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.

The Exact Match - One More

Just a little while ago, I wrote about how exciting it is to find an exactly matching fabric when patching vintage and antique quilts.  I told the stories of 6 times that has happened for me in nearly 40 years of repairing quilts.  

And lo and behold, number 7 just happened!  

The quilt in question is a 1930s Dresden Plate with what today is known as an ice cream cone border.  

Not only is the fabric exact, but it is a piece taken out of an old quilt and very nearly the same shape as well.  

And there is also a piece of the same print in blue on the quilt.

 

 Such fun!

 

The Exact Match

Finding just the right fabrics to restore a vintage or antique quilt can be a challenge.  The chances of The Exact Match are slim.  It's almost always about finding fabrics that blend in as unobtrusively as possible.  This is true whether using vintage or modern reproductions.

Sometimes fabrics that blend perfectly into the existing set of fabrics seem to fall into my lap, but sometimes a lengthy search ends up with settling for the better of several options.  

My restoration of this Lone Star quilt (1930s) serves as an example of the fabric search stage of quilt restoration.  I found these two potential greens at Reproduction Fabrics, my favorite source.  (I have no affiliation....)  One lacked the orange accent in the original fabric, and the other had a red accent, maybe too bright.

Double Wedding Ring Times Two

A customer sent me two Double Wedding Ring quilts made by her grandmother.  She asked if I could take pieces off of the more “loved up” quilt (great words!) and use them to restore the less damaged one.  The quilts were both totally scrappy.  Some fabrics appeared in both quilts, but not all.  This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to try that scenario! 

The owner told me:
My grandmother... used my mom's little dresses and probably her sisters' dresses also. My grandmother had 5 girls.

Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Repairs

The family story of these three quilts is at Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Story.  Here, I will descirbe the repairs that I made to them.

The two crazy quilts were made primarily of wool and flannel fabrics.  One of the crazy quilts has an embroidered date and name, as well as more and more varied embroidered details.  The crazy quilts have some fabrics in common, so it's likely that they were both made around the same time.  The log cabin is cotton and significantly older. 

The repair techniques chosen for each quilt were chosen according to the kinds of damage, the age, available fabrics, and the owner's preferences.  We had quite a few long discussions!

Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Story

I recently had the pleasure of repairing three heirloom quilts made by three generations of quilters. Two are heavy, wool and flannel crazy quilts, and the third is a cotton log cabin.  (You can read about the repairs at Three Quilts, Three Generations - The Repairs.)

Here's how the owner describes the quilts:



Preserving Our Quilt Legacy - Virtual Workshop

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 find out!  

I'm offering a virtual workshop this fall that covers quilt restoration, conservation, and preservation. 

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

You can attend the whole workshop - five Saturdays October 16 - November 13 - 3 hours per day.

Or you can attend selected lectures alá carte.

Or you can sign up for a private session with advice on mending and caring for your family heirloom quilt.  

All the details are on my website.  Email me if you have questions.  

 

 

 

 

Preserving Our Quilt Legacy - Virtual Workshop

Might I suggest a new quilt adventure for your fall?  I am teaching an in-depth workshop focusing on repairing and caring for quilts.  Here's the scoop:

The workshop covers:
• restoration
• conservation
• preservation
• identification and dating
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• philosophies
• supplies
• techniques

We will start with the basic information in my book, Preserving Our Quilt Legacy, and explore the topics in more detail and with hands-on experience:
• lectures
• discussions
• "triage" sessions for students' quilts
• a library of how-to videos teaching stitches and repair processes
• specialty sessions (including how to run a quilt repair business and yoga for tired hands and shoulders)

Sewists, appraisers, and collectors - quilt lovers of all sorts - will all find useful information here.  

There is a maximum of 15 students, so everyone will have time for individual attention, and we'll have several Q&A periods.

 

The workshop takes place on 5 Saturdays, October 16 through November 13, 3 1/4 hours per Saturday, for a total of 16 1/4 class hours plus the set of how-to videos and other useful resources.

Class sessions will be recorded and available for students who have missed a session.  

Several of the lectures will be available separately for "alá carte" registration, as will private lessons and private triage sessions.  

I have 40 years of education gleaned from workshops, symposia, and reading, plus the experience of working with 400+ quilts.  I will be joined for some sessions by Martha Spark, who has long and deep experience with quilt restoration also.  My goal is to pass this knowledge on, and keep more quilt history alive.

Full description and registration can be found on my website:
https://www.annquilts.com/POQL_Workshop.html

Email me with any questions you may have:
annquilts@comcast.net

 

Broken Star....Mended

The color play on this quilt is spectacular!  

This turned patching some of the diamonds into one of those good news / bad news situations.  Good news: the quilt is gorgeous.  Bad news: it really, really needs the perfect patching fabrics so as to not detract from the wonderful color play.

There were just a few diamonds damaged.  So it could have been a relatively quick job, but it wasn't....

A Log Cabin Quilt with Mystery

I really fell in love with this "homey" log cabin.  It's such a cozy look - and feel, too, as the fabrics are well-loved and very soft.

