c1840 Chintz. 1/8" binding rolled back to front. Early Trapunto quilt. Knife edge with cording. Red and green applique with straight grain binding and rounded corners Turn of the century with bias binding and rounded corners | Mid 1800s Applied straight grain binding, square corners Mid century red and green Knife edge and quilted twice Red and green pieced with straight grain binding and rounded corners |
A question arose this morning about how vintage quilts were bound. I decided to photograph and share some of my earliest quilts here. I think you might be surprised at the variety of ways quilt edges were finished. Clearly, there was no one right answer. I'm sure they vary somewhat by date, region, family influence, skill and preference of the maker. I hope you enjoy seeing them. I'll take a look at 20th century quilts another time. Late 19th century with bias binding, mitered corners, applied by machine.
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Several years ago, we decided to eat a vegetarian diet. We followed that plan for 3 years, we ate well, and I amassed a large file of vegetarian recipes. We have now added meat back into our diet on some days, simply because there were meals that I missed making. But we grow a large garden and I still make meatless meals several times a week. We know it's good for us and I hope by sharing some ideas here I can encourage you to try it too. I was sorting through the freezers today, to see what was left from last summer and to decide what to eat for lunch today. This is what we had: Best Tomato Soup* 7 quarts cut up tomatoes 7 celery stalks 4 onions 8 whole cloves 4 bay leaves 1 cup sugar 4 t. salt a little black pepper Use food processor to chop tomatoes, celery and onions. Boil until tender and then puree. Put spices in a bag and boil with pureed ingredients. When soup is well seasoned, add sugar, salt, and pepper. You can see this makes a big batch; I freeze it in pint containers, which makes a cup of soup for each of us. We won't have fresh tomatoes for a long time, but I know some of you do now or will soon. It's easy to cut the recipe in half if you want to try a little smaller amount. Carrot-Zucchini Veggie Burger 1 1/2 cups carrots, shredded 1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded 1/4 cup flour 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese 1/4 t. salt 1/4 t. ground black pepper 1 1/4 t. ground chili powder 2 green onions, thinly sliced 2 large eggs, whisked Microwave the vegetables for about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly. Add flour, cheese, salt, pepper, chili powder, green onions and eggs. Stir mixture until well combined. The chili powder is the secret for great flavor in these. Heat 1T of oil in a skillet. Drop 1/4 cup fritter mixture into the skillet and flatten it into patties. Cook the fritters, 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden brown. I serve these with a slice of Provolone cheese and a fresh tomato slice if we have one. They also freeze well and can be microwaved for a minute or so to serve any time of year. Even if your veggies come from the market, I encourage you to give these recipes a try. They are both delicious!
Watch for more recipes each week and let me know what you think. I found myself reflecting on the most common question quilters are asked about their work whenever it is shown - “How long did that take?” I rarely keep track of the number of hours that go into the making of a quilt. Watching the clock and keeping tabs on my quilting makes it seem like work. Even though I make my living with my quiltmaking and teaching, I want the quilting time to be relaxing and enjoyable. But still, the question continues. It would be simple, perhaps, to answer in “calendar time.” I made it in a week, or it took six months, or I worked on it for years. But with several quilts in progress all of the time and pieces overlapping (or “resting”), this is not a very accurate measure of the work involved. Years ago, in an effort to answer this question and to make the point to a group of non-quilters, I used this analogy: “I quilt an average of ten stitches to the inch and I used a little over two and a half spools of thread in this quilt. There are 250 yards of thread on a spool so that would be about 700 yards of thread in this quilt. If you want to consider how long that would take....imagine quilting ten stitches every inch, along the full length of a football field, seven times.” Or.......Even more interesting and perhaps more obsessive.......how many stitches are in the quilt? Again beginning with the figure of ten stitches to the inch and considering a few inches lost in knot and tails, a reasonable figure would be ten times 30 inches or 300 stitches made from each yard of thread. I know that I put between two and five spools of thread into my large quilts; let’s take an average of three spools, times 250 yards or 750 yards of thread. Multiplying the 750 yards times 300 stitches per yard will give us the grand total of 225,000 stitches per quilt. Nearly a quarter million! Multiply that times the number of quilts that have been made by you, by your friends, by quilters around the world....The answers will be staggering! I’ve heard it suggested that the time it takes to finish a quilt should be measured from the time one first learned how to quilt. Every quilt teaches us something, develops a new skill, a fresh approach, a better appreciation for this art we love. And this new quilt is the culmination of all that we know right now. How long did it take? Any way you measure it, it’s long, it’s wonderful and it’s worth it. Although I wrote this piece for QNM many years ago; this is the quilt that inspired it.
