Ann Quilts

Peter Pan

2012-03-11T13:28:00.000-05:00

I have been working on child-size redwork quilt. The blocks are scenes from Peter Pan, so it's a very sweet quilt.

The red sashing fabric is a much lighter weight fabric than the white squares, and has split open in several places. I found an absolutely perfect match for the slightly faded turkey red color at Reproduction Fabrics (www.reproductionfabrics.com). It was so perfect, that I bought a bunch of it. And I mean a bunch. With any luck, I've got enough to repair any such quilt for years and years to come.

Here's the "before" picture, in which you can see Nana the dog, Tiger Lily, and Smee. (My daughter was Smee in a dance version of Peter Pan when she was about 12, and I've had a fondness for ol' Smee ever since.)

Here's the first piece of patch pinned on.

Here are the completed sashing patches.

How to re-create the ties posed a bit of a problem. They quilt was tied with a wool yarn, which over the years and after probably being washed several times, had kind of felted themselves into little nobbins of wool. I attempted to make puffy-looking ties, practicing on a bit of the red fabric. One idea was to make a double bow and clip the ends. All my attempts ended up looking more like snowflakes than nobbins.

At some point, I said to myself, "Foo, these look like snowflakes, but they should look like big ol' knots." Ah ha!! So I tried making big knots. I took a stitch through the quilt......

tied a French knot, using both ends of the yarn for lots of puffiness, and to secure both ends......

put the needle through to the back........

ran the yarn ends into the batting..........

and, voilá, a big French knot that, even though constructed very differently, reads pretty much the same as the felted yarn ties.

And here's the final look of that area.

And here's poor Mr. Darling, asleep in the doghouse.

And the entire quilt:

Crazy Repairs

2012-03-09T00:20:00.000-06:00

Repairing crazy quilts. Well. These are pretty difficult to work with, in my estimation. Hence the title of this post!

Most often, the problem is what are called "shattered" silks. This is disintegration caused by the dyes and processing that were used on the silks in the late 1800s and into the beginning of the 1900s, basically in the Victorian era. Metal salts were added, both as mordants on the darker dyes, and to add that famous silk rustle, and to make the silks heavier since they often were priced by the pound. (So you see, there have been unscrupulous businessmen around for a long, long time.)

The problem is that there is no way to reverse or stall this damage. Keeping the quilt out of the light and in even temperature and humidity can slow it down, but that is the best deal you're going to get.

Another problem is the lovely embroidery. The fabric under the embroidery can't be replaced unless the fancy stitches are removed and then re-embroidered after the patching.

The more I work on these beautiful, jewel-like quilts, the less and less I choose to do.

Here's one technique that I use. Often the damage takes out either the warp or the weft threads, leaving long, loose, parallel threads. I will couch across those to keep them from dangling off the surface of the quilt. This also protects them a bit from catching on a ring or something when the quilt is being handled. (It's always a good idea to take off your jewelry and roll up button cuffs when handling damaged old quilts.)

Here's a piece of cream fabric ready to be couched down. Choose the least obvious thread color.

Couching begins by laying a long thread perpendicular to the loose weave. In essence, take a super large stitch the width of the area. Bring the needle up alongside the stitch.

Take tiny stitches across the laid thread, working your way back up to the beginning.

Here's the finished effect.

When it comes to actual patching, here's my technique-of-choice. I never remove any embroidery. I patch only up to the edge of the stitching. From a distance, this is still usually a visual improvement, even though some tattered fabric under the embroidery is still visible upon close inspection.

The original look.

I trace the shape onto tracing paper and use that as a pattern to cut the patch fabric. I trace the actual edge of the fabric shape, not considering the embroidery at all.

Here's the patch pinned on.

I carefully, very very carefully, trim the patch to fit within the embroidery, with a narrow turn-under allowance. Lift the edge of the patch and keep a finger on the tip of the scissors underneath the patch at all times, to keep it from catching onto an embroidery thread. And here's the completed patch.

Here's another example.

And now it's time to enjoy the wonderful collection of fabrics in this quilt.

Here's my absolute favorite brocade:

And one of the sweet little embroideries:

The backing fabric on this quilt is particularly lovely, I think.

There's a tiny little crinkle texture in the lighter colored stripes. The stripes are about 1/4" wide.

Crazy, yes, but still beautiful.

Grandma's Nine-Patch

2012-02-28T21:49:00.000-06:00

I'm writing about this quilt to illustrate that point that all quilts can be loved and be very important. This quilt, which came to me for repair, is what's often called a "utility quilt". That means, it's a quilt that was made from available scraps and made for use and warmth. A utility quilt is considered the other end of the spectrum from a "museum-quality quilt". A utility quilt usually isn't described in terms of spectacular design or workmanship. On top of that, this quilt was in pretty bad shape, open seams plus loads of missing fabric and loads of missing batting, especially from the red gingham fabrics on the reverse and around the edges.

The special thing about this quilt is that it is owned by the grandson of the maker. So even though its market value doesn't make investing in the repair a "sound" financial decision, the quilt does have tons of emotional value.

Sadly, I got so involved in looking for fabrics, that I absent-mindedly forgot to take pictures before I started the sewing. But I wanted to post about it anyhow, so here are the pictures of the completed quilt.

The quilt had been repaired before along one edge, with a turquoise print. What I did was to baste in lots of batting to the center and many of the edges, and then patch. I had a hunk of vintage red gingham, which was nice to use because it's cotton and not a blend like today's ginghams. It was a different size check, but I decided to use it on the basis of the fiber content. I also used a vintage print on some of the border areas - not at all a match, but it worked into the look and feel of the other fabrics quite nicely. I also used a bit of an old pyjama pants that I picked up at an estate sale at some point.

I think it was made in the late 1960s, with several fabrics dating in the 1950s. So now it's about 50 years old. Sure, it still has weak fabrics, but it once again can be handled and enjoyed. The repairs not only make it look whole again, but also stabilize and support the remaining original fabrics.

The Tapesty, Final Edition

2012-02-14T13:07:00.000-06:00

I re-visited the tapestry this past weekend. It has been hung back on its wall, and I assume is enjoying its view of the beautifully remodeled sanctuary, and enjoying the music of the grand new organ. And all the while, the congregation gets to enjoy having its intricate beauty on view once again.

And here it is, the whole thing, full on. Seeing it close up, lying on the tables while working on it was surely impressive, but being able to appreciate the design in its entirety.... Well, see for yourself:

Textile Stories

2012-02-05T16:25:00.024-06:00

A train of thoughts prompted by comments about my tapestry adventure:

Wouldn't be great if these wonderful textile elders could sit around the hearth and tell us their stories! Just imagine the places a 500-year-old tapestry has been, and the hands that have touched it and taken care of it.

While I was working on it, I was musing about the people who made this piece, and how they had no idea, of course, what the world it now lives in is like. Just look at their clothes for starters! What would any of them think of me bending over it and sewing, wearing jeans and a baggy purple sweater, no hat on my head!

Oh, and let's not forget that the tapestry found its way to the New World, then just a fuzzy concept of a wild, unexplored land, now full of tall cities and iPods, and people who speak an English nearly as different from the English of that time as any truly foreign language. (Here's a cool history of our language, including the Great English Vowel Shift (!), which was in flux right around the time that this tapestry was made on the continent.)

And I was also musing about how things will turn out for some object that is being made today that ends up being restored by someone in 2512. Whatever will the world be like then???

Whenever someone brings me a family quilt for repair, I always suggest that they write down the history of the quilt and quiltmaker - the ancestor's name, where she was living and what her life was like at the time she made the quilt, how it came to them, etc. They can keep the information, with a photo of the quilt attached, with their other important papers. It's a start at least, and might inspire future owners to continue the process.

This goes for any quilt at all, not just something so spectacular than a museum would be panting to own it. We don't have any idea whether anyone then thought this tapestry was finer or more worthy than any other. And here it is, still giving lots of joy. So don't discount your grandmother's plain old quilt. If it happens to be the one that's well-cared for and survives through the generations, it'll be just as much a marvel as this tapestry.

Door Within a Door

2012-02-05T16:21:00.000-06:00

Here's a fun little side story from my tapestry trip to Milwaukee.

We stayed at the Knickerbocker Hotel. It was built in the late 1920's as a residential hotel. They had a mini-town square on the first floor, including shops, a beauty salon, and a grocery store. (I always read all the little booklets in hotel rooms.)

Have any of you ever seen a door like this one? Here it is closed.

Here is the door-within-a-door, open.

Here's the informative sticker, explaining how the door works.

And here's the hallway view. You can see the two locks.

This surely is a nostalgic peek into a past era! If you look back at the open door photo above, you can see, on the left, a little sleeve holder so nothing gets caught or stuck during the closings and openings. So thoughtful and secure!

