Oh, My (Radial) Stars! Thirty-six of them, actually...

A customer brought a quilt into the studio recently wanting freehand/custom-work done on her Radial Star Quilt.  Taking three years to finish all thirty-six of these beauties, I almost felt guilty telling her it would take about 4-6 weeks to quilt it - and only because there were a couple people in the queue ahead of her, otherwise it would've been finished earlier.

She was thrilled I could get it done so quickly.  Actually, it takes a LOT of time for design interpretation and implementation on either freehand, custom or heirloom quilting...

...Sometimes many design hours are needed before the quilting process even begins.  What's my favorite part?  I guess I'd have to say that seeing the design come to life on the quilt, right along with the happy expression of the customer when she sees the finished product.

This being said, I must pose a question to quilters: is it your goal to work for weeks or months on a project and then hang it in your closet, unfinished, unseen and unappreciated?  Or is it to get a project done and gloriously move on to the next one?  My suggestion is once you've finished piecing a quilt top, get 'em quilted so you can gift them or use them!  If you aren't in a hurry, then tie, hand quilt or machine quilt your smaller projects on your domestic machine.  But for those times you want a quilt completed quickly and professionally, hire a longarmer.  This is exactly what the longarm industry was designed to do; to help you move onto the next tantalizing project while your quilter works on your last one.

A reasonable goal to get a quilt top longarm-quilted and finished would be within 1-4 months of piecing.  Budget ahead of time not only for the fabric, but for the quilting.  You can click on my Quilting Services page to get an idea of the charges.  

Clean out the quilt closet, one at a time, and let's enjoy these quilted treasures!

Turning Down the Quilt

How well I remember the days when visiting my grandmother.  At the end of a busy day I would always find the bed turned down, just so.  The freshly laundered and line-dried sheets and pillowcases would not have a wrinkle in them.  It wasn't until many years later I learned that she had painstakingly ironed them.  (Don't look too close here, you will find wrinkles!)  

Time seemed to tick slower then.  In fact, even the sound of time pleasantly resonated through the hardwoods of a Mantle or Grandfather Clock nearby.

And the quilts!  I don't remember the patterns, but I remember the cheery colors and the smell of their being hung on the line.

Isn't it amazing how kind acts of service can be so influential?  Today I try to recapture those feelings in the quilts I make and give others, especially to my family.  

I have both of my guest rooms ready to provide comfort for visitors. Pillowcases, quilts and even a Mantle Clock can be found.  It's just something I've learned through the loving hands of a grandmother, decades ago.

But of late, this is the only interested guest I've had...  

The Black Ear-tufted Squirrel is indigenous to ponderosa pine forests, and we've got plenty here in Black Forest.  He not only lodges in them, but relies on them for a food source.  Well, today he's getting a bit of amendment to his pine diet by eating the birdseed falling from a bird feeder overhead. 

The quilt featured in this post is one I've had hanging in my closet, unfinished, waiting for vintage jadeite fabric for the outside border and binding prior to quilting.  Barring a trip to Kansas to catch every estate sale, my search proved fruitless.  In this process, I learned it's not only my favorite vintage color, but many others', as well.  So, I did the unthinkable and purchased a yard or so of contemporary Kona Cotton Solid Aloe to allow this quilt to be quilted in (what else?) feathers.

To close, here's a sneak peek at another of my enduring* projects, which is getting closer to the quilting process!  It's made entirely of vintage materials, including repurposed pillowcase fabric.  I have one more block to do but ran out of old pillowcases.

*"Enduring" means it waits and waits and waits....

So, the next time you have visitors, I hope you remember to Turn Down the Quilt and allow time to slowly tick by as you enjoy their visit.  And I also hope that these seeds of love you plant will blossom in a continued legacy through the lives of your loved ones, as it has in mine.

The 1930s Grandmother's Fan Quilt

I've recently finished quilting a c.1930s Grandmother's Fan quilt top I found antiquing!  Many of the fabrics were likely taken from cloth sacks that held a variety of staple goods, from sugar to flour to animal feed.  

I wish I would have taken a picture of a certain quilt block before machine quilting it in continuous curves and feathers, because on the muslin fabric background you could barely read “Great West…Denver, Co…Table & Pr…”.  So I got on the internet and searched using this cryptic information, knowing I would come up with a vintage sugar sack somewhere...

