Category: Quilts

Quilts

Quilts in Canada

Elizabeth E.3 Comments

I just returned from a trip to eastern Canada and I was interested in the amount of quilts and quilting that I noticed in Nova Scotia.

On our way to the Anne of Green Gables House, we stopped for lunch at the Prince Edward Island Preserve Company and there were quilts hanging from the ceiling.  I was pretty amazed because around here, nobody does this.  It was the first taste of the frequency with which I would see quilts advertised, either in quilt shops, or in gift shops, or just a lone sign tacked to a front porch: Quilts.

While it is traditional to use quilts in turn of the century houses, I enjoyed seeing what the curators of the Green Gable House had used.  One little girl, upon seeing this, said “Oh, this is Matthew’s bedroom.”  Her fusion of the fictional with the real was a theme I heard from other visitors to this home.

Another bedroom in the house, complete with chamber pot.

Even though everything about this home is fictional (Anne never lived here, nor did the author of the series–it belonged to her grandfather’s cousin and she only visited the house) I still enjoyed seeing the “sewing” room.  A hand-hooked rug is on the floor in front of the machine.  I saw these rugs all over this area–it’s a traditional craft–and to me it’s the quiltiest thing about this room.

On our way out to the outer edge of Prince Edward Island, we saw this sign.  As usual, we were pressing on to our Bed and Breakfast and didn’t stop, but this place didn’t look like it was open, either.  Quilts and sweaters seem to be popular items for sale in this area, a natural considering the weather.

Quilt shops kept popping up everywhere (as well as quilt stores–where they would sell finished quilts).  I’m not much interested in the completed quilts as I prefer to make my own, but was happy that there was such a thriving business here. (Click to enlarge and see the QUILTS business in the background.)

When I mentioned that to the proprietor of Fiddle Stitches, a shop in Mabou (photo above) she nodded.  “Oh yes, we’re doing quite well.”  Click on this link to go to a listing of shops in Nova Scotia.  I found it interesting that there isn’t one in Halifax, the main city on the island.

Since available space in my luggage space was tight, I didn’t intend on buying anything–but I did anyway.  She was so genial and I found a couple of cottons I liked (of course).  Mabou is known for its style of music played with piano and fiddle, hence the fitting name for this quilt shop.

While this wasn’t our bedroom in the Glendyer Inn (a bed and breakfast in Mabou) I snapped a photo of the quilt.

Here’s your kitschy quilt-related photo.  Hanging in our next B & B on the wall.

Mahone Bay had a shop that sold quilts, right next to another gift shop (below) that also hawked these wares.

Even when I wasn’t seeing quilts, or shops, or places to buy quilts, as a quilter, we always see the pattern in places around us.  This pattern was the floor of the “Sailor’s Church” in Old Town Montreal.  I see a grid and I either start sketching (like I did when I sat in the Anglican Church) or snap a photo.  My travel notebooks are full of little gridded out pictures, ideas for future quilts.

Quilts · Textiles & Fabric

Mini-quilts

Elizabeth E.1 Comment

I love this photo of the wall of mini-quilts from the book just out from Whip-Up, apparently full of great ideas for mini-quilts.

I have my own mini-quilt wall, but not all mine are up (add another thing to the list).  I pushed them up with thumbtacks in a little unused corner of our hallway cupboards (hence, the crookedness) but I enjoy looking at them as I pass by. The one on the left is from a fractured landscapes class I took from Katie Pasquini Masopust some years ago in Houston, and the one in the center is from a Laura Waskilowski fusing class.  When I used to take classes from the pros I felt the need to make large–BIG–quilts incorporating their techniques. Then at some point I wised up, and made mini-quilts.  I learned what they were teaching, and had a “sample” of the technique.  I could then decide if I wanted to go on to a bigger quilt, or if the small one was enough.  Less fabric to carry to class, and I usually finished the sample that day, instead of adding another UFO to the stack in my sewing closet.  Win-win, in my book.