.... and now for something completely different

2012-02-03T12:13:00.000-06:00

Networking is great. A year or so ago, my art quilter friend Pat Kroth electronically introduced me to her textile conservation friend Patricia Ewer, just because. And it turned into a wonderful adventure for me.

Patricia was hired to spend a week in Milwaukee, cleaning and remounting a tapestry for St. Paul's Episcopal Church. The church had just installed a new organ and done a big remodeling job along with that. The tapestry was removed during all the construction, and so this seemed a great time to do an assessment, spiff it up, hang it according to more modern techniques, etc.

Since Patricia's usual assistant was not available for a couple of those days, she called on me. How wonderful! So I read up on tapestry construction, and then had two days of vacuuming and stitching and learning way a lot more about tapestry and about being a conservator. And we were set up in a lovely hotel with a delicious restaurant to boot!

The tapestry has been dated to the early 1500s, probably made in Belgium, which was the capital of the tapestry industry at that time. Patricia says that at least half of it, if not more, has been repaired over the centuries. That is what has kept it alive for such a long, long time. It is certainly much, much older than the quilts that come my way! Even so, Patricia talked about the colors and their effect on the longevity of the fibers, and she told the same stories I know about the old dyes in antique quilts.

Here's the tapestry ready for it's overhaul. It is 10' x 12 1/2'.

... the front

... the back

The strips on the back are part of the usual way to hang these big textiles. Tapestries, I learned, are woven from side to side, not top to bottom. This makes the design lines, especially curves and diagonals, much smoother. But because of this, the warp threads, which are stronger than the weft, go side to side, relative to the design and the hanging. So strips are stitched onto the back to give vertical support in the hanging orientation. Fascinating.

Vacuuming the tapestry was very interesting. It was soooo dirty! No one had done a thing to it for decades. I could literally see the colors brightening with every pass of the vacuum nozzle. The church was left with instructions for periodic vacuuming.

Here are some of the lovely people who inhabit this tapestry scene.

And here are some of the lovely plant and garland designs.

I helped to repair splits along the top hanging edge, and there were a few other repairs on the body of the piece. Here are my very own stitches in history, the little vertical brown ones, linking warp to warp.

After I left, and Patricia's assistant came to help, they continued the job by adding a new lining/dust cover on the back, and a velcro strip across the top. Up until now, the tapestry had been hung from a row of hooks, which does not support the top edge safely. So this was a very good step to take.

A few days later, construction workers brought in a couple of lifts and raised the tapestry back into its place on the wall.

I'll be driving through Milwaukee again in a couple of weeks, and will visit the tapestry and take some pix. Then we can all see the finished effect.

It was such a joy and honor to be able to work on this lovely old piece. And also, the church building itself is a lovely antique, and with marvelous Tiffany stained glass windows. I totally enjoyed being a textile tourist. Thanks, Pat, Patricia, and St. Paul's!

A Little Bit of Hawaii to Warm Up Your January

2012-01-12T11:43:00.000-06:00

This bright and cheery quilt was made by the owner's great-grandmother. It is tied with thread to the back, which is pieced mostly of large solid turquoise and tan rectangles, with a few more Hawaiian print pieces in the mix as well. There is no batting.

Several of the seams have ripped open over time, and been stitched back together. In most cases, there wasn't enough fabric to actually recreate the seams, so the fabrics had just been stitched to the backing. The stitching was done with white thread, and with higgledy-piggledy stitches. Some of that stitching caught the back fabric in such a way that some large puckers were created. This photo shows one of the most damaged areas (and one of the smaller puckers).

The back also had suffered some holes and rips.

The owner wanted to keep the original fabric, as the quilt holds the memory of her great-grandmother's sewing. I removed the old white stitching. I replaced it with stitches in matching colors, and was careful to work without adding puckering this time. Also, I stitched with a herringbone stitch. This puts the pull of the thread parallel to the edge of the fabric, and lessens the chance of the stitching pulling through and making the situation even worse.

I decided to patch that one green triangle, since there was so little left of it, and being a solid color, the patch did not change the look of the quilt.

Here's that area before and after:

Then, I added a new back. The owner requested purple, since that is both her and her great-grandma's favorite color.

Here's my basting frame with the new backing fabric pinned in.

Here's the quilt spread out on the new back.

The original ties were done with a double strand of black floss, so that is what I did, too.

While the quilt was in the frame, I basted around the edges to hold the layers together. After all was tied, I took the quilt out of the frame, turned in the edge of the new purple back, stitched it to the quilt, and then removed the basting.

Here's a close up of the fun stitch that the quiltmaker put around the edge of the quilt. I've never seen that before - a nice look, and so easy to do!

Holiday Treats

2011-12-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

Oftentimes, beginning quilters start with what I've heard entitled "The Pillow and Placemat Stage". I certainly did! But now, all these years later, I've really gotten away from making little quilty doo-dads, focusing more on the quilt repair and art quilt realms. But sometimes these things are still fun, and sometimes gifts are called for. So here are my holiday treats:

Last weekend, I joined a couple of other local artists in a holiday open studio sale. For that, I made two little wall quilts, each about 12" square.

These are made of wool, machine appliquéd and quilted in the same step, with a hand-done running stitch at the edge. With the blue one, I dipped into my growing button collection! Boy, was that fun!

I also made a few ornaments. The cottages are a pattern I've had forever, and don't remember where I got it. So apologies to the designer, because I think they are super adorable, and she should get full credit. They are wool, with fringed thatch roofs, felt doors and windows, and embroidered posies.

This next style is made with two cathedral window pieces put back to back, and a few more finds from the button collection. They are by far the most time consuming of the bunch.

These fun ones are patterned after Christmas ribbon candies! I found the idea at: http://icraftdaily.com/make-a-ribbon-candy-twist-ornament/

And these are made using little fabric stars and bells I found at estate sales. The spacer beads are pearls left over from the beaded wedding dress I mended this fall.

And finally - Baby gifts for a sweet 8 month old. These little balls are also made with a pattern I've had so long that I have no idea where I got it. They make great little baby toys that can be thrown, caught, or sat on without danger. They also made great pincushions for older folks.

And a size 2 vest that he'll grow into, made with a pattern published way back in 1979 by a company called Patch Press, which seems to be no longer in business. The little elephants are taken from a wrapping paper design from about the same era. The remnants of the grass fabrics used in the bog quilt also make a great African savannah. I am pleased with the two colors, so the inside of the vest looks like it's in the shade.

As you can see from all my pattern sources, I really haven't updated my collection of cute things in quite a while. The ones I like, I really like. I am loyal, I guess.

more Little Women: On Stage!

2011-12-15T13:11:00.000-06:00

Success! All those rebuilt dresses, altered suit jackets, added sashes, replaced buttons, and redesigned hats later, the show was a great success. And, while you're at it, please enjoy the wonderful set built by Joyce and her crew.

The iconic pose of the daughters listening to Marmee read a letter from Mr. March:

Mr. March's Christmas toast, with both our casts:

From left to right: Jo, Meg, John Brooke, Laurie, Jo, Hannah, Beth on the loveseat, Amy, Marmee, Mr. Laurence, and Mr. March.

From left to right: Jo, Meg, John Brooke, Laurie, Hannah, Beth on the loveseat, Amy, Marmee, Mr. Laurence, and Mr. March.

And about double casting - yes, it gets tricky. Jo, John, Laurie, Hannah, Beth, and Amy were double cast. Our two Jo's had nearly the same measurements in both directions, and could wear the same costumes. And the Hannah dress was forgiving enough to serve both actresses. But for all the other characters, yep, separate costumes. Makes the head spin a bit.

You can see a few more production photos on my website, here. And the full set of costume portraits is here.

more Little Women: Before, After, and In-between

2011-12-13T21:12:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my first guest posting! This is Annie Guter, Thin Ice Theater's great costume re-builder. You saw lots of her work on the gowns worn in last year's "An Ideal Husband". So - take it away, Annie:

On a thrift store excursion, as this is THE place to find yards of fabric extra cheap, I came across three voluminous plus size dresses, all yoked, with enough skirt for any respectable Civil War era lass. I set to dismantling all three and then realized a before photo might be in order. Two were already too far gone for a photo but I caught Beth’s winter dress, so I think you can at least get an idea of what the float dresses looked like.

Beth’s “dress” was a khaki skirt constructed from the original plus size dress, worn over a blue check dress from our collection. We changed the buttons because pearl and gold were just too fancy for Beth. Her blue under dress had some nice basic buttons so we tried to match those. The sleeves from the khaki dress became lower sleeves added to the blue cotton under dress, and the original lace was removed from one bodice and sewn on the other. There wasn’t really enough of one piece of lace to cover the entire front so I had to hand sew several smaller pieces of lace together to get the length that was needed. (This was actually a masterpiece of hand sewing but I once again failed to get photographic proof.) I had the blue soutash trim in my stash, it was actually a remnant from an “Ideal Husband” costume purchase, and added that to the lower sleeve so they didn’t just disappear when Beth put her hands at her sides. Then just a bit of khaki trim around the neck on the little stand up collar.