Within seconds I found that the maker of this vintage quilt top used “Great Western Sugar Co.” sugar sacks.  These sacks were printed with non-permanent ink so that the graphics could be washed out once they were empty. The plain cotton fabric could then be used for household linens, clothing and quilts, such as in this utilitarian Grandmother’s Fan.  Pictured here is a sugar sack just like those used in the construction of this quilt.  I had to buy it just for sentimentality!

Once I finished quilting the top, and after binding it to reduce fraying, I washed it in my washing machine in cold water using gentle detergent and Oxy, hoping the colors wouldn’t bleed.  There were many age spots typical of a vintage piece that Oxy does well to remove.  And no, I didn’t test the fabrics before washing or use Retayne to hold colors.  This was perhaps a foolish move, considering I didn’t know how old the maker’s fabric stash was to determine a possible transfer of dye. Original stains faded, but new ones didn't appear.  Phew!

A bit of history on the Grandmother’s Fan quilt:  this pattern first appeared in print in a Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Prior to that, fans were common motifs in late nineteenth century crazy quilts. Their popularity likely was due to the fad for decorating in the Japanese style, which was prompted by Americans' exposure to Japanese art at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. By the 1930s, fans were standard favorites for quilt patterns.

The 1930s quilts represent my most favorite genre of quilting because of the brilliant thrift the women used to create useful yet beautiful quilts from what they had.  I’m also emotionally connected to ‘30s quilts because I remember sleeping underneath them as a child when visiting my grandparents. 

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the longest and most severe economic crisis in American history. It impacted jobs, standards of living, well-being and many areas of American popular culture. It also created a sense of connectedness among those who experienced the period. Passed on orally in many families, the experience of life in hard times has become part of the common heritage of millions of Americans.

The generations who lived through the Depression are now elderly and soon the living voices describing those times will pass. One of the lasting artifacts of the era will be its quilts - quilts made by women who lived by the saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without." The beauty and functionality they created from recycled fabrics gleaned from feed and flour sacks, old clothes and scraps left over from dressmaking left a legacy of quiltmaking tradition. 

These quilts are excellent examples of material culture allowing us a glimpse into the lives of women who may have otherwise been overlooked or invisible, but who made up the better part of the backbone of our country during "hard times". In future posts you’ll see many more '30s finished quilt tops to honor a tenacious tendency to provide warmth, beauty and emotional stability in their homes despite economic instability.

Whitework Quilting!

Also known as wholecloth, whitework quilting is a very popular style of quilting.  Though this technique has been around for decades, a resurgence of the wholecloth quilt has been largely due to the longarm quilting machine.  From the book Quilting Designs of the Past:

"One of the earliest quilt styles is the wholecloth quilt.  It is predominantly made of a single fabric.  The actual quilting is quite plain*.  Parallel and crossed lines travel through peonies, peacocks, and pomegranates.  Crosshatching, diamonds, basket weaves - all stitched on point - and elongated shells, chevrons, and herringbone patterns appear throughout this (early nineteenth century) period".

*If any of you have admired the quilting on a wholecloth quilt at a quilt show, there's nothing 'plain' about it!!!

My most favorite style of wholecloth starts as a vintage linen.  I've collected a few...

When you're ready to begin and after choosing your linen, you audition patterns, to include stencils and rulers.  Then you transfer the pattern using either a water-soluble or air-soluble marking pen.  Then quilt!  Pictured are a couple of wholecloth quilts - that started as vintage linens - I finished over the Christmas holiday season.  Since quilting them takes time, I usually don't have time during the year when I'm working on customer quilts to finish them.  So, it was a gift to myself to have two completed!  

The only original embellishment to this linen was a square of embroidered flowers and leaves.  Very sweet but very one-dimensional.  To breathe life into it, making it three-dimesional, I added everything else.

The intense micro-stippling popped out the designs.  It also took a LOT of time to do!

 The second vintage linen began with four appliquéd and embroidered corners of flowers and leaves:

Below you can see the border treatment, which is basically piano-keys with a radiating effect on the corners.

A close-up of the quilted tulips winding around the center cross-hatching, as well as "McTavishing", a type of background fill:

I attribute both Cindy Needham's Wholecloth Linen Quilts and Karen McTavish's Whitework Quilting as inspiration on quilting designs and recommend them highly.

 Off to another vintage linen!

Express yourself through your art!

