BUCKET LIST QUILT # 4

As I try to de-stash a bit, I am pulling fabrics for about a dozen "BUCKET LIST QUILTS".  Those I still want to make. Here is the next one, Pieces of the Past in Purple. 

PIECES OF THE PAST--CIRCA 1875:

I have written about this quilt several times. To read the whole story go here: MY FAVORITE QUILTS #1  It is a reproduction of an antique top I found at a yard sale in 1988. The top was later determined by a well-known quilt historian to be from approximately 1875, hence the name, 

As a baby quilter then I thought I would hand quilt it. After studying it for a while, it was clear the fragile fabrics would not stand up to that so I reproduced it. Following the antique top, I used my least favorite color, BROWN. The quilt took all the skills I had at that time--those four-patches are "set-in", on the diagonal. Not easy by machine.

As much as I loved this quilt I knew no one would want to make it, the construction was just too difficult. So I made it again, easier this time, by replacing the four-patches with a square and adding more geese to create regular sashing that could be machine pieced. This has been a successful class for me. I named it "FIVE EASY PIECES":

Some years later I took it to a workshop with Liz Porter who assured me the large squares of what look like cotton bolls was originally PURPLE, not brown! Everyone laughed as they knew purple is my favorite color. From that moment on, it has been my intention to make the original one more time--in PURPLE this time.

PIECES OF THE PAST IN PURPLE:  The FABRIC PULL:

                                        

The antique top, now stored safely in a pillowcase, in a closet, out of light. It rarely leaves home these days:

the back showing the hand piecing

Front detail 

Front showing very worn border fabrics

The day I bought it at a yard sale I had my sons hold it for a photograph

This top is one of my greatest treasures. It has taught me a lot. Like:

1. Don't judge a book by its' cover

2. Look at the bright side of things

3. When you find a treasure, forget about the one that got away

4. Beautiful things are all around, you just have to look

5. Being in the right place at the right time is mostly luck and good fortune

6. Someday your skills will catch up to your desires

I am really eager to see this one made new and fresh, maybe looking more like it originally did Circa 1875.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

My Favorite Quilts # 1

 Pieces of the Past--Circa 1875 is one of my most favorite quilts:

Made in 1995, when I had ten years under my belt as a quiltmaker. It is 82" square. I hand quilted it and used wool batt for the first time. It is so cuddly, soft, warm and reminds me of the generations of women quiltmakers who came before me. It spends the winter on our bed as a topper, for those chilly nights when one quilt isn't enough.

THE STORY:

I moved to Alabama from Virginia in 1988 when my husband retired from the United States Marine Corps. He grew up 40 miles south of Huntsville so we came "home". I was sad to leave my small quilt guild, the Virginia Star Quilters of Fredericksburg, but knew there was a guild in Huntsville where I would be welcome. 

Less than a week after we arrived I went to a neighbor's yard sale and found an old top for $5.00. It was brown, my least favorite color. There was one other, it was blue, but a man got to it ahead of me and bought it. I chased him to his car, offered him $10 to let me have it, but he refused, saying "What's the big deal? You got one." He wouldn't have understood brown vs blue so I didn't try but I did beg him not to use it as  a drop cloth, to respect the work it represented.

I spent all day in a slump, unhappy with the top I got. Finally, I was struck on the head with the realization: I had a TREASURE and all I could think about was the one that got away. I studied the top intently and realized it was a really old quilt top.  

It is fragile so rarely leaves the house now. The border fabric is brittle and torn. It just needs to be cared for in its' current condition.

I had only been a quiltmaker for 3 years then and thought all tops had to be quilted. That was why I bought it. But I quickly realized that was not to be. It would never hold up to the stress and time it would take me to quilt it. So I decided to replicate it.

A few years after I bought the top, my guild had a program with Merikay Waldvogel. A noted quilt historian, she asked us to bring any old quilts we had and she put them in date order. There was only one small quilt she dated earlier than mine, it was circa 1865. My top is Circa 1875. 

It is a fabric treasure for those of us who love old fabrics. Hand pieced, it was well made but the fragile fabrics just haven't held up. Fortunately, it wasn't used, so it survived. It probably spent all this time packed away, waiting for the right time to quilt it. 

The large print in the original has a design I believe to be cotton bolls. In the early 1990's I found a similar fabric and immediately bought 3 yards so I could get started on my reproduction. I hand quilted it with triple diagonal lines, appropriate to the time period the top was made. And easy to mark with 1/4" tape:

Close up of the original:

One more FUNNY part to this story. After it was done, my guild had a program with Liz Porter. We were making new quilts that were meant to look old. During the lunch break I showed her my top. She looked at it closely and said "You know, this brown fabric used to be purple.". The whole room broke out laughing--she didn't get it. My FAVORITE COLOR is purple! She showed us the seam allowances on the back--the large central fabric that looks like cotton bolls was definitely purple when it was new. So this quilt top really was meant to be mine.