Jo’s winter dress was made from a similar deep plum short-sleeved affair, and I cannibalized an old dress-up item for sleeves and trim. Jo’s summer skirt came from the third dress, a mauve nubby silk. We just added some piping here and there to better coordinate it with the blouse she wore.

Meg’s party dress started out as an 80’s bridesmaid gown that one of my sisters must have worn, and it arrived at my house when mom cleaned out her dress-up box. The dress was actually a size 11/12, and our poor little Meg struggled to fill out a size 3.

I dismantled the entire dress, recut to a better size and reassembled the bodice. After some research of skirts from the era I decided an underskirt would work, and began scavenging for material, finding an old drape in champagne with a bit of a shimmer. I did struggle with “seeing” this dress, sometimes ideas are just there in my head and I can instantly visualize a finished product. That did not happen with this dress. So when ideas don’t come easily I start sketching to help my inner eye. This is the sketch of Meg’s dress that set me on the path to the finished product.

I sliced the skirt into four parts and found it still wasn’t really full enough to lay nicely over the underskirt. So I added the ribbon trim and scrunched the edges of the over skirt to make it drape better. A ribbon sash to which more ribbon was added helped to tie it together. (no pun intended)

There were poofs, gathered bits of fabric meant to help the sleeves stand out, inside the original sleeves and I kept meaning to get them back in the sleeves of the new gown, but in the flurry of tech week some how they remained in my “to do” bag. Oops. So the sleeves drooped a bit more than they should have, but it still worked.

-------------------------------------------

Thanks, Annie!

more Little Women: Beth

2011-11-25T12:34:00.000-06:00

A Plaid Dress for Beth

For this dress, like Amy's, I also needed to make undersleeves. Also, the skirt was too short, so I lengthened it by adding a wide strip that matched the new sleeves.

I made straighter sleeves than I added to Amy's dress, and with cuffs instead of elastic at the wrist. The fabric was scrap fabric from I don't remember where. It included some sleeve-like tubes. I cut a top edge in a proper sleeve curve, and made cuffs for the bottom edges.

The waist needed both more definition and some cinching in, so I added a sash. And here's sweet Beth:

more Little Women: Amy

2011-11-22T10:30:00.000-06:00

A Sweet Dress for Amy

This dress had the odd set-up of a (worn-out) velcro closure on the front, and a (broken) zipper on the back. Let's just say, it was pretty hard to wear in its original state. I took off the old velcro and closed the front seam. I replaced the zipper in back.

Then, it came to restyling the dress more in keeping with 1860s fashion. I took off the lace. I took off the sleeve cuffs. I found a super good match in a remnant fabric.

I cut the bottom edges of the sleeves so they hang evenly without the gathering and cuffs, shortening them by about 2" at the center line of the sleeve, and angling to nothing at the underarm seam. I figured out what I wanted to do by standing in front of the mirror while wearing one sleeve (the dress is too small for me to actually put on), and playing around with the shape. There isn't enough fabric in the original sleeves to make them a totally authentic shape, but hopefully they give the general impression.

Then I made the under sleeves, using the sleeve pattern from a nightgown. They are attached to the seam allowances of the armhole. A Google image search for 1860s dresses and styles will show you many examples of the layered sleeves that were popular at this time.

I made a collar, using directions from a great book: Patterns for Costume Accessories, by Arnold Levine and Robin McGee.

I chose a round collar (the Peter Pan collar pattern which I altered to have soft corners at the front), but it needed to go over a square neckline. So it actually is tacked on where possible, mostly towards its bottom edge, with the top edge pretty much in mid-air, just closing around the actress's neck.

Here's how it looks on the inside, showing how the collar fills in the squared neckline.

I also made a new sash, and chose a little lace to edge the collar and sleeves. And, here is Amy.

more Little Women: Aunt March

2011-11-19T17:01:00.000-06:00

Here's Aunt March wearing the vintage black lace blouse discussed in a previous post.

(And yes, the actress is really just 13 years old.....)

I Never Really Did Like That Pattern

2011-11-19T13:30:00.000-06:00

My longtime friend Leigh Gaitskill used one of my quilts to illustrate a recent post on her blog. Thanks, Leigh!! Leigh is a yoga and spiritual teacher with many years of practice and healing and learning. You can read her post, about how we may have hidden the diamond heart, our central spiritual essence, at: http://bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com/2011/11/18/living-from-essence/

I Never Really Did Like That Pattern

Here's my artist statement about the quilt. Yes, it certainly has many similarities to the concepts that Leigh is describing.

"This is an abstract representation of my mother's life - her fears of a swirling, confused world, and the layers within which she protected her inner, shining star. The outer layers are nearly as dark as the world she was protecting herself from. The design for this quilt came to me as a whole, about a year after she died, thinking about her as I fell asleep. It was while working on it that I realized the symbolism involved in all the pieces. The title refers to the traditional quilt block I used, and also to the story of her life."

Details:
made in 1992
size: 48" x 48"
cotton, layered organza, lamé.
machine pieced, appliquéd, and quilted. hand quilted.

The patchwork block is Snail's Trail, a block I have never found appealing (though I do love snails). So the title of the quilt has a double meaning. The colored fabrics in the blocks are all very, very bright, but covered with layers of black organza, again giving more meaning to the theme of the quilt. Our world is full of joy that we often do not see.

The quilt has gone to many shows, and was published by the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy and Energy Medicine as cover art on their journal in 1997.

A Beaded Wedding Dress

2011-11-11T17:40:00.003-06:00

Here's a vintage dress I worked on for my friend's Etsy shop, Basya Berkman Vintage Fashions - http://www.etsy.com/shop/BasyaBerkman

This beautiful, 1940s beaded wedding dress is in nearly perfect condition, save for some snags in the net yoke. Rather than try to remove beads, replace the net, and re-bead, we decided that I should try adding new beads to cover the snags. The rolled edge neckline was a bit tattered as well, and I decided to roll it once again.

First, I added a lining of tulle to support the old netting. Here is the inside of the back yoke, with the tulle pinned in place, and basting begun.

Next, I stitched under the raw edges, so as not to poke the bride. At the shoulder seams, I made a seam, and then folded the seam allowances and stitched, to enclose the raw edges. And then along the neck edge, I rolled the old and new nettings together a couple of times until the tattered bits were enclosed.

Finding beads took a while. The woman at Tom Thumb (my great craft store) was very helpful and pulled out every white seed bead they had. I think there were about 4 or 5, and the variation in "white" was striking, with one being the clear winner.

I couldn't match the champagne rice beads, but there was a rice bead that matched the color of the satin quite nicely, and a tiny tear drop pearl that matched the original rice bead color. I decided to add some of the new beads to the satin below the yoke as well as on the netting, so the overall effect would be more consistent. Here are a few shots of my experiments with the designs I would add.

When I came to the actual sewing, I discovered quite quickly that I had nothing to mark the placement of the beads that would both draw on the netting and not potentially leave a mark on the dress. So I basted the stem lines, and added the blossoms by eye.

I remembered way, way back to an early beading experience with a wonderful woman named Lynne, who taught me Native American style beadwork. I used that technique - or my foggy memory of it! - to bead the stems.

thread on 4 beads....

stitch down into fabric after the fourth bead to place the beads...

come back up between the 2nd and 3rd beads...

put the needle through the 3rd and 4th beads...

thread on four more beads and repeat...

Here is the final look, with three new stems and some new flowers. You can also catch a glimpse of the re-rolled neckline.

And finally, I decided to add a few more flower buds to the front.

And...... here's the completed dress.... for a vintage-loving bride. I love the scalloped piping at the hip that echoes the waistline and bodice edge. Also, the bust darts aren't the usual triangle-shaped tuck. They are constructed like an inverted pleat.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85692500/vintage-40s-winter-wedding-bridal-gown

For the Record - Photographing My Quilts

2011-11-02T13:24:00.000-05:00

I photographed my marvelous bog quilt, in the hour or so between the sky clouding over and the winds and rain beginning. I get the best results by photographing outdoors in natural light. That means, I have to wait for the right weather conditions to materialize, and then be ready to drop everything else and head outdoors. I need:

1. a day that's overcast, so the lighting is diffuse (minimizing the texturing of the quilting so the design of the quilt shows well)

2. calm air (or no more than a very light breeze, for which I wait with camera ready to click until the quilt sighs itself back, flat and still, between puffs of breeze)

3. no precipitation (though I have photographed in very light snow flurries)

4. preferably, temperatures above freezing (for obvious reasons)

All this needs to happen in the couple of hours on either side of noon, so the light is brightest and clearest.

