Preserving Our Quilt Legacy - Virtual Workshop

Good news!  My Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Virtual Workshop is coming up soon.  Sessions take place on five Saturdays, Jan 28 - Feb 25 2025.  This is a rare opportunity to learn about the many aspects of restoration and conservation all in one package.  Find out more:

A full description and registration info 

An introductory video

Besides lectures and demos, you’ll receive a set of samples of tools and fabrics, access to video demos of techniques and stitches, links to other resources.  You’ll be able to show a quilt and see everyone else’s quilts and learn about how to assess what each quilt needs and how to proceed.   

Why do I like taking care of quilts?  My academic background is in anthropology, which taught me about how much meaning the objects we make and use every day can hold.  And all quilts have their story.

"Storytelling is the place where social and personal history meet."

This is a line from a lovely book I recently received, How to Write Your Personal or Family History, by Katie Funk Wiebe.  The book was written by the mother of a dear friend of mine.  She wrote many books, many of them about family and history.

One thing she stresses is how small memories and facts can build a valuable memoir.  I feel the same is true of quilts - it's not only the flashy and museum quality quilts that are worth gentle handling and care.

Every quilt cared for and saved preserves a little bit of both family history and our collective history.  It brings to life the history that is not written in textbooks.

Next Workshop is Jan-Feb 2024

Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Virtual Workshop
Introductory Video

Hi, Friends!

I'm discovering new ways to reach out and find more people who are wanting to learn about repairing caring for old quilts - so we can have more quilters "preserving history one quilt at a time".

I've just listed my big workshop on Global Teacher Connection - a great website which lists all sorts of virtual classes and lectures, and also hosts informational presentations for teachers, guild program chairs, and so on.  

My new promotional video is linked at the photo above.  Full information and registration are on my website.  Please have a look, share to your quilt-y networks, and so on.  Thanks for your on-going interest and support!  

Virtual Quilt Repair Workshop - Registration is Open!

Taking good care of antique and vintage quilts is taking good care of family, textile, and social history. It’s a wonderful journey! 

My next workshop will be held January 27 - February 24 2024, on 5 consecutive Saturdays.  All the details and registration are on my website.  If you have questions, contact me here or at annquilts@comcast.net. 

Restoration

Conservation

Preservation

Philosophy

 

Techniques

Supplies 

Each student can present one (or two if time allows) quilts for discussion of how, when, and why to use the various supplies and techniques. All eras and styles are welcome.  This will be our own mini quilt show, with lots of interesting history to discuss!

I have 40 years of experience to share. The workshop is appropriate for quilters, appraisers, collectors, and the keepers of family heirlooms. I'll guess some of you belong to several of those categories at once!

 

Virtual Quilt Repair Workshop - Registration is Open!

Taking good care of antique and vintage quilts is taking good care of family, textile, and social history. It’s a wonderful journey! 

Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Virtual Workshop

My next workshop will be held January 27 - February 24 2024, on 5 consecutive Saturdays.  All the details and registration are on my website. 

We will cover many aspects of the process.  Restoration, conservation, and preservation.  Finding patching fabrics, which includes gaining knowledge of the history of fabric printing and dyeing.  Learning about needles, threads, and other tools of the trade.  Learning stitches and tips for well-sewn patches.  Learning how to choose what and how much to do, including when to repair and when not to.

Each student can present one (or two if time allows) quilts for discussion of how, when, and why to use the various supplies and techniques. All eras and styles are welcome.  This will be our own mini quilt show, with lots of interesting history to discuss.

I have 40 years of experience to share. The workshop is appropriate for quilters, appraisers, collectors, and the keepers of family heirlooms. I'll guess some of you belong to several of those categories at once!

Please comment here or email me if you have questions!

 

Quilt Repair Tidbits #4

Quilt Repair Tidbits.  The next (somewhat) weekly installment of quilt repair tidbits and photos.

This week’s tidbit:  A hand-me-down set of vintage/antique Mosaic/Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks.

I’ll be teaching a virtual quilt care and repair workshop in winter 2024.  One thing I’ll be talking about is learning how to tell the age of the fabrics in old quilts.  These blocks have a secret key to their age. 

All the info about the workshop is on my website.  And you can email me to be added to the interest list for notification when registration opens.

