Decisions, Decisions, While I Reverse Sew

I finished the "back' - which is my front, of Gooische Stars.
(Promenade In A Dutch Garden book)
Well...except for the border.

How can a 3" border be so hard to select?

The green is probably the closest to the original.
The red is nice.
The yellow is a beautiful print.

While I contemplate the border...
I'm reverse sewing the binding on my Hindeloopen quilt.

Once I read the antique quilts of this type generally are knife edge finishes, I had to change it.

I thought about it and it bothered me, so off it comes.

Back to the border - which fabric would you use?
I'm looking forward to what you have to say!

Catherine's Garden on Display

I did it!  Catherine's Garden s Done. Finished. Complete.
The sleeve and tag are on...and she's hanging.

I get to enjoy her everyday - my indoor flower garden.

I decided to pair her with my reproduction of the Virginia Quilt Museum Medallion.

I really like the "Hang It Dang It" hangers.
One nail, and they self level - with adjustable widths.  Easy to rotate the quilts on display.

Here's a straight on shot.
I have to say again, Catherine was a genius in her design and drawing.  We will probably never know if she drew all of it herself.  I like to think she was an artist, maybe collaborating with quilting friends and family.

It was so fun to stitch each flower and leaf.  It took me about a year to make, in between other projects and a major move to Colorado.  There were times I could hardly put the project down.

You can read details about Catherine's Garden HERE.

Calico Paradise is now in the frame.

The timing works for warm summer days - it's not in my lap.
I will do all of the outline quilting, then take it out of the frame and use a hoop and do the filler quilting.

I am enjoying quilting on this with all the green grass and blue skies outside.

The backing is a reproduction purple stripe, just like the original.

For variety, I have been working on a machine piecing project from the new book, Promenade In A Dutch Garden.

Next step are some squares and I have not decided on a border fabric yet.

Here are some of the blocks laid out.

I mixed some reproduction prints from my stash with the Dutch Chintz.

The center star is also a mix of Chintz and reproduction fabrics.

Great fun!!
I hope you are having a fun week.  Thanks for stopping by today - I appreciate your time!

New Book Promenade in a Dutch Garden

One of the doll or crib size projects

It was an exciting day today when the post rang!  My copy of "Promenade in a Dutch Garden" by Petra Prins & An Moonen published by Quilt Mania.
In my opinion the book is a must have!
By combining history, reproduction quilt patterns and beautiful photography An and Petra have created a fabulous book.

Check out the bonnet top cradle in the photo - and mine - I think this will be my first of many projects from the book - pieced on both sides no less!

Full size - Fabulous border

It was great fun to dig out my stash of Dutch Chintz and repros I plan to mix.  I have some blocks left over from a previous project I just might mix in too....

The book includes a nice variety of large and small projects.  At over 250+ pages and rich in color photography I can hardly put it down.  Even the cover folds are beautiful!

I love the use of prints - including pillars, chintz, euro inspired printed cottons and silk.  An has also given the museum locations of the antique quilts.

Front Cover - Filled with rich photos inside

I  have made a few Dutch inspired quilts.
(links to the photos below)

If your LQS does not stock the book, ask them to consider carrying the Quilt Mania books and magazines so you can shop local.  It is a bit of a 'splurge' book, but I think worth the price.  I certainly got my monies worth from Petra's first book, which I think is very hard to find now.

Now...to get a trip to the Netherlands planned....it is on the short list.

I enjoyed meeting so many hand quilters last week - most of my Dutch repros are hand quilted - very hard on polished chintz!

Have a great week!  I hope it includes some stitching time.


Links:

Petra's Blog  HERE
Den Haan & Wagenmakers HERE
William Booth Draper (Chintz) HERE  Great prices and service - wide widths
US Resource imported Dutch Chintz - An's Book, Best to call for inventory HERE
Open Air Museum HERE
Quilt Mania HERE
My Completed Dutch Chintz Quilts HERE and HERE and From Petra's first book HERE
Ady's New blog HERE

Celebrating with a FINISH

Center with my initials and date

I am celebrating the completion of my Catherine's Garden.

It is a completely hand made - by me.

   *  Hand Pieced

   *  Hand Appliqued

   *  Hand Quilted

 

The pattern was made from a quilt in our collection, you can read about it HERE.

Just like Catherine, I quilted my initials and the year completed in the center of the quilt.

Back of Catherine's Garden

It is hard to show hand quilting cream an cream,

 - all 600+ yards of it!

This is a view of the back.

Finished size is 80' x 80"

The original quilting lines are on the pattern so I was able to truly copy Catherine's design through completion of the quilting.

Quilting motifs include leaves, circles, arcs, flowers and LOTS of 'clam shells'.  Each applique motif is outlined as well.

