A weft yarn

Kaffe applique: Dolly quilt block

Date: March 2013

This dolly quilt was a kit from February 2011 and about that time Kaffe Fassett was visiting Australia, calling on the ladies at Material Obsession, and running all sorts of workshops. He was even in Canberra and there's a great story over on Buttontree Lane about her amazing experiences in colour, while at a workshop with Brandon Mably and Kaffe Fassett. I know, right.

The notes from this dolly kit tell us that:

In honour of Kaffe Fassett's visit to us this month, we bring you this beautiful miniature version of Kaffe's Folk Art quilt from his book "Kaffe Fasett's V&A Quilts" link here >  Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts published in 2005

If you are wondering what Kaffe's full sized quilt looks like, this blog, with the fabulous title of Fabadashery, gives a review in 2013 of a Kaffe Fassett quilt exhibition and features the Folk Art quilt. Another quilting blog has some fantastic photos of the same exhibition and also has a lovely story about Welsh quilting and its revival. I read a fascinating story in Selvedge volume 33 (March/April 2010), pages 39 onwards (if you have a subscription you can view it online) about welsh quilting from the early 20C (1920s or so). Worth a read if you love historical tidbits about textiles and women's lives and amazing embroidery skills.

Like 99% of the textile world, I love Kaffe's fabrics, and one of the fabrics that we'll use in the dolly quilt is from Kaffe's Folk Art line. We're using the orange one, though it comes in a full range including, blues and pinks and greens.

As part of my process, I laid out the templates on the fabrics and started experimenting to make my selection.

Kaffe drew his inspiration from this coverlet in the Victoria and Albert Museum - the story of which is quite interesting in its own right and seems to date from 1850s onwards. Given our modern sensibilities I'm always so interested to see how drab are the colours of the fabrics from the past...it takes some adjusting to get my eye in and to see the details and liveliness of the prints. I have the same reaction when I see the authentically reproduced Civil War quilts as well.

Me - I'm a girl of the Kaffe Fassett Glorious Colour brigade. Though I do love this story of inspiration, reinvention, and our links to the past. And, I'm thinking based on the details of the 1850s inspiration quilt that the meaning attributed to the images is potentially political (probably anti-slave trading) and certainly thoughtful. I told my daughter who was interested in the story of this dolly quilt, that these images: hearts, shoes, boots, teapots, jugs, vases, houses were everyday items that signified powerful love of domesticity and even material wealth, done by the folk of the time. So, not high art but material culture and its relevance and meaning to our lives.

Here's a copy of the template for Kaffe's full sized quilt, showing which of the images have been used on the dolly quilt version. I got this image from google books.

There's a lot of mess tools used in quilting and one of the more unexpected ones to me was the toothpick, of which 3 arrived with the kit. There's a prize if you can find it in the mess below.

 The instructions told us to:

trim your applique pieces to a scant 16th of an inch and clip curves and finger press. To position your shapes either tack, glue or pin in place. [I just pinned]. Revealing the toothpick mystery: use it to turn the fabric under as you are slip stitching (or blind stitching). Hold it in your mouth as the slight moisture makes it work even more effectively! Another tip learned from Becky Goldsmith last year.

It worked a treat and I loved hand appliqueing. It was funny though. I was kind of reluctant to hand sew the quilt because I do so much hand work through my needlepoint and embroidery. However, I loved this little project and it was my favourite quilt block.

In the photo below, I've managed to applique most of the images to the dolly quilt. This was 11 straight hours of hand sewing with no one home. They were all away and I spent the time sitting and sewing - Jane Austen by day, and Godfather by night. I'm really pleased with the progress on it, though somewhat worn out by the obsessive appliqueing. My technique has improved from the Ode to Susan but is still a long way off quilt show standard.

And if you are interested in other versions of this quilt, you might like the story over here from 2009 > at Fun with Barb where a couple of women use Kaffe's Folk Art quilt as inspiration.

My sampler dolly quilt blocks are done and now I just need to give each a border, trim to a standard size, sew them together with a plain inner border, and place the butterflies fabric around the outside as the outer border. So, yeah. Done. (snicker).

 

Previous Posts

 

Ode to Susan McCord: Dolly quilt block (March 2013) 

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block finished (March 2013)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block finished (March 2013)

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Ode to Susan McCord: Dolly quilt block started

Date: March 2013

With four blocks done, it is time to start one of the two blocks that has some hand sewing on it. This Material Obsession dolly quilt is a tribute to Susan McCord's Trailing Vines quilt. This was all new to me, so I was really keen to dive in and read the project notes.

Looking back at the women who have shaped our quilting destiny is a favourite activity for many. One amazing woman was Susan McCord (1829-1909). She was "an ordinary housewife with extraordinary quilting genius", Her quilts are featured in Quilts of the Henry Ford, which is a lovely book full of examples of stunning traditional style quilts.