All in all, it's worth the wait. I get the truest color reproduction. I like the softer effect of the natural lighting. I can easily get as far away from the quilt as I need to. All this without investing in tons of photography equipment.

The major piece of equipment I use is our wooden fence. In fact, when we bought the house, the fence was one of the major selling points! I have a large piece of black denim that I pin, with quilters' pins, to the fence as a backdrop. Then, I pin the quilt to that. The nice thing about denim is I can choose to use the lighter, reverse side if I ever need to. Happily, whatever wrinkles it has acquired generally don't show up in the photos.

I pin the denim to the fence just by pinning straight into the wood. I pin the quilt to the denim by pinning horizontally into the back of the quilt. Lots of pins!

And the result:

For the first time ever, I had an encounter with the wildlife while photographing. A cheeky squirrel was scrabbling at the fence behind the quilt. I spoke sternly, and heard the little critter scampering away through the fall leaves. A few moments later, the squirrel was up in the maple tree scolding me. I guess the quilt and I were blocking the preferred squirrel roadway. Well, as traffic jams go, it was over pretty quickly.

It's Done!

2011-10-31T12:16:00.000-05:00

It's done! It's done! The bog quilt is all finished!

It will be hanging this coming weekend at the Fine Art of Fiber show at the Botanic Garden up in Glencoe: http://www.fineartoffiber.org/. That's what I needed, a deadline, and now it's done. Nothing like a deadline to make things happen.

In celebration of this great event, here is a tour of my rendition of the landscape and the creatures who dwell there. I am so happy!

Little Women costuming

2011-10-31T11:31:00.001-05:00

The show is coming soon! Shows are November 18-20, with a sneak peek promo at the main Evanston library on November 8. http://thinicetheater.com/

I'll be posting projects as these next couple of weeks roll along.

Vintage Black Lace blouse for Aunt March

Look at how lovely this lace is!

The blouse needed a gusset in the back to extend the size a bit. Our actress probably could have fit in, if she was wearing a corset like a proper lady. Well, we don't go that far with our costuming! I was also glad to get some of the tension of closing the blouse off of the fragile old fabrics.

I made the gusset by interfacing one side of a rectangle of fabric, folding, stitching all around, and turning, so there would be no raw edges. Here it is pinned on, outside view and .......

...... inside view.

Then the strip was hand-stitched to the blouse, longer stitches on the inside, tiny stitches on the outside. And I basted a line to indicate where the other side of the blouse should fall, a guide to moving the hook-eyes.

Here's about how it will look once the hook-eyes have been moved over onto the gusset.

Fashion Show

2011-10-10T02:45:00.002-05:00

I'll be helping my friend Rare Jule with a fashion show on Friday night. She's my friend with the Etsy shop selling vintage clothing, the one I help out / learn with by repairing things as needed. Me - at a fashion show - imagine that! This will be especially fun for the young and hip (and I'm hoping some of both will rub off on me).

There'll be vintage music to accompany the vintage clothes, representing the 1940s through the 1970s. And Julia is masterful at accessorizing with fun hats, jewelry, and shoes. (Uh-oh, did y'all catch that - the 1970s - high school and college years - that's now "vintage"..... gulp.)

We had the dress rehearsal last night. Wow. One thing I learned for sure is that fashion shows go Really Fast. Eight models, four outfits each, one for each decade. It's a non-stop flurry of buttons, zippers, earrings, hats, and hangers. There are two dressers (I'm one) and a hair and make-up person. Everything has to be totally organized backstage for the split-second changes.

Here's the scoop on the show: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=214251628638219

I've worked on several of the things that will be in the show:

closed split seams

re-beaded the bodice - a description of that process can be found here

added new buttons where none existed

replaced a few missing beads

replaced elastic on sleeves

replaced broken zipper

Here's the address of the shop where you can see the entire collection: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BasyaBerkman

So, just think of me next Friday night, dashing about in the Chicago bar scene! Or come on out, and be young and hip (ish) with me. Tee hee.

Rhombic Hexecontahedron

2011-10-01T23:01:00.002-05:00

Well, obviously there's a fair amount of math and geometry involved in quilt patterns. But what happens when an actual mathematician is also a quilter? A friend sent me a link to such a person's website. One of the things she played around with is a rhombic hexecontahedron. Yup.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/axd2/quilt/qlt28.html

A rhombic hexecontahedron seems to me very closely related to a dodecahedron. That's one of the Platonic solids, made famous (to me anyway) in the book "The Phantom Tollbooth", written by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer. This is one of my all-time top favorite books, nominally a children's book, but a great read at any age.

Both shapes have 12 faces. The dodecahedron usually has pentagonal faces, but the rhombic hexecontahedron goes one step further by using 5 diamonds to make concave and pointy-edged faces. Well, for some reason, I've always found the dodecahedron a very pleasing shape. Maybe because I like "The Phantom Tollbooth" so much. Also because it's such a fun word to say. The rhombic hexecontahedron is harder to say, but is a more graceful and interesting version of a dodecahedron. So I decided to make one, too.

One of the suggestions on the math/quilt page was to fussy cut print fabrics in each star-shaped side. (Fussy cutting means cutting the shapes precisely according to the print.) I decided to use fabrics from Jane Sassaman's great collection. Wonderful bold colors and interesting stylized designs.

http://www.janesassaman.com/Jane_Sassaman/about_jane.html

My rhombic hexecontahedron is about 6" tall. I followed the process described on that webpage: cardboard diamonds, aka rhombuses, covered with batting, covered with the fabric, then stitched together. The diamonds are almost the 60-degree diamonds used in Grandmother's Flower Garden and such quilts. But officially, they are supposed to be 63-degree diamonds, in which some of the dimensions end up in the Golden Ratio. (I couldn't possibly explain that concept, but recommend another book - "The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, The World's Most Astonishing Number" by Mario Livio. It's written for non-mathematicians, a fascinating read.) Because there are 5 diamonds, instead of 6 like a quilt would have, they automatically go concave, to just the right angle.

Such fun!!!!

Fall Theater Events

2011-09-11T14:36:00.008-05:00

Production #1:

Thin Ice Theater's fall season is on a roll.

We are hosting our first-ever benefit party this Friday evening, the 16th. This is one of many steps we are taking to expand and solidify our programs. Location and ticket and donation info is on our website.

Our fall production will be "Little Women" with the middle school age group, on November 18-20. We've begun by measuring the cast members (they do grow from one show to the next!), and next week will begin the process of selecting and fitting costume items.

We don't have much in The Lake Forest Collection that's 1860s styling. So we are brainstorming ideas of how to alter what we do have. Fitted bodices, sloping shoulders, full, full skirts, and bonnets for the ladies.

And just look at this dress! I would wear it in an instant if I owned it! (And if I lived the lifestyle to go with it.....)

Morning coats or squared off jackets for the gents. That should be a little easier to manage. (Famous last words...)

And Production #2:

Networking works, folks! I have a costume job with Tellin' Tales Theatre for their fall show at the beginning of October. Tellin' Tales has a wonderful mission statement:

"Tellin' Tales Theatre's mission is to build community through the art of storytelling. Our company gathers the stories of groups or individuals - including adults and children with disabilities - and creates theatrically innovative performances using mentoring and collaboration. Tellin' Tales is dedicated to providing a venue for bringing together diverse people. Our aim is to help our audiences and our performers recognize their commonalties and build a sense of community where none existed before."

This show, "Six Stories Up On Mt. Olympus", pairs youngsters with adult mentors to write and perform stories of facing the challenges in their young lives with the help of an ancient Greek god or goddess. I was called in to make the tunics and togas for some of the gods, plus to communicate and organize and find other costume items.

So far, I've made my lists, and lists about my lists. :-) And I've found fabrics, and made and fitted some mock-up tunics. Now I'm ready to sew. Pictures will follow as the sewing progresses.

I'm very excited to have joined Tellin' Tales. Couldn't ask for a more welcoming, warmer bunch of people.

Repair of a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt

2011-08-31T22:04:00.000-05:00

This is a 1930s Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt. This pattern was very popular in this era, and often made like this one, with a variety of pastel scrap fabrics on white.

What makes this one special is that it is owned by the woman who used it on her bed as a young girl. At that time, her mother altered the shape of the quilt to fit on her bed. Originally, it had two scalloped edges and two straight edges, bound in green. The alteration took the scallops that used to be along the edge at the top of the photo, and attached it to the green-bound edge on the right. The new top edge was turned and hemmed.

There was much wear on the quilt, and much patching needed. The owner had started the work years ago, and sent the fabrics she had found, several of them vintage. I added fabrics from my collection, both vintage and reproduction.

Here's one flower, showing 3 stages in the patching process.