So, about the blocks.  The fabrics in the center date to the third quarter of the 1800s.  The outer ring, though, was mysterious.  The print reminds me of a maternity dress I made in 1990, nothing like  the 1860s-70s prints. 

The blocks were English paper pieced, and the outer ring still includes the paper hexagons.  Many of them were cut from a newspaper.  There are papers that give fun glimpses of life at the time those hexies were pieced (my mother adored Maurice Chevalier), and place the blocks, at least the final ring, in Chicago.  Also, notice the tiny and neat whip stitches that join the hexies.

Several of the papers, like this one, refer to events in 1932, which handily dates the curious outer ring.

And the fabrics!  Glorious!  The delicate etching of the prints.  The pairing of tomato soup red with a greyed medium blue.

You can see lots more photos of these blocks on my blog.

So these blocks have had two phases of construction over the course of the last 150 years or so, and still no one has joined them together.  (And I think that the outer print looks still more modern than what newspapers are telling me!)

Quilt Repair Tidbits #3

The next post of fun quilt repair moments. 

This week:  a prize-winning family heirloom quilt.  Check out the design and sewing skills, about as perfect as a quilt can get.

I hope this beauty will inspire you to join in the virtual quilt repair and care workshop that I will be teaching in winter 2024.  All the info is on my website.  Email to be added to the mailing list for notification when registration opens.

The workshop will cover restoration and conservation supplies and techniques and how to choose which to use, and also, fabric history, and preservation concepts like storage and cleaning.  Everyone will get to show a quilt or two and we’ll discuss how to proceed with their care.

The marvelous appliqué.

 The marvelous quilting. The feather wreath echoes the appliqué.

Look at the border with alternating flower designs!

How many stitches per inch?!  Beautifully made!

There were a few areas of worn fabric.  Since the owner was planning to continue storing the quilt, we decided against doing any stitching into the weakened fabrics and left it as is. 

I recommended storing with proper materials, especially padding the folds with acid-free tissue paper rolls, and also, periodic refolding along different lines.  These will avoid worsening the creases that have formed which could eventually lead to more fabric damage.

The Woman’s Day Sweepstakes Prize for appliqué.  Unfortunately, some of the identifying info about the venue is illegible.  Quilt likely dates to the 1930s or so. 

Kudos to this quilter of the past for honing her skills and making this graceful and wondrous quilt!

Quilt Repair Tidbits #2

The second installment of weekly quilt repair tidbits and photos.

Schoolhouse quilt, c. 1915-20

This week: a wonderful schoolhouse quilt, a lovely and unusual rendition of a favorite traditional block.  One of the benefits of working with antique and vintage quilts is that it’s like having your own up close and personal quilt show!

I hope I can inspire you to join the virtual quilt repair and care workshop I’m planning for winter 2024.  All the info is on my website.  Email  me to be added to the mailing list for notification when registration opens.  

The workshop will cover restoration and conservation supplies and techniques and how to choose which to use, and also, fabric history, and preservation concepts like storage and cleaning.  Everyone will get to show a quilt or two and we’ll discuss how to proceed with their care. 

 

The most damaged block, very ragged fabrics.  I recommended against patching (restoration) and for covering the worn fabrics with fine netting (conservation) to protect them.

This block also has the highest color contrast, which means one color of net doesn’t look equally good on both fabrics.  My assistant Pam and I agreed that patching with two colors of net will look best, light for the sky and building structure, navy for the house shapes.

So you can see why this quilt is such special fun, here’s a quilt with the traditional Schoolhouse block.

 

Quilt Repair Tidbits #1

 

The worktable.  Grandmother’s Flower Garden c. 1980

I’m starting a new little outreach project here.  A weekly tidbit and photos.  A new insight or skill?  A really cool fabric?  Who knows what it’ll be!

This week’s tidbit:  I’ve found myself ending up patching with fabrics that at first glance I was sure would look terrible.  They certainly aren’t exact matches, but end up being just right.

My underlying goal is to inspire new students for the virtual workshop I’m planning for winter 2024. All the info is on my website.  And you can email me to be added to the interest list for notification when registration opens.  

At the workshop, you’ll get to bring a quilt or two for show-and-tell and discussion of how to proceed.  You’ll learn about fabric history to have guidelines of what to look for in patching fabrics.  You’ll have access to a video collection of stitching how-to.  It’s really fun!

