Antique quilts to tickle your fancy

Posted by Kristyne in Still Pretty After All These Years on the "Pretty by Hand" blog 7 Nov 2012 is a delightful mix of vintage quilt pics. You'll want to see them all at:
http://prettybyhand.com/blog/2012/11/7/still-pretty-after-all-these-years.html

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Colors on white

Love the "elongated" color wheel wall hanging spotted at Quilt Market and reported in the the blog post The Colors of Market in "A Quilting Life blog" posted 3 Nov 2012. The cropped photo above provides just a glimpse of delights from this post. Don't you think this is machine quilted?

FOR FURTHER READING
http://www.aquiltinglife.com/2012/11/the-colors-of-market.html

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Android Quilt App

Just spotted this Quilting Guide for Androids. Has anyone tried it yet?

Just 4 of over 200 quilts

Sandie Nagy writes
I've sent you just a few of the quilts my mother did.  She did all hand quilting, and the one called "Grandmother's Flower garden, she had to cut each piece separately and then sew brown paper to the back so in all reality she had to do each one twice.  

The Dresden plate was started by my Great-Grandmother (on my dad's side) in 1920's and then my mother finished it.  The quilt w/ the purple ribbon was the last one she did and she finished it 2 weeks before she died.  I had to have binding put on, but she had already made the binding.  I entered it in the Iron County fair, the year after she died and she had taken the top 3 awards.  They were Grand Sweepstakes, Reserve Sweepstakes (on the child's candlewick) and the Judges choice (on the Candlewick Xmas Tree Squirt.)  She was a woman of many talents.  

Too bad she didn't pass some on to me.  But she hated computers and wouldn't even use an ATM. She made over 200 quilts since 1980s.

1812 Preserve the Pensions Quilt AWESOMENESS

Thanks to Gena Philibert-Ortega for posting this pic on our Genea-Quilters Facebook page.

Here's another view:

This is simply gorgeous. I am sure that it will make quite a splash at NGS Cincinnati, where the first raffle tickets will be sold to support the FGS-NARA 1812 Preserve the Pensions Project.

"The Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Archives, and the genealogical community have started a project to digitize the War of 1812 pension files—a fitting beginning to the bicentennial commemoration of this important war. These images will be available for free. Contributions to this project have already made these files available.

This initiative seeks to raise $3.7 million. Preserve the Pensions! seeks to raise the bulk of the funds before the bicentennial of the start of the war and finish digitization before the bicentennial of the war's end in 2015. With 7.2 million images in 180,000 files, there is much digitization to do."

Take one little block and have some fun

Isn't this the cutiest little checkbook cover? I think the bright colors really make it delightful.

 This is a freebie pattern from Craftsy.com.

New Book: Civil War Quilts

Last year at the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree we had the pleasure of hearing Don Beld speak at the Quilt Breakfast. Don, a popular speaker and quilt historian has a new book out with quilt historian Pam Weeks, entitled Civil War Quilts.

According to the publisher's website,  "With over 170 photos and an engaging text, this books tells the stories of fourteen extraordinary Civil War quilts and the women who made them." The book includes 45 patterns.

Having heard Don speak multiple times I imagine this is going to be a great book for those of us interested in the American Civil War and quilt history.

QD: eBook has awesome ideas

Just received this notice from our friends at Quilting Daily:

"our new free downloadable eBook, Quilting for Beginners: 5 Easy Quilt Patterns Plus Lessons on How to Quilt for Beginners, is for you!"

SO I looked into it, and discovered some cute design ideas, and a few good hints. I particularly like the idea of "mini-quilts" to practice with color and design. They are a lot easier to complete than a larger quilt.

Easy Fabric Resist Techniques: New eBook

Glue gel resist dyeing (detail)
by Cynthia St. Charles.

Have you tried batik dyeing to create new fabric designs?

"...Lisa Kerpoe applies corn syrup as an economical and easy-to-find alternative to sodium alginate, a thickener used as a resist with fabric dyeing techniques. You'll love this kitchen-shelf method of tile dyeing.

Once you download this free eBook, Easy Resist Fabric Dyeing Techniques for Batik-Style Dyeing and Surface Design from Quilting Daily, you'll be creating easy batik fabric in no time." Source: Quilting Daily 16 Jan 2012 (e-zine), used with permission.

Quilting Valentine Hearts Using Charm Packs

YES!! Three days ago, a new YouTube quilting video was posted.  Missouri Quilt Company's Jenny Doan teaches how to make easy hearts out of charm squares (5" squares) Give it a shot, it couldn't be easier!!

Underground Railroad Quilts

Several postings on our Genea-Quilters Facebook page feature pre-Civil War US quilts.

Julia Langel writes: Did anyone else notice the mention of "Freedom Quilts" in the article about escaped slaves in the Sept 2011 NGS Quarterly? I thought I remembered some controversy about them, and the first hit on a google search is a wikipedia article about the consensus that they are probably a myth... 

 

Quilts of the Underground Railroad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org

"In 1999 a theory surfaced indicating a possibility slaves used quilt blocks to alert other slaves about escape plans during the time of the Underground Railroad (approximately 1780-1860). Some historians support this theory while other historians dispute this as myth."

 

 

 

Lori Thornton writes: This reminds me of an excellent installment of the Elm Creek Quilts series by Jennifer Chiaverini entitled The Runaway Quilt. The plot involves this legend about the quilts and some genealogical and historical research by the characters.

 

To this, someone named Pat Richley-Erickson (grin) wrote: Julia Langel's post reminds me of the book Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad where the quilt "airing" on a window sill may have indicated if it was safe to proceed to the next station.

 

Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad

www.amazon.com explains "The fascinating story of a friendship, a lost tradition, and an incredible discovery, revealing how enslaved men and women made encoded quilts and then used them to navigate their escape on the Underground Railroad."   "A groundbreaking work."