May 18, 2013 by timquilts

Blast From The Past

I recently purchased a quilt made entirely out of polyester double knit fabric. Before you become totally horrified at the thought of that let me explain why.

I believe that these quilts are an important part of quilting history . Quilting was for a long time assumed to be dying out of popularity.

We tend to think of America’s 200th birthday in 1976 as the beginning of the latest quilt revival. Jonathan Holstein and Gail van der Hoof began collecting quilts at the end of the 1960s. In 1971 they were able to display the most fascinating of their quilts at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

These 2 events caused a gradual increase in women wanting to learn to quilt. Popular women’s magazines began to include more articles about quilt projects. Quilters used the fabric at hand which was often double knit. Double knits went out of vogue for clothing during the 1970s but they were used to make quilts.

So these double knit quilts do fit into the history of quilting. They were really at the beginning of the quilting world that we are in now. By 2010 it became a 3.58 billion dollar industry…with patterns aplenty, the most complex of machines and tools, hundreds of magazines….blogs!

Poly quickly went out of use as quilters started to look for more traditional materials….and shops dedicated to the quilter began to operate. In many ways the polyester quilts of the 70′s are the grandparents of the quilts of today.

My quilt is tied not quilted. The backing needs replacement because it is rather worn and the batting is in shreds! Older batting was not resin bonded and needle punched so after several washings it ended up clumpy and bumpy and migrating everywhere, and with a tied quilt there is not quilting to hold that batting in place.

But the top is in great shape! The double knit fabric will seemingly never ever wear out! So I plan a bit of a face lift for this quilt. I will replace the backing and the batting, and I will do some simple hand quilting….once that is done it will last for many more years of use.

Here are some pictures of the quilt (click to enlarge)

I put the rings quilt on the couch and Teddy decided that was pretty cool….but when he gets up there he always lands in the center of one of the circles.

Today I spent the day on the MSU campus for the annual plant sale (I bought a few myself and will write about that when I plant them) Tonight I am going to work some more on my whole cloth quilt. I have the center of the quilt in the hoop today and I will finish that area tonight. It still drives me crazy that the seam is right there in the center but I am trying to get over that. Also I don’t think I need to be driven crazy…I can walk from here.

Happy quilting

Tim

May 15, 2013 by timquilts

Rings Quilt Finished

I started this quilt last summer and got back to it this year. I finished the top on April 22 (see that post here)

I started quilting it on May 5 (see that post here) and I did a short video of the quilting (see that here)

I use about 400 yards of thread on this quilt, and the quilting took about 10 days (between a few other projects).

I decided to piece the binding with black and white fabric to match the inner border. The fabric was sewed together in strips

then cut at 2 1/2 ” and joined together. I cut it 2 1/2″ wide and folded it in half….then machine sewed it to the front, folded it to the back and hand stitched it to the backing.

I used muslin for the backing

The “puffiness” comes from the poly batting. I felt that if it had been finished back in the year that it was started the original maker would have used poly.

Here are more pictures (click to enlarge)

It was dark when I took the pictures but It just came out of the dryer and I couldn’t wait until morning to take pictures.

Now back to work on the whole cloth quilt.

Happy Quilting

Tim

May 14, 2013 by timquilts

Dogwood Blossom Quilt Top

A new vintage quilt top today. The pattern is called Dogwood Blossom

This top is 70″ x 83″ and mostly hand pieced.

The piecing is not the best work but I will do some adjusting on that.

Click to enlarge these

And here are a few garden pictures

I should be finished with the rings quilt tomorrow

Happy Quilting

Tim

May 13, 2013 by timquilts

Red and White Applique Blocks

Today I got a group of antique quilt blocks from eBay. It is difficult to date the blocks because the fabric is solid red and white. Printed fabrics are much easier to date based on the design. These I will just call old.

The blocks are not completed. The pieces were cut out and basted to the squares, but I will need to do the applique. You may remember that I hate to applique….but I could not resist these blocks!

One of the blocks has the applique started.

The seller was selling them individually, but I bought all they had. I got a total of 13. Each block is 18″ square

Here is how they look if I set them 3 x 4

and here is how they look if I set them on point and use all 13.

Either was think I will make a border to coordinate with the design. I can not find a name for the design but I will keep looking.

The seller also sent 2 additional blocks

These will go into another project some day.

Here are a bunch of pictures of them all (click to enlarge)

Of course I will hand quilt this when all the applique is done….but that will be a while yet!

Happy Quilting

Tim

May 12, 2013 by timquilts

Bridal Bouquet Quilt Top

A few Days Ago I wrote about some Bridal Bouquets that I made .

I was reminded that there is a quilt pattern from the 30′s called Bride’s Bouquet. It is also called The Nose Gay.

You may not be surprised to know that I have a quilt top in my collection in this pattern.

When I bought the quilt the blocks were arranged differently, they were placed together so that they looked like complex stars.

The most traditional setting is with the blocks set on point as in this example from the quilt index.

The blocks are also usually made with all the bouquet handles in the same color, usually green as in this example.

Mine were all different, and I took them all apart and set them back together like this.

It also has an ice cream cone border. The finished size is 80″ x 90″.

many of the pieces have seams which I presume to be from when they were feed sacks

I had planned to quilt this right away, and then new projects kept piling up on top of it and I forgot all about it.

but I really like it, I think I have to move it up in the stack and get it quilted. Here are a bunch more pictures (click to enlarge)

Happy Mother’s Day

and Happy Quilting

Tim

May 11, 2013 by timquilts

Free Form Fans

Yesterday I worked on some of the border on the Rings quilt. I decided to do free form fans. With this quilt I just quilted and let it happen because I did not want to do any marking. I am happy with how it is turning out. The poly batting is making for a rather “puffy” quilt, and in this case I like that.