A block I repaired using a large floral to patch over a very geometric print. Color ended up being the important factor.

On a previous visit to my “quilt spa”, I patched this block with a fabric that looked pretty good (bottom center).  On this visit, I found I needed more of those hexies but didn’t have more of that fabric.  You can see sample fabrics pinned on during the choice process. 

The final result.  I decided to remove my prior patch and replace it with my newly found fabric.  This is exactly the same dynamic as in the second photo - color is most important.  

The moral of the story:  Try every fabric you possibly can, even things you are sure won’t work. 

Busy Days

So yes, I guess I have to admit to working on lots of things (too many?) at the same time.  Here's what ended up on my work table by the end of the day on Saturday:

Clockwise from upper left:

Across the top:  Two baggies of sheer fabrics for textile conservation.  They are soon to be pressed and cut into square swatches be included in the supplies samples kit for my upcoming workshop.  (Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Virtual Workshop)

These are mostly covering up a little quilt, nearly completed, a wedding gift.  You can see just a bit of blue sky and wood grain fabric frame.  I can’t reveal it yet, but once it’s been given, I will blog about it.

Bottom right corner:  Box of threads.

To the left of that:  Little cardboard box with more supplies for the samples kit.

Prepped supplies:  needles and pins on a piece of labeled muslin, thick threads wrapped on sticks.  My round tins of straight pins and safety pins.  Eraser.  Little basket of scraps.

Bottom left corner.  Two fabrics chosen for the current repair job.  Two papers - one with the workshop class list - one with notes taken from a very useful conversation I had on Saturday.

Left edge center.  Fabric samples that will be used in the lecture about supplies that I’ll give during the workshop.

Sundays are my no-quilt-biz days.  I made a new jar of almond butter - it's soooooo good when it's fresh.  And I did some house cleaning, far from my favorite thing to do.  But this time, somehow it seemed the right thing to do and was actually not so onerous.  I wish those moments came around more often!  I made my weekly diary, a compilation of photos taken during the week, photos of what I'm doing and any pretty or curious things that come along.  I watched videos, lounged, mused. 

Monday, I did some more workshop kits prep, this time samples of sewing threads I use.  Packed repaired quilts to send back to two customers and a box of my books going to Martha Spark who kindly offers them for sale at her lectures and workshops.  Answered quilt repair emails.  Drafted this post.  And lots of this and that.

So yes, just a few things going on at once.  Sometimes it seems too much and the logistics of it all get annoying, but then again, I just can't say no to new ideas as they come along, and I really love having quilts and quilting be the center of my life.

Ta-da!!!!

 

Virtual Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Workshop

My next virtual workshop on quilt restoration and conservation is coming up in 2023 - Saturdays from Jan 18 - Feb 23 to be precise. Here's a little holiday fun for you.

 

What do these things have to do with taking care of vintage and antique quilts?

 

Two-step greens?

https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/tap-dance" Tap Dance Vectors by Vecteezy

 

Straw needles?

Insect pins?

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Come to the workshop and find out! 

 

There will be lectures, triage sessions for participants' quilts, how-to videos, samples of repair supplies, etc., etc.

 

There are several ways to register depending on your interests and needs.

All the details are at: https://www.annquilts.com/POQL_Workshop.html

Email me if you have questions.   

 

My next workshop! ..... Winter 2023

 I've set the dates for my next Preserving Our Quilt Legacy Virtual Workshop!

 *** January 28 - February 25, 2023 ***

The sessions will be held on five consecutive Saturdays, 3.25 hours per day, via Zoom.  Various shorter "alá carte" options are also available.  

I started working with old quilts, when my love of "old things" joined up with the discovery of the wonderful world of quilts.  I have met wonderful quilt owners, historians, and restorers, and I feel I have also met wonderful quilters of the past through their quilts.  I have learned all sorts of fascinating new knowledge and had several amazing coincidental experiences.  

And now I have 40 years experience to share. 

Lectures include "How Old Is It?" 
Perks include samples of fabrics and threads used for this work. 
Activities include triage sessions for participants' quilts - find out how to put all the class information to use. 

Full info and registration are on my website.

There are several ways to register, depending on your needs. 

Come learn ”how to make your old quilts sing again!"
And they do, indeed, sing when they are loved, cared for, neatened up, and brought back to life. 

Please share this info with your quilting buddies!