Sometimes, the batting was missing, so I basted small bits of batting into the open spaces before patching.

Choosing a good fabric is always an audition process. Sometimes what works best is using the reverse of a fabric to get the faded look. I auditioned both sides of this red reproduction print, and decided pretty quickly that the right side was way too intense.

The reverse was almost too dark, but relative to the original red fabric on the far right of the photo, not too far off.

Most of the wear was towards the center of the quilt. I always imagine that's because the edges that hung down over the bed didn't suffer from being sat on. In choosing fabrics, I used some that were more strongly colored than what was left of the original fabrics, after checking to see that they were not brighter than fabrics in better condition on the edges of the quilt.

Here are in-progress and after photos of the portion of the quilt that had the most wear.

Once these decisions are made, it's just a process of sewing one hexagon after another. In the end, I patched 271 little hexagons.

Books on tape help a lot! So does downloading interesting radio shows. So do long phone conversations with friends.

Here's the completed quilt:

Then I added velcro to the long straight edge. It is now going to hang in a hallway, both because of the long, thin shape, and because it will be more protected from light damage there.

More and More Buttons

2011-08-17T01:10:00.002-05:00

I visited my friend Gloria today. In amongst the memorabilia she pulled out, she showed me her mom's button collection. And then she let me take it home!!

Gloria's mom was a fantastic seamstress. And had a button box to prove it.

I'm going to make some kind of button project for Gloria - to memorialize her mom, and to get me started figuring out what kind of art I can make with all the buttons I am acquiring. I am a happy, happy person tonight.

Here they are:

Look at these neato pink leaves with clear bubbles on them. And I love the purple ones with golden centers.

Pretty silver filigrees. Don't the center ones remind you of a fancy shortbread baking pan?

The orange ones at the top left remind me of orange slices. The ladybugs are adorable, as are the delicate floral wreaths.

Here are some one-of-a-kinds. That large gold one is sort of about the solar system, I think. Do I see a flying saucer in there, too?

I think I'm going to check out some button collecting books next time I'm at the library, and start getting some idea of what these are all about. Isn't it amazing how many kinds of buttons have been, and are still being, produced?!

Back to the Bog

2011-08-10T15:05:00.000-05:00

In the home stretch now!

I've completed (I think....) the final detailing and embroidering on the bog quilt. Here's the scoop:

I did, indeed, make another kayak, so that it is long enough to extend across the border. This is the third and hopefully, hopefully final attempt at the kayak! I managed to salvage the grey bits this time, and reattach them to the new kayak body. But I did need to embroider the detailing on them again. I also, added a black cord and attachments.

My philosophy on such re-dos is this. They take some time, for sure, but the few hours they take are short compared to the whole lifetime of the quilt. Having no regrets is "priceless".

I embroidered vein lines on the water lily leaves.

I made little French knot berries. I had considered doing them with 1/8" ribbon, but it was too large.

I made cattails with a brown yarn adding the fuzzy texture of the heads.

I made arrowhead leaf plants. These, too, I attempted with ribbon, but settled on using floss in the end.

Now it is ready to quilt!

Buttons, Buttons, Buttons

2011-08-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

I've been strongly drawn to old button collections lately. At an estate sale a couple of weeks ago, I found a delightful baggie of buttons. Here are some of them, washed, and sorted.

Here's one of my favorites (5/8"):

Then, at a garage sale this weekend, I found Buttons. This must be capitalized, because of the quantity. The sale was actually a fun double garage sale, two neighbors on opposite sides of the alley, two garages full of ancient things. In amongst it all....crates full of boxes full of buttons.

I decided on one box each, yellow, red, blue, and green. I dumped them all in the sink to wash.

My darlin' daughter said - How silly looking! I want to take a picture! And I thought - Oh! Me, too! Blog!

So, y'all can thank her for reminding me that I now have a blog for such silly topics. :-)

In amongst the piles of doo-dads, I found these cool things to add to our collection of military medals.

The stars and bar are still attached to bits of garment. They are attached with a tiny screw and nut, not the simple little squeeze back that is more common on lapel pins and such. Pretty cool.

Magic Transformations

2011-08-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

Thin Ice Theater's fall 2010 production was "An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde.

This necessitated upper crust British formal wear c. 1895. My research showed that this was the era of the largest mutton chop sleeves ever seen on Earth. Plus froo-froos and lace and ribbons and feathers. Definitely a "more is more" look.

We wanted the look to be over the top. It's Oscar Wilde after all, and the theme has a lot to do with how over the top these people are, while at the same time maintaing that stiff upper lip in the face of actual Life happening to them. But we were certainly not going to make new dresses for everyone!

We went to our costume boxes (see the post "Thin Ice Theater's Costume Collection" for the story of our costume boxes), and pulled out some gowns. Most were clearly 1980s prom dresses, not exactly the same style as 1895! We considered adding mutton chop sleeves, but quickly decided it would look too odd to have all these dresses on stage with sleeves that didn't match the rest of the dress, even if we added some of the new fabric elsewhere.

So Annie suggested that we leave the mutton chop era behind, move ahead a few years on the fashion timeline, and go for an overall look without the huge sleeves. Just because we can.

Annie masterminded the transformations and many people sewed. Many of the additional fabrics were bought resale - curtains, tablecloths, and such. It's a great source for very inexpensive yardage. (And the white overskirt below used to be a plain ol' slip.) Then, lots of ribbons and trim were added to the mix. Matching hair doodads and jewelry and accessories - plus hot rollers, bobby pins, and lots of hairspray - completed the look. Here are before and after looks for some of the dresses.

The whole set of Ideal Husband costumes can be see on my website at: http://www.annquilts.com/costumes/Ideal%20Husband/Costume%20Portraits.html

Bog Quilt Update

2011-07-24T16:20:00.000-05:00

Recent developments at the bog:

My friend asked if I could make the kayak smoother. I've been interfacing everything with a super-light interfacing, just for a bit of substance in handling and to help secure the tiny tips of the shapes, but it didn't really give the charmeuse much more stiffness. This is nice for a blouse of course, but didn't help the illusion of being a fiberglass kayak. So, I took off the kayak and make another with a very heavy interfacing.

I added a bit more color to the embroidery on the turtle, and added a couple of water lily blossoms.

Next, I began playing with some ideas for borders. I don't like to put solid frames on landscape quilts, because, to me, it ruins the sense of a wide vista. On the other hand, sometimes the quilt seems to need a bit to finish it off, make it seem more complete.

Years and years and years ago, I made this quilt, called "Snowscape". It now resides in Washington state with a friend who grew up in Illinois and misses the wide open prairie.

For "Snowscape", I made a narrow "same but different" border and then a wider border of the same fabrics as in the body of the quilt. I decided to try to border the bog in a similar way.

First I tried a narrow border using the reverse of the quilt fabrics. With some being paler than others, it seemed hard to tell what was going on. Plus, my decision is somewhat constrained by the small piece of water fabric I have left, not enough to cut the narrow reversed border. I could buy some more, but the reverse is so light, I don't think I'd like the effect anyway.

Then I tried finding a solid for each that would echo the colors in the print. I think I'm liking this idea better. And so does the rest of my family. In the sky, I'm thinking of making the narrow border the same fabric as the sky itself. The border will show up just because of the seam lines. I think that's less distracting, and I can also make a case for it creating a light and airy effect.

I'm deciding between the two solid browns. I think I like the darker one on the right better. The other is a good value, but too red.

Another issue is what to do with the kayak.

I could add another piece in the border area (it's pinned on in the above photo). But what about the seam between the old and the new?

I decided right away that I don't want a narrow inner border of a different fabric cutting across the kayak. It would look very silly, plus I think having the kayak ride "over " the border would give a nice illusion of the viewer paddling into the scene. But I really don't want to remove and replace the kayak again!

I looked back at the photos, and saw that there is a cord that runs across the kayak just about where the edge of the extension fabric would be happening.

I'm considering putting on a lower piece of fabric and hiding the join with this cord. But just starting all over again again with one piece of fabric might be easier in the long run. I hope the suspense isn't going to be terrible, as you wait for my decision!

Repair of a Log Cabin Quilt

2011-07-21T14:49:00.001-05:00

I've been working on a log cabin quilt. It's maybe Mennonite, purchased in Ontario a while ago. It's not very, very old. Probably made in the mid to later part of the 1900s. (When I started quilting, that's how I referred to "The 1800s". It stills sounds so strange to me to say "The 1900s"......) The current owner uses the quilt on her bed. It's been repaired once before.

Here's the neat plaid fabric that's on the back.

Several of the darker fabrics have worn out, and many made of the lighter, brown fabaric are gone or going soon.

I gave the owner two estimates, one for just the really bad spots, and one that also includes the brown fabrics that are still mostly intact but have some splits starting. She chose to go for the full job, because she intends to keep using the quilt.