Family history says it was made in Virginia for the owner's mother, at or shortly after her birth, so in 1920-22.  The fabrics support that oral history, and it's a lovely collection of fabrics from the 1920s.

The mystery is that the top row of blocks was cut off at some point, and then reattached.  You can see that the straight furrow design reverses at the top row.  The reattaching was done by simply overlapping the two raw edges and stitching several rows of machine stitching with no attempt to neaten up the rough cut.

Texas Star with a Surprise

In some ways, this cheery quilt is a typical 1930s-40s quilt.  But not all ways.  Read on....

The quilt has a favorite look of this era, a huge collection of multi-colored print scraps on a white ground.

It's a bit different in that it's not one of what I see as the top 3 scrap quilt patterns from this era - Grandmother's Flower Garden, Double Wedding Ring, or Dresden Plate.  Texas Star is not rare, but still not one of the top three.

What really makes it a one-of-a-kind, at least in my experience, is the quilting.

A Tale of Two Quilts

 

Just about three years ago, I posted about a quilt I repaired.  The great-granddaughter who brought me the quilt for repair wrote the story of the quilt and its maker, and sent photos, all of which are included in my post.  The pattern is Pointed Tile, and both the great-grandma and the great-grandpa were quite handy with all sorts of needlework and crafts. 

Christina Waldman found that post and wrote to me about a Pointed Tile top made by her grandmother that she was quilting up.

Quilts by Aunt Betty

I've recently had a lovely woman visit me with her collection of family quilts.  These two were made by her Aunt Betty.  The owner says she only met Aunt Betty a couple of times, but remembers her as a very happy women.  We both think that Betty's quilts display her spirit quite clearly!

This one is a basic LeMoyne Star block.  What I love about it is the happy mix of colors, and the way Aunt Betty played with color placement and combinations in a most enjoyable way.

Garden Paths

Here's the quilt currently on my work table:

Quite honestly, Grandmother's Flower Garden is not one of my favorite patterns.  And I do get quite a few of them coming in for repair, so I spend quite a bit of time looking at them. 

If I ever make one, which is not at all likely, it'd be like this one.  I like the addition of the tiny diamond paths between the flowers.  These hexies are about 7/8" inch on a side, and the piecing and quilting are quite nicely done.

Also, I really love this particular print.  Firstly, it's green.  And secondly it's got curvey, viney lines.  My favorite kind of print in my favorite color! 

Improved 9-Patch

I really enjoyed working on this quilt.  It's a kind of quilt that I have dubbed a "quilt-y quilt" - meaning it personifies what lots of folks think an old quilt ought to look like.  A traditional pattern, scrappy, cozy and bright.

The pattern is called Improved 9-Patch, and with all the curves and narrow points, probably not a beginner's quilt.  The stitching, both the piecing and the quilting, is very well done.

Well at any rate, when I first laid it out to study it and make an estimate, we became friends right away! On top of that, the quilt is still in the family, and the current owner shares info and photos of the maker below.

I thought I'd let this quilt illustrate making fabric selections for repairs.  I was pretty pleased with the fabrics I found.  Sometimes I'm not quite this pleased, so yes, I am showing off a bit.

That's One Magnificent Button!

For me, buttons are just about the coolest things in the world.  I am constantly amazed by how many kinds of buttons people have managed to design and produce over the course of time.  Absolutely amazed.

Well, this one stands out from the crowd.  This one is magnificent. 

It resides on this lovely suit.  Just one button.  Demanding all the attention.  But there's more than just this button to appreciate.

 

Treasured Family Heirloom, part 1

There are many different ways to put a value on a quilt.  Sometimes, like with this one, it's the artistry and the family history that makes it a treasure.  This poor quilt has definitely seen better days.  The silks are pretty much totally shredded.  But even so, the spirit, variety, and skill in the embroideries are notable.  Add to that a wonderful family history, and the quilt becomes something to honor and stabilize as much as possible.

It's a Wedding Dress!

------->

My daughter Katrina came to me last spring, asking me to be an advisor for a wedding dress one of her best friends had asked her to make.  Of course I would!  We have known Hannah, the bride, and her family since the grade school years. 

What ended up happening was two long and intense and super fun weekends of dress planning and construction.  And after that, a most wonderful wedding! 

Signature Presentation Quilt

This sweet quilt is as old as I am.  This somehow makes me very happy.

The block is known as Album Quilt, with a white, center rectangle just perfect for showing off a signature.  It has a clever and interesting way to finish a quilt with blocks set on point, but it sure did make the rebinding process much trickier!

Another Perfect 1930s Double Wedding Ring

The Double Wedding Ring pattern was sure popular in the 1930s!  This spring, I've had two here for repairs in the same month.  When I blogged about the first one, I called it a perfect quilt - hence the name of this post.

Both have the same characteristics, including a huge variety of pastel print scraps and great needlework.  Here they are side-by-side, so you can see how they are alike and how they differ.  I always think it's great fun to compare and contrast the design choices that make each rendition of a pattern unique.