     While enjoying a ladies brunch earlier this month at our church, I made several new friends.  What a joy!  As is typical of women, we shared our passions.  Some spoke of their grandchildren, some of their hobbies, some of their educational pursuits.  Adrianna, the young woman seated next to me, said she was majoring in Art Therapy.  "Therapy!  Art therapy!?  I wholeheartedly agree!" I said, wide-eyed.  She gave me a quizzical gaze and chuckled, "Why is that?!"  I answered with something like, "All women possess creativity, but express it in different ways.  Some create a gourmet meal, some are natural-born interior designers, some put outfits together that suit their figure and coloring.  But we all need to create.  That is the common denominator."  Her next words were poetry and heart-stopping profound.  She said,

 "The reason is:  you can't always express everything you want to say with words."

     So, I submit to you that quilting is one way of expressing things that are difficult to say, such as the love you have for someone.  Haven't we thought of loved ones as we've spent countless hours (and undisclosed funds) creating something for them?  

     In addition to expressing our love, quilting can also be therapy, as we use our positive, creative energies to make something that's never been made before with our own hands. We experience a magic as we transfer something intangible and inexpressible to something tangible and beautiful.  Our grief, concerns, pain and loneliness become channeled into joy because we have created something worthwhile - which then enables us to feel of value.

     A resolution for the New Year could be to recognize your incredible potential for expressing who you are through your God-given talents and use them to bless others!

'Quilt Gallery' & 'Pantographs' tabs now updated!

My Quilt Gallery now contains personal and customer quilts for your perusal.  This collection will be added to in the future, so come and browse the gallery often.  Perhaps your quilt will be featured (anonymously, of course)!

Click on the Pantographs tab, where you can now browse my entire, alphabetized Pantograph Collection of over 100 pantos from the comfort of your home!

For your convenience, there are two main collections: simple (less dense/less expensive) and complex (more dense/more expensive).  Perhaps in the future I'll separate these two collections into their own tabs.  Until then, try to remember not to get overwhelmed!  If you'd rather look at my panto catalog that has all my patterns tabbed into themes (leaves, meandering, juvenile, etc.) go to my Contact Me tab, email/call me and we'll get together either in my studio or at your favorite quilt shop.

Pioneer Museum Award! In 2008, three years after opening my quilting business, I found time to quilt a king-sized quilt for my son and daughter-in-law as a house-warming gift.  My daughter-in-law chose the pattern, and then she and I spent 3 hours selecting just the right fabrics.
After a few weeks I completed the quilt, and just before giving it to them, I revealed it at a local guild show-and-tell. One of the officers of the state quilt council was in attendance, and highly recommended that I enter it into a local quilt show.  I went back and forth about whether I should enter it.  After all, I make quilts to use and give as gifts, not for show.  But, why not?!  Entering it on the last day, I gave it the moniker, Grandmother's Trellised Garden and it garnered "First Place, Individual Primarily Pieced" - a cash award - and hung at the museum for about two months that fall.  The only problem was that my son and his wife couldn't snuggle underneath it for quite some time....

The 2011 Denver Capitol Quilt Show
A few years later, last summer in fact, I entered a quilt in the Capitol Quilt Show just for fun, and it was accepted!  The name of this one was Grandma's Feather Bed and hung from June-August in the State Capitol Building.  The description for the quilt went as follows:  

I found the center of this vintage '30's quilt antiquing.  After adding two borders of same-era vintage fabrics, I machine quilted it with 'voluptuous' feathers.

No awards are given these quilts, other than the obvious reward of seeing your quilt hang in such a grand venue.

For those of you with a quick eye, you've already noticed this quilt serves as the background for my blog!  So, considering this, it always works and never retires!  Pretty good for a quilt whose top is going on 90 years old....

At the Capitol, quilts hang on three floors, most of them visible from the banister of any floor, but the top floor is the most breath-taking.  

I took my mother, who isn't a quilter, but certainly enjoys these fun days together.  We highly recommend Jason' Deli nearby in the 16th Street Mall.

The view from the floor, looking up at the quilt!

The only drawback to the Show is that it opens every other year.  It's a huge undertaking, and I'm sure this is why.

Approximately 250 quilts are shown at this Show, and have been featured in the Capitol since 1988!!

Another quilt that was accepted was pieced by a client and quilted by me, shown to the right.  What a double thrill!!

I've decided to enter quilts whenever I can, regardless of whether the shows or fairs give out awards.  I still don't make quilts for the sole purpose to show, but I can enjoy the journey every now and then...and so stay-tuned for those journeys to be shown here in the near future!