The McCord Vine Quilt is my all time favourite quilt and is made of nearly 4,000 strip pieced leaves appliqued in 13 vine panels...by candle light and with five children... I have always wanted to make her quilt but a dolly version might have to suffice for now. So here is an achievable McCord Vine Quilt, minus about 3,970 leaves.

Wow. Love it, and off we go.....

It is a fantastic technique for using up scraps of fabric and as we know, you can become attached to favourite bits of fabric that hold special meaning. And you could just want to be resourceful and make sure you waste not. As this is a sampler project, I could see myself using this technique in future but for now the kit came with quite a collection of small bits of fabric off cuts. These we were instructed to cut into uniform widths, something that Susan did not do on her quilt, and then sew them together into four strips per mini block.

When I thought about the historical references for this quilt I was a bit curious that it had a reference to Henry Ford. Images of Model T Fords did not seem particularly resonant with quilting. And certainly, before I started this little project, I didn't know much about the Henry Ford Museum, but if you go to their blog you'll find this explanation.

Pretty cool stuff.

I then did a search on their blog for quilts and found an interesting article for quilt researchers. Not sure I'm as interested in diving into this form of textile research, as I'm spending so much of my time on 17C embroidery, but just in case, and for a future date, I'll add this mental note in here > the quilt index may be worth a look. On first glance, its a pretty serious tool for research, with detailed search fields intended for academics. But then if you roam around and look at the themed galleries Contemporary Massachusetts Quilts, Quilts and Mathematics in Education, Christmas quilts....its the usual rich diversity. A lifetime could be spent here. In the meantime, iron your little 4 strip patches.

Then make a little plastic template of a leaf, buy a silver gel pen, and trace the pattern onto your 4 strip patches.

Then do not absorb the information that tells you to leave a seam allowance. Cut out your leaves on the gel pen line and when trying to applique them, notice they are too small. Start again. This time, leave a seam allowance. Keep all the discard leaves in your note book to remind you (besides they are pretty). Again, I had plenty of fabric in the original kit to do this, and even though I do not quilt a lot, I already have a great scrap collection. So, then you sew the rick rack on and in the photo below I have placed the leaves, but not yet sewn them down. It isn't the final placement, rather just a see....this is what it will look like.

Before I show you my finished product, and just in case you are interested in seeing other wonderful tributes, back in 2011, there was a quilt-a-long for a version of Susan McCord's Trailing Vines quilt. There are some interesting links in the post, if this is your thing.  Here is another lovely tribute to the Vine quilt of Susan McCord's and finally, Barbara Brackman has an interesting article about Susan McCord on her blog. The article discusses a new quilt of Susan's that had just been discovered, as well as some interesting variations on Susan's technique.

As Barbara says " She seems to have invented the string-pieced applique vine....... Nobody else used it---until of course we all made our own."

Glad my cat likes it.

 

Previous Posts

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block finished (March 2013) 

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block finished (March 2013)

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

 

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block finished

Date: March 2013

I started this block in April 2012 and then packed it away. I pulled it out again in March 2013 and finished it on a weekend over two days. It was lots of fun watching the pattern come together and it was a family favourite as I sewed it. I received visits at the sewing machine and everyone, Nick, Tess and Tim all loved it and kept an eye on my progress, commenting as it went "oh that looks good".

The instructions provide you with all the cutting and piecing details. The cutting was reasonably straightforward, and certainly there was more than enough fabric so any mistakes were easily re-cut without any dramas.

The thing that I found complicated was sewing the little rectangles together so that they were 'square', if you get my meaning. When I was sewing the angled seam, in way too many of my little rectangles, I'd end up with one side slightly higher than the other. Eventually I worked out that if I aligned my two pieces with one side poking out by about 1/4 inch then it sewed perfectly. I made a little mental note on the whiteboard above my sewing machine.

Once I'd sorted that little technique out I was able to sew the rectangles together quite quickly, in a little string. In my notes, I recorded that I had to make 156 rectangles.

Then you place the rectangles together in a set pattern (one A, one AR, two B, two BR etc, etc). As I did that I noticed that I'd always cut my originals on an angle moving to the right but sometimes you need to cut on an angle moving to the left. So, back to the cutting and sewing, but as mentioned, I had plenty of fabric and ended up with some left over as well. No dramas.

You then sew the patterns into little 9 blocks. The 9 blocks are gathered into a 12 block pattern and then a 2 block top and bottom is added to that.

 Below are all the individual 9 blocks laid out ready to go. As in ready to be sewn into the final pattern. The photos taken without the flash given a better impression of the pale green colour that is the contrasting fabric.

 And in the photo below its all sewn together: mini fractured. I love it. I've spoken about my approach to quilting as one of learning and trying not to be too fussed. So I wasn't after perfection. I didn't need to lines to join exactly spot on, rather I wanted to enjoy myself, learn some quilting skills and put together something that I liked. I'm really happy with the outcome below.

