Kaffe and the museum quilt

I have always been a huge fan of antique quilts and reproduction fabrics.  On the sideline of all that is my love of Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  So, it all came together for him and me when I found his book. Museum Quilts.

And in particular, this lovely Folk Art Quilt.  It has been sitting on my radar for quite some time, and then I saw Barb Vedder's version where she added some of her own drawings, and used some from Kaffe's book.

The original quilt is held in the Victoria and Albert museum in London.





 
Kaffe's version is somewhat different, but really charming.  Anyway, I started it this week.  There was a bit of work to get it started as the drawings had to be increased 200%.  Eek!  my copier does not do that.  So off I went to Officeworks, and they did if for me as a "plan print"  -  great big sheets - for $11 for 5 pages.

Now, the really important thing is that I am machine appliqueing!  Yes, I have gone over to the dark side (in some cases).  I taught myself machine applique bit by bit over the last couple of years, and the instructions in the book are for machine, so off I went with it. 

 

It is quite interesting the way this large quilt is made .  It is made in 15" blocks, with some designs appliquied in the centre, like these, then once the blocks are joined, there is more appliqued over the top of the seams 

 Three blocks side by side, then once joined, the Chook (Aussie speak for hen) is appliqued over the seam.  Doing it in small sections like this, makes it easier to handle in the sewing machine.

So far I have used fabric only from my repro stash, but I might have to use some of my little collection of Kaffe Fassett prints.  That should zoom it up a bit! 

I am still working on my hand applique project, but that can be done at night when I have the TV going and kind of looking at it, and then I can do an hour or so on the machine during the day,

A bit of detective work

A couple of weeks ago I found this photo on Pinterest, and it was love at first sight!

I traced the image to Barbara Brackman's blog, but after that it went cold.  I decided to make the quilt anyway based on the image, and just kind of "winging it".  I did put out a few questions on Facebook and here and Sylvia actually gave me a bit more information.  She directed me to another blog post, this time to countrythreads blog, and was able to tell me that the quilt is held by the Hampshire Cultural Trust in England.  I sent them an email, and crossed my fingers, and they answered me!

So here is some of the things they told me.  It is a cot quilt (guess we knew that) and the size is 83cm x 88cm (32.5"x 34.5") ...very little indeed.  The background fabric is cotton, and the red border, and the red applique is twill wool.  The other applique is done in cotton prints and all completed using herringbone stitch.   The shapes have been done with paper cutting (which I had already started) and the other squiggly bits, are all Broderie Perse!    The lovely lady (I think it is a lady) named Sam is going to dig out a few photos and send them to me. I can't wait for the that, so have already started making it myself.

So far, this is what I have done.  I wanted to make it all from fabric from my stash.  The background is linen, which I already had, and all the others, except the green print, I already had.  The green print was from my friend Penny, 'cause it was just the green I wanted, and it had a wiggly print. I love wiggly prints.  I had no idea what size it was,  so just used the width of the linen which was 54cm and cut the length the same.  Then I visually divided the centre into 3rds, and decided the size of the big stars would be 18"across.  All the other shape sizes worked in after I did the big star/flowers.

 I cut all the flowers out of freezer paper, and drew the designs on the back (for back-basting applique)

With the big star/flowers, I was able to attach the design fabrics by sewing on the sewing machine.  Works just the same, and much quicker to get started.

 now with the small pieces too, they are all folded into 8's, open up and draw the shape you want.

 Fold back again, cut out the shape through all the layers, and voila!  Lovely little flower shape.

This is the flower shape on the edge and centre of the quilt.  It is a little bigger in my cutting, as I want to do needle-turn and the original is wool, and that could be a little small because of the way it is appliqued,

So if you think you might like to have a go at making your own, this is how I started, just measuring and cutting.  The 4 leaf clovers are about 5"across, the ladies are about 9" high - all based on the idea that my background is 54"square.  If yours is smaller, then adjust the size accordingly.

Eventually I will make a pattern for it, but in the mean time I am happy to help you do it this way.  I bought some red linen for the border, and as yet I have no idea what I will put on the border.  Just waiting on those extra photos.   Hope they come.

Some changes

I now have an Etsy shop!

Don't get too excited, as it just has one thing there - my Bling Bling Baltimore quilt pattern.  Apparently my Legend and Lace website requires major upgrades, or a new website, and I have decided it is now time to move on.  It looks like I started this Etsy shop in 2013 and never followed through with it, as it was just hanging there waiting for something from me.  So, over time I will start moving my pdf patterns to Etsy.  I think it might be easy enough, and will change the link on the side of this Blog as I get them done.

So,  now back to what I have been doing over the last several month.  I told you that my DH got sick while we were travelling, so that gave me lots of time to sit about and do some hand sewing.  I got this quilt finished while sitting about

This quilt is from a pattern my Susan Smith called Stevie's Garden.  I called mine Midnight in the Garden.  I was lucky enough to win two ribbons for this at the recent Adelaide Festival of Quilts.  One for the applique, and the other for Hand Quilting.  Not many people are doing hand quilting these days, so it can be worth the effort.

Once this was finished I had to wait for some inspiration to come along.  Lucky for me that has happened!  A few close ups of the new quilt I am working on.

I have used lots of my really old Repro fabrics

This is the centre and working out

Working title is "No Quilt Police Here!"  I plan that it will be quite random after I get the main parts in place.

A few more things that have inspired me this month.  the first one is an original image, via Pinterest, of an antique quilt held in the Victoria and Albert museum in England.  I actually saw this quilt when the exhibition came to Australia about 5 years ago.  I know that Kaffe Fassett has made a reproduction of it, and I have it on my horizon as well.

 This one is from Barb Vedder, who used some of Kaffe's drawings from his book Museum Quilts, plus original drawings of her own.

I spend far too much time on Pinterest!  These random kind of quilts I find really appealing.  this is another English quilt centre from the V&A.  Pattern has been produced by Caolyn Konig

Very close to the original  - once again taken from Pinterest.  I tried to crop it, but would not play, so you get the black bits around the photo.  Sorry,

It pleases me that I have some inspiration again.  I did do a lot of sitting about and thinking, but not doing, so a good step forward!