The Shackelford Family Album Quilt 1989 Original design, hand appliqued, and hand quilted It seems the first comment we hear about longarm custom quilting is always “you can’t make a living doing custom work” and that may be true. Most longarm quilters are quilting to make a living or to add something to the family income. In the short view, it doesn’t make sense to spend a week on one quilt, instead of finishing one or more every day.
Unless, we want to consider a challenging quilt an investment in skill building. Most quilters feel challenged by the opportunity to do some custom quilting and hopefully more confident about it when it is finished. My earliest custom quilts included a lot of stitch in the ditch, and I felt more comfortable with it after each one. I think the same holds true for each new skill we try. I can't say “practice makes perfect” but time spent does improve the process and hopefully each time is faster/easier/better. Even if the dollar per hour appears to be a loss, I’m going to challenge you to invest the time. Perhaps once a month, take on a new challenge. Make yourself learn how to do something new. In the end, you’ll gain confidence, not only in using a new skill, but the reputation for a new level of work, and finally, the confidence to charge what that new skill is worth. The album blocks shown here are the result of a challenge issued to a group of friends. It began with a pattern for a traditional vase of flowers and the idea of seeing how many different ways we could interpret a single design. A study of period styles and other specific design elements helped us to discover what colors, fabrics and techniques were key to each style. Working as a group helped us to see results more quickly and provided a good learning experience for all of us. And, of course, working with friends is always fun! I will be offering this challenge to my Journal subscribers at a later date. Full descriptions of fabric choices, colors, and techniques used will be included in the workshop. Who's ready for a challenge? Traditional Baltimore style made by Rebecca Whetstone Dimensional Red and Green made by Janet Hamilton Folk Art style made by Sheila Kennedy 1930's style made by Jo Ann Lischynski Realistic shapes and colors made by Anita Shackelford Non-traditional colors made by Glenda Clark Non-traditional fabrics made by Connie St. Clair Before you begin your next appliqué project, think about the look that you want to achieve. Choose your fabrics to set the mood. Make adjustments in stem sizes and flower shapes to create the look you want. Add dimensional techniques and embroidery embellishments to make the quilt what you want it to be. And, most of all, have fun! The techniques used in creating these blocks can be found in my Three-Dimensional Applique book, published by AQS in 1992.
Ripping, taking out, undoing...what ever we call it, taking apart work that we have done and doing it over again is never a pleasing prospect. Most of us have agonized over this idea at one time or another. Several questions may help provide an answer to this question.
How much does it bother you? If you are of the free-wheeling temperament that is rarely concerned by little problems, then you may just decide to keep on working. But, if it bothers you enough to stop and consider redoing it, then chances are it will bother you later. In the balance of things, I find that the time it takes to re-do a small area is insignificant in comparison to the time that I will have to look at a piece that I know is not right. Can you do better? If the mistake is made because the technique is one that you are just learning, then chances are that doing it over may not produce noticeably better results. Since I regularly like to try new approaches or styles of work, I am always a “beginner” at something and my technique is not perfect. When things go really wrong I take them out and do them over, but if the problems are minor I tend to leave them. Small problems left in place can be considered just another milestone as we measure our progress. How important is it? If the piece is not intended to be an heirloom, will never be judged, or will be given to a non-quilter who will not notice, then leaving minor problems may be the right choice. Getting it finished may be the focus. If the quilt is meant to be a show or competition piece, then it is important to make sure that every step along the way is the best that we can do. I have an important piece in which I took out hand stipple quilting because it was not giving me the texture that I wanted. Not an easy task! But I am much happier with the change that the new quilting made. It was the right decision. And, in a most extreme case, my advice to a good friend who was not happy with a quilt that was three-quarters quilted was to take it out and do it over. She had spent a long time in creating an original applique quilt that she intended to show on the national level. The quilting that was already in the piece had problems both technically and visually, making the quilt less than it could be. It took my friend a while to make such a big decision, but in the end, she