 

And then I sewed the border of black and white polka dots and it really popped (snicker).

 

And finally added it to its companions. 4 of the 6 blocks done! You'll also notice my border fabric right next to the mini fractured block. It is an Australian print, Under the Australian sun 2, Butterflies on Charcoal. Leesa Chandler for Robert Kaufman. I bought one metre of it from Hobbysew on special and the rest from the quilt shop at Gold Creek. It feels like this Dolly quilt sampler is on its way.

 

Previous Posts

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block finished (March 2013)

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block finished

Date: March 2013

Ah, that's looking better. Last we saw this it was 'learning experience'. Now, it is nicely pressed and ready for show and tell. The missing white fabric was purchased from Hobbysew in Belconnen and cut and sewn together.

My notes on sewing it say "sewing was very easy. Went together quickly and without any dramas". Check out my seams. I'm really lifting my standards here. Neat. Flat. Much better than my first few attempts.

Did I mention that I love these fabrics? The colours are harmonious and the patterns are organic and yet there are bursts of sympathetic colour.

In life I am quite keen on randomness and on harmony. I think you can have both. When given the opportunity to do random things, like put wedges together to form a column, I just grabbed what came first, made some really minor adjustments (for harmony like) and then sewed them together. I think its because I work in statistics that I like to work with randomness. I love that patterns and repetition just happen accidentally. I love that something like artistic creation requires discipline, precision and control but within that, we can allow for accidents and intuition. Romance and Structure.

Making it neat. Nice.

Then finally, in the photo below you can see that I've completed three of the six blocks. Woo hoo. Loving this process of quilting.

 

Previous Posts

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Mini Fractured: Dolly quilt block started

Date: May 2012

Given the Tanglewood dolly quilt block has ground to a halt, I press on to the next block - the Mini Fractured. One of the things that drew me to Material Obsession was the quilts posted on the blog, and in the books, use colour in such a bold and fabulous way. And this quilt block is a perfect example of that. I love the bright pinks and orange and green of the main fabric. In the notes that come with the block, it says

"I selected them to have an extreme of light and dark variation with the light having little to no pattern so as to accentuate the contrast".

So the contrast fabric is a pale, very pale, mint green with a tiny, little, barely noticeable stripe in it.

At this stage, my dolly quilt mojo is starting to run thin and I spend a few hours cutting out the rectangles and begin to contemplate construction and then some life happens, the project gets bagged up and labelled and put away under the bed in the back room. Bye, Dolly quilt blocks.  Enjoy the peace. See you in the future.

Previous Posts

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started (May 2012)

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Tanglewood: Dolly quilt block started

Date: May 2012

I am working on a sampler quilt based on the Dolly quilts from Material Obsession. It will have six blocks  as the feature of the quilt with some sashing to pull it together. So far, I've managed the Zig Zag block and the Bush Rose block and here I've started the Tanglewood block.

The description for this block is:

Tanglewood is made in strips. It is super easy to make. While making this quilt up, think about borders on quilts or even sashing. We often fall into the habit of using a single fabric to be quick but a handy tool like the wedge/segment ruler makes short order of interesting border treatments or great active sashing strips between applique or pieced blocks. The point is to add interest where we can.

Now for this little mini-drama, the point is to question what exactly does "super easy" mean? Love the fabrics by the way - Arcadia by Sanae for Moda. Take a good look at them below....cause one of them isn't meant to be there. I accidentally cut up the binding strip and added it to the pattern. Sigh. No biggie. Press on.

Just as a distraction from my sorry tale, I thought you might like to know I'm using my knitting blocking board as a design wall. It has a black felt cover and works perfectly. It kind of stands on end next to my sewing machine, up against the bookshelf and I can stick the pieces on it as I cut them out in error. Just sayin'

So in the next moment of divine inspiration, I then cut the contrasting white fabric into thin strips...and I was thinking about what?

Here's me trying to 'rescue' or 'redesign' the pattern. I have sewn the wedges together into their strips and am trying to see if the incorrectly cut white fabric could just work. Never fear, sense prevailed and instead I packed it up and put it back under the bed - as you do. One mistake I could recover from – I wasn’t planning on binding the quilt but the second one was a road block.

I would need to buy some more white fabric. That's definitely for another day. It is a super easy pattern, its just that a girl's gotta learn.

Previous Posts

Bush Rose: Dolly quilt block: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

Zig Zag: Dolly Quilt: from Material Obsession (May 2012)

 

Bush Rose : Dolly quilt block : from Material Obsession

I was thrilled to finally get started on the Dolly quilts. They have been slowly collecting into a program of epic proportions.  I am not yet sure what I will do with the blocks or Dollies. Originally, I was thinking that they would just be dolly quilts...but I'm not sure I need dozens and dozens of dolly quilts. I'm wondering now if I can't somehow sew them into a complete quilt. I'll give it some thought as I go. This week's Dolly Quilt is called Bush Rose and is made from beautiful Aboriginal design fabrics from this company.

