Serendipity - At the Center of It All

The title of this quilt describes the inspiration and process of its design, and also a great way to approach Life.

Serendipitous - occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I've discovered that I like working on more than one quilt repair job at a time.  It keeps things more fun!  So I had fabrics for two quilts on my table and decided that I really loved the combination - a deep golden yellow and a bright magenta.

One quilt was a string quilt, a memory quilt with fabrics from a mother's blouses.  The other was a vine and ribbon design, that had been made in Hawaii.   You can see both quilt repairs in progress on this video. 

 

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. 

The Stripe that Would Not Match Anything

Do you know how there can be a project with one little glitch that ends up defining the whole process even though the project was otherwise super successful and fun?  Well, this quilt had one pesky fabric that would not "accept" anything in my stash as a fair patch.  

You see, it's actually a really fun quilt.  I date it to the 1940s or so.  I'm super fond of the color combination, especially the use of the solid orange.  I'm generally not a fan of orange, but in this case, I absolutely love the bright sparkle it gives to this happy quilt!

I discovered that the pattern (Brackman #1641) was published as Combination Star in the 1890s, and as Ornate Star in the early 1930s.  It's built like a Variable or Ohio Star with the addition of squares on point in the corners.

Here's a photo of the owner's mother, Viola, and father, taken in 1972.  Viola made this wonderful quilt.  It is now going to be gifted to her grandson. 

Well, actually, there were several fabrics that were tricky to work with.