In the spaces of the missing logs, it's possible to see the funky little orange spread that was used to fill the quilt. That and the plaid on the back lead me to date the quilt c. 1960. Officially, "circa" means it could have been made 10 years either side of the given date. The plaid seems 60s to me, the orange spread could be 70s. So, what "circa" means to me is "somewhere in around there".

Here are the vintage fabrics I had on hand. The brown is a cotton, but the original fabric is probably a rayon. The thicker green wool is too thick, and the thinner one has only a few spots that are not already weak. I only had black cottons, which in a heavier weave can replace a dress-weight black wool in a pinch. (Read about storing wool fabrics here.)

I decided to go shopping to see if I could find something better, and did. I bought a dark, forest green and a black wool crepe. It's often hard to find wools light weight enough to work well in these quilts. These are still a touch thick, but not bad. I didn't find anything better for the brown. I decided to try sewing them on and see how I liked them. I liked them.

Here's the finished repair job.

And here are before and after pix of some of the repaired logs.

(The brown fabric I added comes off quite a bit yellower than the original in these photos. Yes, it is yellower, but not quite so much yellower. Some of this is because of the quality of the light when I photographed. You can seen that the blues are also a very different shade in the before and after pix. I could have spent a while in photoshop adjusting, but thought I just write simple disclaimer instead!)

About Wool Storage

2011-07-18T12:58:00.001-05:00

I've been repairing an Amish or Mennonite log cabin quilt made with many wool fabrics. The story of the quilt is here. As I pulled out my wools to find patching fabrics, I thought I'd post a bit on wool storage.

I have several piles of old wool fabrics in my stash of scraps for quilt repair. Quite a few years ago, I suffered an invasion of wool moths. Not fun!!! I dumped all my wools in the wash and a hot dryer, no matter if they would survive or not. Many did not. But neither did the moth eggs.

So now, for the survivors, I have devised this storage technique. I made bags out of some cotton flannel sheets I bought at a garage sale. That's on the assumption that the moths don't eat cotton, so it's a barrier to them.

The bags are tied at the top with a yarn bow, so they are simple to open and close.

I made little sachets filled with lavender that I stuff in the hole after I tie the top shut. Moths don't like the smell, so they don't come in through that opening. I refresh the lavender every now and then, when a sniff test tells me it's getting weaker.

It has worked so far!

I also store any quilts in my collection that have wool fabrics or wool batting similarly. Within their acid-free boxes, I wrap them in cotton and put in a few lavender sachets (with plenty of cotton between them and the quilt to protect the quilt from lavender oil).

How nice that moths are turned away by something that smells so sweet to us!

Thin Ice Theater's Costume Collection

2011-07-08T13:13:00.001-05:00

This is long. Make a cup of tea, and sit back and relax for a while.

A few years ago, we inherited a humongous set of costumes from another community/youth theater. The word "humongous" is not used lightly. It is stored in three houses in over 50 large storage bins and several closets. It includes not only the clothing, but a huge box of trims and another of feathers, quite a few prop items, and a crate of period patterns. We are forever grateful to the woman who built the collection over 25 years of theater work, and to her husband, who searched for someone to take it all and love it for her after she passed away. We do love it.

When we were invited to come see if we wanted the costumes, a few of us went, thinking we'd pick a few interesting things. I wish someone had taken a picture of our faces when we walked into the basement there, and saw the extent and the quality of the Stuff. And then, we found out there was just as much in the garage, too!

We got everyone possible to caravan back up there with vans and cars, and trucked the whole kit and kaboodle down to a rented storage compartment. Then, we spent many, many hours sorting and inventorying everything - like days and days and days worth of opening birthday presents. And then, I entered the info into a data base.

We have since added quite a few things, as each play has its own needs. But the collection is always a marvelous base of pieces to use as is, restructure, and re-embellish. Generally, well over half of what we use in any play comes from the Lake Forest Collection, as we like to call it (Lake Forest being the suburb where our wonderful donor lived).

Here are some costumes built entirely or almost entirely with items from the Lake Forest Collection:

Diary of Anne Frank - A lovely yellow gingham wrap-around dress, that needed cleaning, repair, and major alteration. The Collection has a nearly unending number of ladies' hats.

Diary of Anne Frank - This started out as a hospital smock, was shortened, buttons were added, and it ended up as Mr. Dussel's dentist smock.

Charlotte's Web - This is one of four 1960s maternity blouses. We added the band at the bottom and a narrow belt, plus a flowery hat, and this 6-year-old became a lady wearing her best outfit to the county fair.

Charlotte's Web - Mob cap plus ears, gauze tunic and harem pants, and the pinafore from a pinafore/dress set became the lamb at Zuckerman's farm.

Charlotte's Web - All we needed to add to create Mrs. Zuckerman's outfit was the belt. The dress was altered by raising the waist with a large tuck, plus other cinching in and adjusting. We do our alterations without cutting as much as possible, so we can re-alter for the next actor.

Charlotte's Web - The pants are actually knickers, but the actor here is 7, so they became baggy pants for Uncle, the huge pig.

The Man Who Came to Dinner - Here's Beverly, very suave (my absolutely favorite character in the play). The cape is velvet, satin-lined.

The Man Who Came to Dinner - Black velvet dress and hat. We added green trim and accessories to liven it up for Mrs. Dexter.

The Man Who Came to Dinner - White piqué blouse, wine velvet jacket, and black velvet pencil skirt, for the daughter, June Stanley. And even better, the black and red shoes actually fit her - how cool is that!

The Man Who Came to Dinner - Here's Mrs. Stanley in a lovely brocade satin dress.

The Man Who Came to Dinner - The Stanley's maid, Sarah. There were several maid dresses in the boxes. Several had green sequin trim, originally used in the Emerald City of Oz. They were too short for a proper 1940s maid though. So we used two dresses, cut the bottom from one skirt and added it to the other. White lace was added to hide the seam, and also replaced the sequins.

The Man Who Came to Dinner - The Collection has many men's suits, coats, fedoras, ties, and shirts. Here is Sheridan Whiteside.

As You Like It - Our "As You Like It" was costumed in 1950s styles. Here is Touchstone, looking like the clown he is, in a 1950s sort of way.

As You Like It - Here is Audrey, circle skirt and little white blouse. The saddle shoes are Annie's.

As You Like It - Rosalind's lacy wedding dress.

As You Like It - Celia's act 1 dress, in her father's mansion. This is a lovely, two-piece outfit, jacket over a sleeveless dress. Pretty much everything takes a bit or a lot of altering. But as I remember, this dress fit "like it was made for her".

Much Ado About Nothing - The Collection has a set of red-lined, black capes, that we figure were originally used in "Guys and Dolls" for the Salvation Army characters. (We have Salvation Army bonnets, too. That's the big clue.) We used them for the soldiers, and were more easily able to dress them all alike. We had a few tunics, and made a few more, plus the sashes. The sash fabric was a bedspread bought resale.

Much Ado About Nothing - We even have a few monk's robes. Here is Friar Francis. This was huge. About a mile of extra fabric had to be chunked out of the sides and underarms. This is one time we happily cut away the extra fabric. Most of our actors are young and small, plus there are still two huge robes left.

Much Ado About Nothing - Here is Leonato. The robe was probably purchased at a used costume sale at either the Lyric Opera or the Goodman Theater. The sash looks like it came from a window treatment. The beret is velvet. We added the trim. And put it over a chemise.

Much Ado About Nothing - Here is Margaret in a white chemise under a maroon dress, with a fancy belt.

Much Ado About Nothing - For Dogberry and his crew, we combined tunics (some of which had to be shortened), belts, capelets with attached huge hoods, and stocking caps that we have dubbed "smurf hats". This is Verges.

Our Town - Here is George. We turned the collar inside to leave just the band showing. The Collection includes slacks like these, newsboy caps, and suspenders.

Our Town - Emily's wedding dress needed cleaning and alteration. There are a couple of veils in the Collection, but we used this one that belongs to one of us, because it was so pretty.

Our Town - Mrs. Soames, dressed to attend Emily and George's wedding. The cape actually belongs to another outfit. The dress is not at all the right style for the era, but the cape disguises the bodice, and we added the bands at the bottom to make a calf-length dress reach the floor.

Our Town - Sam Craig, looking very dapper.

Our Town - One of the dead, who welcomes Emily to the cemetery. This lady lived in colonial times, one of the early settlers at Grover's Corners.

Servant of Two Masters - Here's Pantalone. The vest just needed a new lacing cord. The knickers are the ones you saw earlier in this post, on Uncle the pig in "Charlotte's Web".

Servant of Two Masters - Clarice. We chose this dress for her because it was a hodge-podge of decorations, striped band at the hem, purple fringe, and all. We added the satin flowers at the front hem, and put it over hoops. The dress is marked "Goodman Theater" inside.

