you can make a quilter's knot.

Be safe and have fun,
Kim

More IQF LB quilts and people

Hello everyone- I hope you are having a good August! This summer has whirled by me, one of the busiest I have had in some time. Isn't August when everyone goes on vacation and it's"dead"? Not so this year! (I go on to blab about the Olympics for awhile here, but if you scroll down you will see photos of the quilt show- promise)

Plus the Olympics have caught my attention this year, I have so enjoyed learning and seeing more about China than I ever have. I have cried so man y times watching Micheal Phelps, Shannon Johnson and Nastia, Misty May and Kerrie, and all the other people who are so superior in their sport. My heart has grown huge with happiness for them and I am regularly awed by their ability and by their handling of the challenge before them. Such wonderful role models for everyone!

I must admit that I have not watched the Olympics before, other than here and there, but this locale and Phelps' story caught my eye. Come to find out, many incredibly inspiring personal stories have been told by NBC. I am blown away by what these people have gone through in their personal life! It made me appreciate everyone of them so much more deeply.

Remember I am a clinical psychologist and have worked in many venues and heard many stories, but seldom do people rise to such levels of overcoming the challenges, although some certainly do! I don't mean in their sport, I mean in their life. They are able to keep their vision, reach their personal goals, get support, find their way, rise above feeling like the victim of their life and instead a leader of their life who dream big and make it happen in spite of the odds. I am so impressed by the Olympians' accomplishments before they get to China. I especially have enjoyed seeing how many older folks are coming back to compete and doing a great job.

I certainly don't see watching the Olympics as a tacit acceptance of communism or Chinese attitudes toward women, the environment or Tibet. As I see it, the athletes and this huge country of human beings also living on this planet, are my brothers and sisters, and knowing their ways is enhancing my life. Wasn't that Opening Ceremony something? I simply have never been so awed at a performance and I've been awed at a lot of performances, but 2008 people in unison on stage, over and over again with different sets of 2008 people in perfect unison, doing intertwined performances, on a giant led monitor- the tears were just running down my cheeks in amazement that they have this level of discipline, creativity and vision in China.

With that said, let's look at some pictures of the fabulous quilts and people I saw at the Long Beach Quilt Festival.
















These happy campers are Audrey, Dee and me.

So who are Audry and Dee, besides my long time buddies? They are the founders, planners and hostesses with the mostesses of both Quilt Camp in the Desert (Jan. in Phoenix) and Quilt Camp in the Pines (July in Flagstaff, AZ) See http://www.quiltcamp.com/ to see the teachers lined up for the July camp. It's a blast!


This was the booth for SAQA, Studio Artists Quilt Association, one of the earliest art quilt group orgs, which Yvonne Porcella began right here in California.Artists in the Photo from left- Jeanette Kelly, Cathy Gregory, Linda Miller, and Karen Lusnak.

I would show you photos of SAQA's quilts on exhibit here, but no photography was allowed. These are incredible quilts though, many presented in a series, and many were for sale and marked sold on the very first day.

when I took a time out to hear Yvonne Porcella teach for a half hour (and describe her new magazine coming out this fall!)I was oohing and ahhing in unison with the woman sitting behind me, so I turned around to talk during the break, to see the kindred spirit. Turns out it was Peggy Martin, the Strip Paper Piecing Queen!


A funny coincidence happened (there are no coincidences in my opin)I had just ordered a DVD of Peggy's book from C&T for reviewing. It won't be out until November darn it, but it was on my mind and then there she was! We had a great talk and I look forward to watching her teach even more now.

More to come from the Long Beach show, but this is it for now. Piece to you and those you quilt with!

Kim