Welcome to Ann Quilts
I've got a new quilt repair video up on YouTube! This one looks at an Improved 9-Patch brought to me for repair by my friend Pat.
(You'll find a few other videos there, as well as an interview with me on the Just Wanna Quilt podcast.)
It's a lovely quilt, in both design and stitchery skills. The video highlights the decision process I went through in picking the patching fabrics.
Here's one of my favorite summer dresses. It's so bright and cheery!
A week or so ago, I had it on, glanced down, and noticed two little stained spots. Oh no! I soaked and rubbed a bit, to no avail. Oh no, again!
So, there was nothing for it but to head on over to visible mending and find a way to cover up the stains. Since the stains are so perfectly the same size and shape as the flowers, it didn't take long for me to decide to add a couple of new flowers and leaves.
I fell in love with this quilt while rebinding it and patching a few torn pieces.
It's a great set of blocks, each one different, totally fun.
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!
Back in August 2017, my husband and I traveled to Paducah, KY. The city shared the happy coincidence of being the home of the National Quilt Museum and also being located, not only in the path of totality for a solar eclipse, but also at the point of longest totality. Perfect!
Soon after, I posted the story of the journey and the marvels of viewing a total eclipse.
And now, quite a few years later, I've completed a quilt to commemorate the magic and beauty of the eclipse.
The category "Hawaiian quilt" probably conjures up the well-known style of quilt developed in Hawaii. These quilts use two large pieces of solid-color fabric. One piece is folded like a paper snowflake, cut in an intricate botanical pattern, carefully unfolded onto the base fabric, and appliquéd down. Then, it is quilted in parallel lines that echo the shapes of the appliqué.
This quilt was made in Hawaii, as the machine embroidered label tells us, but varies from this famous design style.
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.