Servant of Two Masters - Here is Beatrice, disguised as Federigo. We had to shorten the green vest a lot, and adjust the knickers. The gold sash has glued on multi-colored jewels on the ends, but we tied it so those didn't show. Love the huge hat.

Taming of the Shrew - Here are two of Petruchio's servants.

Taming of the Shrew - Here is Biondello. The shoulders of the tunic had to be made much narrower. The hat is a very heavy felt. After this photo was taken, we cut the brim back a bit so it didn't shade his face so much.

Taming of the Shrew - Here are Lucentio and his servant Tranio. We added a skirt and shoulder rolls to a shirt to make Lucentio's tunic, and replaced the white fabric and ribbon V front because the fabric was stained and disintegrating. The cape needed nearly constant repair; the fabric, a raspberry velvet, is very old and fragile. Tranio's tunic is leather. The hat is really a woman's hat with an elastic ski ear warmer added to the base. We used it previously, without the ear warmer, as Nurse Preen's hat in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". I made the wineskin with fake leather left over from recovering my dining room chairs.

Taming of the Shrew - Gremio, Hortensio, the merchant, and several other characters wore outfits purchased at Lyric Opera sales. They really made the play look fantastic. They required much mending and new elastic for all the legs. Of course. The opera wouldn't have been selling them if they were still in fine shape. Mina did most of that work.

For all these guys, we used the plainest shoes we had, and added clip-on froo-froos to hide the modern-looking laces and simultaneously add a little flair. And we put them all in tights. You can imagine how pleased they were with that!

We stitched a grey wig to Gremio's beret.

Hortensio's hat was a winter hat donated by Eileen. We added the jewel. We did not add this hair. It is attached to the actor.

The merchant's cape had an unappealing, plain elastic neck. We covered it with another of the hooded capelets (like the one worn by Verges, seen above). We used a Pilgrim style hat, took off the little silver buckle and added a red band.

Taming of the Shrew - Here is Bianca in her wedding outfit. The dress started out as a sleeveless prom dress with lace ruffles and a huge bow at the back. I took off the bow, spun the skirt around, which necessitated re-setting the side zipper, added an overskirt made from old, sheer café curtains, and added pouf sleeves made with ribbon over elastic. The cathedral hat was built by Annie from a pattern.

That's the end of the history "lesson". New plays will be happening in the fall.

All the costumes from all the plays can be seen at http://www.annquilts.com/costumes.html

If you like, you can entertain yourself by tracking some of the costume pieces from show to show. It's a mix and match kind of thing. The tailor in Shrew wears that big blue hat. Truffaldino in Servant wears Tranio's leather tunic. Gremio in Shrew wears one of the Salvation Army capes. The maid in Hands Across the Sea wears the same maid outfit. Celia wears Mrs. Zuckerman's plaid dress when she is fleeing to the forest in As You Like It. And so on. And on.

The Butler and The Maid

2011-07-02T11:30:00.002-05:00

Here's my latest estate sale needlework find. I am soooo happy! A set of two adorable appliquéd and embroidered tea towels:

I was assuming the short skirt on the maid would place them in the 1950s, even though the fabrics and color palette seem more 1940s to me. But I scouted around on google, and found a couple of 1940s ads and one tablecloth in clearly a 1940s palette that have knee-length skirted maids.

Meet James and Monique:

Costume Portraits

2011-06-30T01:13:00.000-05:00

More production photos from Four Acts / One Night can be found at:

http://www.annquilts.com/costumes/One%20Acts/Tifles%20-%20The%20Rocker.html

Costume portraits of each character are at:

http://www.annquilts.com/costumes/One%20Acts/Costume%20Portraits.html

A few stories, and examples of the teamwork involved to put on a show:

This dress came to us with a broken zipper in front and too-short sleeves. Annie restructured the whole thing: She turned it around so the new zipper was in back, put darts above the waist to fit the actress and make the look less frumpy, and opened the neckline a bit. She added lower sleeves, yoke, and sash, made from some curtain fabric bought resale, and also added the lace bib front, made from half a dresser scarf, plus some trim and buttons. A masterwork, and looks so pretty now.

This jacket had (as Patty's research showed) Viet Nam War arm patches and stripes. We took those off, and added (a splurge, but nothing else looked right) real military gold braid that Mina found at an army-navy store. It's priced by the foot, folks! Use sparingly.... The jacket was missing a couple of buttons, the whole set was replaced with buttons I bought for $2.00 a scoop at the fabric store. I made the medal and bars, totally inauthentic, but giving the right impression. We bought the pants resale, since we didn't have any black pants in the right size. They are tux pants, and the waist sliders were broken, so they had to be stitched into place to stay on him.

The medal was a doo-dad I picked up at a garage sale a year or so ago. The bars are ribbon wrapped on cardboard. I went with just blue and white ribbons, no red, yellow, green, etc., which in the real world are often used as well, because of the decision to keep the colors in this play very neutral, echoing the black and white movie look.

The sleeves of this jacket were way too short for the actress. Mina's first idea was to let them down all the way, no hem even, and cover the edge with a black braid. She decided it would look better with braid around the collar as well, so she added that. The sleeves were still too short. The blouse we'd chosen is short sleeved. So Mina came up with the idea to add false cuffs to the jacket lining, so they would look like the blouse sleeves sticking out. She found a good match of fabric. I went to the fabric store for more lace - I'd just added lace to the blouse collar and short sleeves for our previous show. Happily, the store still had more of the same lace! That's one of my favorite parts of costuming, all the tricks we get to play.

And beyond all the fun stuff, there is always lots of plain old alterations and repairs, so important and never noticed by the audience. I've decided that lots of the time, the better the costuming design and execution, the less it is noticed!

The Aloe Plant

2011-06-26T13:26:00.000-05:00

Here's the story of the bloom on my aloe plant:

May 9

May 20

May 28

June 15

today, June 26

Animals of the Bog

2011-06-25T00:28:00.003-05:00

As promised, here come the animals to populate the bog quilt.

My friend, as I said earlier, specified particular species of each animal. It wasn't hard to find photos of each via google. I also found info on each animal's size, so I could reproduce them somewhat in scale.

I put each photo into Illustrator (I imagine any program would work somewhat the same, but I'm nowheres near a computer expert). I drew a box the size I wanted the animal to be, and scaled the photo accordingly. Then I printed them out, traced each onto paper, pinned them on the quilt, and checked it out with my friend. I posted a photo of the quilt with paper animals in place in a previous post.

When the sizing was all set, I used the tracings as patterns to cut the fabrics for the basis of each animal. Again, the fabrics were all stabilized with iron-on interfacing before I cut. I stitched the animals in place, using a zig-zag with invisible thread.

Then I made another tracing, this time with details also. I basted these over the plain bodies, and embroidered through the paper, using the photos as guides for color. It works best using a stab stitch, so the needle goes exactly where I want it to go. I used a quilters pin to finish tearing the paper along the perforations made by the stitching, so I could remove the paper. Sometimes, that meant scooping under the threads where there was a solid area of color. I had to be gentle so as not to disturb the stitches too much.

Here are the critters:

The Bog Buckmoth (3/4")

Dragonfly (1")

Green Frog (1 3/4")

Eastern Painted Turtle (3 3/4")

White-tailed Deer (1 3/4" tall)

(The deer was appliquéd with a straight stitch. The zig-zag looked horrible on the ultra suede, and wasn't really necessary for fray control anyway.)

Harrier or Marsh Hawk ( 1 1/2")

(I pulled the grey cross threads out of the back wing to lighten it up. Well, it happened once by mistake, and I liked it, so I pulled out some more....)

I also added detail to the kayak.

And the overall effect so far:

Quilting in the Bog

2011-06-20T16:36:00.004-05:00

My current art quilt project is a major one. I've been working on this quilt for longer than I'd like to admit. So this rather lengthy, photo-filled post will serve to bring you up to date with an overview of the steps I've taken so far. This is a very condensed version of the process. There were many detailed decision points and adjustments along the way, of course.

A friend of mine from college days, who is a zoologist, asked me to create a quilt depicting the fen in upstate New York where she does her fieldwork. She sent me many photos that she has taken there. Here's the overview shot that became the basis for the quilt. In it, you will see three bog buckmoths, one of the creatures she studies there.

Here is a close-up of one of the little critters. They are very lovely.

I started envisioning this quilt by cutting and pasting bits from various photos to create an overall layout for the quilt. All along, my friend and I communicated about both the overall concept, and about the details she wanted to be sure I would include.

Since I'm making this for someone who knows this place and its inhabitants in great detail, the challenge is to make the quilt as close as possible to botanical and zoological realism. I started, of course, by collecting fabrics! I decided to use as a base those prints designed specifically for making landscape quilts. This would give me lots of texture and detailing without gobs of niggly appliqué or embroidery. I had a few on hand, and then scoured the internet for others that seemed to have the right colors and flora.