Now I have to replicate it one more time---I have the perfect purple fabric just waiting for this next quilt.

The most valuable lesson I learned from this quilt? Appreciate what you have, not what you don't.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Virginia Consortium of Quilters Celebration!

 As you read this, I am traveling to the Skelton 4-H Center in Wirtz, VA for Celebration! with the Virginia Consortium of Quilters aka VCQ.  Celebration! 2022

This is a Homecoming for me. When I was a "baby quilter" in the mid-late 1980's, VCQ was a brand-new statewide guild that held meetings around the state of Virginia a few times a year. The first Celebration was held at a 4-H Center in Front Royal, VA and I was thrilled to attend it.

It was my first "Retreat" as a quilter and it was amazing! To be enveloped in all things QUILT for several days, away from home and my two little boys, and to be FED 3 meals a day--what a huge treat! My passion for quiltmaking was firmly established by then and it was the beginning of my lifelong love affair with the art.

Sadly, I moved from Virginia to Alabama in 1988. BUT--quilters have built-in friends wherever they go and I was welcomed here to a large guild, the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville. Soon, I was teaching lots of classes at a local shop, Patches & Stitches. A new passion was born--sharing what I knew with those who wanted to learn too.

I returned to the second Celebration! after I had moved to Alabama--it was so good to see old friends again. It never occurred to me one day I would return again--as FACULTY. Of course, that was supposed to happen in 2020--but was postponed two years so it is happening NOW.

The workshops I am excited to teach are 5 Easy Pieces, based on an antique top I bought at a yard sale 5 days after arriving in Alabama. The first one I made is an exact replica of the original, with a LOT of Set-In Piecing. That was too hard for most students so I adapted the quilt pattern to a much easier project. 

My replica of the original, machine pieced and hand quilted by me:

The easier adaptation, machine pieced by me, hand quilted by a friend:

The antique top. This rarely comes out of deep storage but will make this trip so the students can see all these amazing old fabrics. It was dated Circa 1875 by Merikay Waldvogel, a quilt historian/author who really knows her stuff:

As you can see, the outer border is totally shot. And there are weak spots in some of the blocks. It is hand-pieced, which makes all those set-in blocks easier to do.

Silly me, as a baby quilter I thought every top was supposed to get quilted so I bought it with the plan to hand quilt it, after replacing the outer border. When I found out how old it was I decided to replicate it and preserve it in its current condition. 

There is a long, informative story about this top and the quilts it inspired. Read it HERE if you want to know the lessons we can learn from old quilts/tops.

The second workshop is Kisses + Hugs, a great scrapbuster quilt. It has the added benefit of helping quilters improve their piecing skills:

I am going to have a grand time and will have much to report, I'm sure, when I get home. 

I wonder if there will be any of my first guild members there. The VA Star Quilters of Fredericksburg, VA taught me to quilt. I often say I am so fortunate that they didn't look at my early work and say "My dear, you should find another hobby." Instead, they said "Let me show you how..."  And so began my Joyful Journey.

Let's quilt.

Barbara

ANTIQUE QUILT # 8

 I don't know much about this top I bought in 2014 probably from Cindy Diller Rennels. It's pretty wonderful in its' simplicity:

At first glance it looks totally random but when seen straight on the big yellow X is clearly visible. 

Here are a few detail shots: 

I wonder: 

Who made this?

Did she have a design wall?

Were all of these fabrics from her stash--deep as it is?

So wish I knew the Who, What, When, Where and Why of this top.

Label your tops too!

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Antique Quilts # 4

 Today I will be cleaning up from the big de-stash sale I held the last 3 days. If there are any great things left I will  offer them to you, here, on Wednesday January 19, 2022.

For a quick post, here is another antique quilt top in my collection. The block is called Economy or Garden of Eden, among other names. I bought it at International Quilt Festival in Houston some years back from Julia Kelly-Hodenius, owner of Pique. If I recall correctly, it came from Pennsylvania, my home state.

Here it is laid on the floor: 

This isn't a great full photo since it is pinned to the design wall on top of my Lifetime quilt under construction: 

Frugal patchwork: 

Love these Neon fabrics: 

Quite a design sense, very scrappy, not something  contemporary quiltmakers are likely to do: 

 

I have begun replicating this and hope to get back to it later this year:

Let's quilt.