The quilt is shown draped on a queen size bed.

I did the hand piecing while 'car sitting' when our house was being shown during the move.  It was quicker than getting the machine in and out.  Home Stagers do not like home sewing! 

I decided to bind the quilt as the 1855 original.  

The technique:

   *  The binding is 1/2" finished, single layer.

   *  Each side is added separately.

   *  The 'open' end is whip stitched closed.

After all, I was reproducing Catherine's quilt.

It is good to try something out today's norm.

I plan to get a hanging sleeve on it and will probably share a picture of it hung...

In the mean time I have Calico Paradise in the quilt frame.  Once the outlining is complete I will move to hoop quilting.

Walnut thimble holder

I have done a little work on my 'do over' of 

N. Hinde, reproduction 1778 English sampler.

The linen is 35 count, the thread is silk.  It is stitched over one thread.  It is available from the Scarlet Letter.

I have the lovely grained maple frame ready for finishing.

Have a great weekend! 

I'll be savoring my quilt...and just maybe finishing a sampler.

 

Denver National Quilt Festival 2013

Enchanted Garden
Hand stipple quilting - millions of stitches

I enjoyed the 2013 Denver National Quilt Festival today and thought you might like to see a few of the quilts.

This is the detail of "Enchanted Garden".  It was one of the few hand stitched quilts; hand applique and hand quilted.

Measuring 81" x 80.5"

A well deserved Best Of Show Winner

Enchanted Garden was made by Cathleen Miller of Albuquerque NM.

Best Of Show

She wrote:
Seven years ago I moved from Wisconsin to New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment).  Being surrounded by artists gave me the confidence to create my own designs.  Being surrounded by sand gave me the confidence to work with bold colors.  The seven layers of bold colored applique in "Enchanted Garden" represent those seven years.  Hand quilting gives me the most pleasure.

This one is for my friends who are working in solids.
Shirley Gigi of Colorado Springs created, "Second Encounter"

Best Wall Quilt Winner

It measures 47.5 x 35.75

She wrote:
This quilt is an interpretation of mid-century art.  In addition to geometric forms I included transparency where shapes overlap.  Color decisions were made as I went along creating surprising effects as the piece unfolded.  Straight lines, angles and circles in piecing and quilting emphasize the geometric theme throughout.
All machine work - original design

The First Place Traditional award went to joint Colorado team,  Sandi Fruehling & Kathy Emmel of Aurora.
90" x 90" Tribute To Rose

Machine Embroidered, Long Arm Quilted, Original Design

Inspired by a quilt title "Indiana Wreath" designed by Rose Kretsinger in the 1930's.  This modern quilt interprets the hand appliqued swags using commercial machine embroidery designs - elements were eliminated and re-arranged.  Sandi's long arm quilting is much the same style and scale as the original feathers in the center of the quilt.

Tribute To Rose detail 

How about some silk?

Letitia Ching from San Francisco won Third Place - Traditional for "Golden Mums"     64" x 63.5"

This original design was machine pieced, hand appliqued and Long Arm Quilted by Laurie Grant.

Letitia wrote:
Designing and creating an original 4-block quilt was on my long list of quilts I've always wanted to make.  For the flowers, I chose the chrysanthemum design based on ancient Chinese embroideries.  Since I already had a box of silk fabrics with some larger pieces, I decided to use ONLY the fabrics I had on hand for the quilt top.  This was a challenge to myself as well as trying to be practical.



One of the special exhibits was "Quilted Pages - A Storytellers Quilts"  Allyson Allen
These are just a few pictures from numerous quilts in her exhibit.

"Mom's Yo Yo Quilt"
1994

Over 2,400 yo yo's in assorted cotton and linen from the 1960's and 70's.
Originally created for the round bed.

"Harriet Powers' 1898 "Pictorial Quilt" Replica
2012  by Allyson Allen
Machine pieced and quilted

The original hangs in the Boston Museum of Fine Art.






Back to the show in another aisle...

Birds In Hand
80" x 60"
Mandie Burrell, of King George VA
Machine pieced Long Arm Quilted

"Birds in Hand" is my first show quilt I constructed and quilted on my own.  I challenged myself to quilt every inch of this quilt with and intricate eye-catching design.













I did a shift selling tickets for the 2013 Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum raffle quilt.

You can read more about the quilt HERE, and see a better picture.

Many of the fabrics in the quilt are from past RMQM lines.

It was fun to meet so many quilters from all over the world as they bought tickets in support of the museum!

I wish I could put all the pictures here - there were many, many beautiful quilts!

The show runs through the weekend if you are in the area - so there's still time to get there....

Thanks for stopping by!