I added in some solid greens for the water lilies, a grey organza for highlights on the water, and, at my friend's request, a lovely turquoise silk charmeuse for the kayak in which she explores the area.

I started with the tree line in the distance, using one base fabric and then trunks and multi-colored leafy bits cut from two other fabrics. I put iron-on interfacing on all the fabrics before cutting.

Here is the final plan for the trees. I only put detail-y bits on the left-hand, closer trees, and added a darker shadow at the base of the right-hand distant trees. The other fabrics are folded and pinned in approximate positions, just to see how they'll go....

……and then the beginnings of detailed cutting and pinning into place. I am appliquéing some strips of the golden grass fabric to itself to try to mask the repeat of the print a bit. The width of the quilt is constrained by the width of the fabric. I just couldn't figure a way to piece in more width without doing something that would spoil the flat expanse effect.

In this next step, I removed some of the green bits from the grassy background. They pleased my eye alright, but on studying the photos again, I realized it was more realistic to keep that section much simpler.

My friend sent me the names of specific species of critters to add to the quilt. I found photos of them via the internet (wherever would we be without the internet - well, at the library, I guess, actually). To get them all in scale, I adjusted the sizes in Illustrator, printed them out, and made copies with tracing paper so I could see them clearly, and pinned them on. And here they are. (There's excess fabric at the bottom still. The quilt will end at the bottom of the triangle/kayak.)

Then I took the bold, for me anyway, step of actually starting to stitch things down. It's all zig-zag stitched with invisible thread. Yes, the green leaves are made with two fabrics, a lighter one peeking out over a darker one. It kind of gives the impression of light tipping the leaves, and also makes the transition from the yellow grasses just a bit more gradual.

Then I went on with adding detailing at the water's edge. Ferns, cattails, red leaves, and the prow of the kayak.

Next, water lilies and highlights on the mucky water…..

……cute little red berries……

….and the kayak and some more varieties of grassy plants. There also are some branches floating along, one of which will eventually have the turtle sitting on it.

Next step: the animals. You'll meet them in the next post.

In The Theater

2011-06-12T12:47:00.005-05:00

Our lovely show, Four Acts / One Night, has opened and closed. Here are a few backstage highlights.

Here are our dressing rooms, at a pretty well organized moment.

Here is the room again, full of actors and crew.

And here's a photo from each of the one act plays.

"Trifles"
Set around the year the play was written, 1916. The overall look we chose was drab and dark and plain, the theme being sadness and murder. (Pity our poor actors, dressed for a 0 degree New England winter, under the stage lights, on a bizarre 99 degree June day.)

Here are the actresses looking at my quilt blocks.

"The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden"
Set in the 1930s, about a family on a road trip to visit their elder, married daughter. We chose, a homey, bright, multi-colored look.

"Sorry, Wrong Number"
Another murder story, this one was written as a radio suspense drama in the 1940s. It was staged, not as the story itself, but as actors in a radio studio. No character costumes, as such, just regular old 1940s people and one diva.

And here is the complete diva outfit with those blue shoes.

"Hands Across the Sea"
A comedy about British upper crust folks being frivolous. This had to be glamorous of course. We chose to keep to a neutral color scheme to give the sense of a 1940s black and white movie.

More photos from the shows are at http://thinicetheater.com/?page_id=231.

Blue Shoes

2011-06-06T18:17:00.003-05:00

The Blue Shoes. We found these shoes for one of our actresses. They are to go with a sort of royal blue dress, and we figured we could take them somewhere to be dyed to match. Well, after much research, it seems that the only shoe dying folks will do these days is either black or –– or black.

So we did a bunch of brainstorming, and decided to decorate the shoes somehow with some of the same blue and maybe some pearls, because the hat that she'll be wearing with the dress is blue with some pearl trim, and silver lamé. The character is a diva sort, the era is the 1940s. In other words, she needs to be very well "put together".

From our Trim Box - this ribbon is an OK match for the dress, but too sheer.

So I folded it in half, and put two folded layers together, and stitched.

Yes, that looks good. The trim has to be removable, so we can use the shoes with other outfits in the future. So I decided on making a flat bow that can attach with a small clip. And I thought I could put some pearls somehow over the knot of the bow.

I woke up one morning thinking I could use a button as a base for the pearls. I found these nice, flat pearly white buttons in my button basket. Here they are with an assortment of pearls, beads, and rhinestones.

Then, I thought, maybe some beaded dangles would be nice. Here's the first attempt - some pearly seed beads with a pearl bead at the end. Well, you know, if it's invisible when standing right next to the shoes, it's going to be mighty invisible from the audience.

So I found some larger, rice grain shaped beads in the darker blue. Still adding a pearl bead at the end.

Here are all the pieces, waiting for the glue gun to heat up. I folded the ribbon into bows, and did just a bit of gathering in the center. I made three dangles for each shoe, and decided on a rhinestone in the center of each button.

Here are the finished bows, followed by the bows resting on the shoes.

Then came the question of how to clip the bows to the shoes. I went to the Sally hair place. I found silver pincurl clips (I don't know what they're really called), which were 2" long, way to long. I found 3/4" alligator clips, nicer size, but too lumpy for any kind of comfort. So I came back home. I ended up glueing a piece of felt to the back of the bows and paper-clipping them on.

Results from the first dress rehearsal today: They look great. They don't stay on reliably and hurt. So..... Mina is taking them home tonight and experimenting with both aspects.

We have tech rehearsals all week this week. Updates to follow, I am sure.

Log Cabin Blocks

2011-06-01T17:15:00.010-05:00

I am part of the Thin Ice Theater costume crew. Thin Ice is the theater program of our homeschool group. There are 4 other moms plus myself. Between us, we have a wide variety of sewing, costuming, and fashion experience, which adds up to having a plain old good time learning from each other and creating together.

Our next production is Four Acts / One Night, a set of four one-act plays. We are in the homestretch - performances will be June 9 and 10. Those of you who live nearby - show times and directions to the theater are at: http://thinicetheater.com

One of the plays is "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell. It requires some log cabin blocks, an important part of the plot actually. Well, of course, I am the person who volunteered to make them.

The play was written in 1916 and we are setting and costuming it about then. Coincidentally, I had just found these wonderful blocks dating to that same era at an estate sale.

So, I chose fabrics from my stash that recreate the same color scheme (without much red, since the play is very dark) .....

..... and made four blocks. The strips finish 1 1/2" wide, fairly large, so that the blocks are easily "readable" from the audience.

Here they are, pretending to be a little quilt.....

And then, the quiltmaker in the story runs into some problems in her life. To be more precise, she runs into the crisis that is the focal point of the whole play. And her sewing, well, her sewing skills are taken over by her strong emotions. This is the block "she" made then. It's other women, who also quilt of course, who find this block, and understand what it means.

Here it is with the others, demonstrating how badly made it is. This is hard, making a block that looks wrong, but not cartoonishyly so. This was my third try. My first tries showed that puckered seams don't make much difference from a distance, and crooked logs almost don't show up either. So this attempt was to screw up the light/dark placement, as well as sewing some odd seams and having outside corners not meet properly. On its own, and to non-quilters, it still doesn't look that bad.

Looking at it as I put this post together, I decided to get rid of the white in the center. And I figured if I introduced any puckers while doing so, all the better. I also made the outer corners a little more awkward.

All in all, I'm considering this quilt block to be the star of the play!

Hello, out there!

2011-05-30T15:48:00.002-05:00

All sorts of people have been telling me I should have a blog. So, here I am, a step further into the 21st century. Having a website has been very fun, so maybe having a blog will be fun, too. Hmmm. It's a nothing-ventured-nothing-gained moment.

The basic plan, such as it is, is to share my sewing adventures - antique quilt and vintage clothing repair, fiber art, and costuming - with additional bits and pieces about other aspects of my Life.

Current projects in progress:

– fiber art: Creating a landscape quilt for a zoologist, portraying the bog where she does her research, and the critters who live there.

– costuming: Altering and embellishing costumes for a student production of four one-act plays, to be produced June 9 and 10. http://www.thinicetheater.com

– vintage clothing: I have a handful of interesting items right now, at least one needing some extra special TLC. My most intense repair job to date was recently posted at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/BasyaBerkman

– homeschooling: My daughter, launched, just completed her sophomore year of college. My son, at home finishing his junior year of high school.

– life after homeschooling: Exploring ways to solidify and expand my various sewing interests.

As time goes by, I will post photos and tell stories and tall tales about these projects as they progress.

Here is an amazing thing. My aloe plant is blooming! For the first time ever in umpteen years of having houseplants! I had no idea they could bloom indoors.