The mini quilt on the right is from Peru and is called an arpillera.  We almost bought one in a shop in San Francisco (I had to look through all of them!) but the prices were a bit dear, so my husband found some online for me to choose from and I got it there.

And on a somewhat related note. . . Candy Bars!

I bit, and bought.

They have a little booklet of ideas in the bottom of the box–I see another possible mini-quilt for my wall.

Quilts

Skipping My Way to the End

Elizabeth E.

I’m headed off to give my class their final exam. It’s the last day of class, and we’ll meet once more at their final exam time so the students can see their exams, check their grades. The trend has been to give the finals early–apparently it’s happening in all their classes. I don’t know why the math teachers do it, after all they have scantrons, but the Englishy types give the exams earlier because there’s just so much to correct and grade. Stacks and stacks. Reams and reams. Tons of stuff.

Last Sunday I pieced 4 blocks for my friend’s humanitarian quilt project. I cut out 3 1/2″ squares of green fabric, layered two together and stitched two diagonal lines, 1/2″ apart. I cut the square apart between the stitched lines making what’s known in the trade as “half-square triangles.” Here are the squares above.

But I was left with lots of 3 1/2″ squares and I was DONE making triangles. So I started sewing them together, putting a white square in the middle, in hopes of making a new twin-sized quilt for the guest bedroom (we already have one twin-sized quilt–just need another). See below for diagram. My inspiration was the bright pink and orange quilt that I made last summer.

After I grade my stacks and stacks and reams and reams, I’ll get back to this. A nice little respite from the labor-intensive Christmas Star quilt I’ve been working on.

Quilts · Something to Think About

Life’s Pretty Fragile

Elizabeth E.
my daughter and her daughter

Several years ago my husband and I took a year’s sabbatical to live in Alexandria, Virginia, while he worked at the Dept. of State. While he worked, I tried to revise my grad school novel (pitiful thing), visited museums, walked all the sights that D.C. has to offer, gazed at the monuments and joined a quilt group.

Mount Vernon Quilters became the place for me every Tuesday afternoon. The Bees, where we’d meet and just quilt–always hand piecing or applique–were alternated with our Business Meetings. We were one of eleven chapters of a much larger guild, Quilters Unlimited of Virginia, a group totaling around one thousand members.

However, our chapter was small, and I’d say the average age was retirement, with a few young quilters around the edges. I grew to love them and their interesting meeting snacks and amazingly, they took me in and loved me too. It was very hard to leave that little nest. So, in a way, I didn’t. I agreed to serve as Newsletter Editor–but from California–land of the fruits and nuts and machine piecers. Blogs were just starting to come on line at that time, and I set one up for the ladies of Mt. Vernon. It was completely radical–something they really liked–and we became known for our “with-it-ness” all around our greater Quilters Unlimited Guild.

After two years, Beverly took over. I’d never met her–she joined after I had gone–but I taught her everything I knew about blogging. She caught on quickly, asking her son for help when she couldn’t figure out long-distance what the heck I meant about copy-paste, or control-C-control-V. She made it her own. When I went back for a visit last year, I met her and her disabled daughter Catherine. Beverly was as sweet in person as she was on the phone.

Catherine died last week, in her sleep.

Her mother had tucked her in under a flannel chenille quilt made by one of the Mt. Vernon quilters, a slight breeze coming in from the window–and turned out the light. But in the morning, Catherine was gone. I wrote to Beverly to express my condolences and she wrote back:

It was so unexpected. Catherine seemed to be thriving–I really thought she’d outlive me. She was a happy young lady that made me smile everyday and never disappointed me. She was totally innocent–I called her the “barometer of good.” It will be so difficult as I have wrapped my life around her… it’s going to be quite an adjustment. Cath asked for nothing but love, and she got plenty.

So, to help Beverly out, I’ve picked up the blog for a while, trying to fill her shoes, and probably making a mess while I do it.

Life is pretty fragile. Perhaps we all need a quilt somewhere.