did take the quilt apart. The new quilting she added is spectacular in both design and workmanship and the quilt won several major awards. In the end it comes down to your own temperament, where you are in your quilting journey, and where the quilt is going. Satisfaction in our work comes in many different ways. Here’s hoping that we all make quilts that make us happy. Francine asked me today if my Cropped Blocks could be used in combination, making the quilt center with one pattern and border with another. I was sure that would work, but I still had to play with them, just to see what I could create. Here's the result. The blocks I used were Cropped Star and Jen's Marble. The blocks in the center were rotated and flipped. The border blocks not changed very much, but could be played with as much as you want. Thanks for the push, Francine! That was fun! The blocks are designed as squares and will rotate and fit together with no problem. Allowing the software to size them for total quilt dimensions may adjust length and/or width and cause them not to fit together when rotated. See the pdf below for full instructions on setting up a quilt like this. Patterns are available here
www.anitashackelford.net/cropped-blocks.html Patterns are in .csq format for CS v6 or v7 only Modern Quilts are inspired by mid 20th century modern art and architecture. Often made in bold, solid colors, they might have angular, open spaces, inspired by the Modern abstract, curved shapes in furniture and art of the time. The Modern style in quilting might embrace Minimalism, with use of large pieces and overall simplicity of design. While Repetition is one of the principles in Traditional quilting, Modern quilts are often designed with a balanced asymmetry and a focus on the interaction of quilt blocks in a non-traditional way. A change in grid work (sashes) or lack of visible block structure are often a part of modern quilt compositions. Are you working in a Modern style? I started exploring the Modern style about 10 years ago, both in piecing and quilting patterns and have enjoyed making the pieces shown here. Enjoy the show.
Bunnies and Baskets 21" x 21" We are just a month away from Easter, so we've added my Bunnies and Baskets pattern to the Books and Patterns page. This is in pdf form, with instructions for folding paper and cutting the symmetrical design. My quilt was appliqued by machine, hand and machine quilted. Choose techniques you enjoy and get this finished quick as a bunny :) Four Seasons Cutwork 29" x 29" Spring also seemed a good time to offer my Four Seasons cutwork quilt. Iris will be blooming soon, butterflies represent summer, grapes for autumn, holly and berries for winter. Pdf instructions include all four patterns, paper folding to create the templates, full yardage cutting dimensions and diagram, plus the added embellishments of ruched iris beard, embroidered butterfly anntennae, and dimensional holly berries. My quilt is hand appliqued and hand quilted. Use your favorite techniques to create your own. The Four Seasons quilt was used on the cover of my Applique with Folded Cutwork book, published by AQS. You can order books and patterns, using the link below.
We still have snow on the ground and more to come, I'm sure, but my mind is telling me to get busy and start growing something! Others, in warmer climates, are already ahead of our schedule here in Ohio. About the first of March, we begin to think about starting herbs and some cold weather plants. We can fool Mother Nature just a little bit by planting inside, on a heated mat, under lights. Some herbs take a long time to germinate, so we like to give them a head start. Leeks, onions, lettuce, spinach, and cole crops can tolerate a Spring chill, so they can have an early start. We also can plant directly or move plants into the greenhouse earlier than we can trust things out in the open garden. But today, I want to share with you a natural guide to understanding when it might be safe to plant in your area. For the most part, seeds germinate according to the temperature of the soil. Nature knows when it's the right time. If you watch for signs among the other things growing in your yard or surrounding area, they will signal when it is safe to plant seeds or set out other like-minded plants.
When crocus bloom in your yard, it is safe to plant radishes, spinach, and parsnips.....and so on, down the line. Crocus = radish, spinach, parsnips Forsythia = peas, onion sets, lettuce Daffodils = beets, carrots, chard Dandelions potatoes Oak Leaves the size of a squirrel's ear = corn Maple Leaves full = perennial flowers Quince blossoms = cabbage, broccoli Apple blossoms = bush beans Apple blossoms fall = cucumbers Lilac blooms = squash and flowers Lily of the Valley = tomatoes Iris = peppers and eggplant Peonies = melons I hope you find that interesting. I know I'll be watching for our perennials and trees to wake up this spring and be ready to give them some companions in the garden. |
AuthorAnita has a long background rooted in traditional handwork and quiltmaking, which she still enjoys. Archives
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