This little quilt is exactly my kind of thing. I love the pattern, the fabrics and I also enjoyed learning how to sew it together.

You cut rectangles and squares. The small dark squares become the design focal point. The point around which the design rotates.

At first it looked like the small dark squares formed into rows, but then the twirly pattern as well as the rows became apparent. I guess good designs can take on multiple forms as you gaze at them. I also love the way so many fabrics, colours and designs are used but yet the underlying integrity of the images on the  Aboriginal fabric blend together into a new-almost-dot-painting image.

The instructions for how to sew it together had me a bit confused at first. Not because they were confusing. More because I had never done this before, so I didn't have much experience to help me visualise the process. When the instructions said to sew each small dark square to a large square, half way down the seam. I understood it but didn't understand why I would do that. I had laid out the design on the floor of my study/sewing area.

As a way of moving forward, I just started piecing the quilt top together (ignoring that particular instruction) and then after I had sewn the first 12 or so pieces together, I understood the requirement and did as instructed. In the photo below you can see in the top right that I've sewn a block together of about 12 pieces. Below them are a few of the 'two squares sewn together' and below them are the blocks laid out in the orignal pattern.

You can see in the photo below, I've sewn a large block to a small block and sewn half way down the seam. The blocks then need to go back into the design in the correct place so I needed some system to make sure it all made sense now that the two sewn together pieces no longer looked easily recognisable.

I settled on a method. I put the two squares together, one diagonal row at a time. When I finished the row I put it back down on the pattern in the correct order. Then once it came to piecing the whole top together I sort of added a horizontal row at a time. I had photographed the original design and so uploaded it to the computer.

With the image on the computer screen as reference, I placed the partially completed quilt top on the chair next to the computer - looked at the image and then selected the correct '2-squares' from the laid out design on my study floor.

It might sound a bit confusing, and it's obviously not essential that you understand this, I just felt really pleased with the little system I got going to sew it together. It helped me retain the original design and get a bit of a production line thing happening. After I did all this, and the quilt top was done, I thought maybe I should take the advice of both Material Obsessions books, other quilters and the Dolly instructions themselves and look into a design wall. So I could get up off the floor. It wasn't too hard with the dolly sized quilt to be down on the floor, and I was really thrilled how to work out a sewing method that very quickly settled into a pattern, with no mistakes, but perhaps there's an easier way.

I did a bit of reading, looking at blogs and reveiws for products and decided that the quickest solution for me, without heading out of town (either financially or physically) was to hang a flannel sheet on the back of the door. I'll look into a better long term solution later down the track. For now, voila. Two completed dolly quilt tops and miraculously they are about the same size!

Zig Zag : Dolly quilt : from Material Obsession

I made a quilt when I was in high school. It travelled the world with me, was much loved, fell apart and then two years ago, I decided to try making another quilt. So, I did a course, made my Dad a very simple quilt with lots of love and flaws. Then made a cot quilt for a friend's first born, then started a massive quilt for our bed ....then in 2010 signed up for a Block of the Month program at Material Obsession called Dolly quilts. It has now, two years later, morphed into a BOM called Starting Blocks but you can find on the MO website the original dolly quilts as separate one-off purchases (or if you are crazy ....like moi...you stay with the program while it morphs from Dollies to Starting Blocks and you can keep receiving little packages of goodness) .

My early experiences of dipping myself back into the world of quilting was that it was large universe of details and precision and I didn't know where to start. So after I had a couple of goes and realised I had a lot to learn, I put myself on a quilting infusion drip. Material Obsession came within my radar and Kathy's blog is in my blog reader as - let me check..it's either in my Favourites (collection of gardening, crafting, cooking, political blogs) or it's in my Craft - everyday Reads group. OK - everyday reads.

As time has passed, these monthly drips have overflown their storage container and really...I..MUST...DO...SOMETHING...with all these little packages. First cab off the rank - Zig Zag quilt. As part of the Dolly program, because you sign up to dolly programs to learn - make samples etc, you are probably interested in trying new techniques, acquiring patterns, fabrics and tools, rulers and templates. Purchasing the added bits are always optional - but I usually always opted in. This month, we got a Flying Geese ruler.

After much cutting - you position the triangles at odds to each other (that's a technical expression) and then sew them together into rows.

Here you can see my rows laid out on the study floor next to scaleable items. You see it was never mentioned anywhere (I would have ignored it even if it was) what size the finished object Dolly would be. I happen to have two dolly quilts, which were actually used to tuck dolly in...and note the difference? The MO zig zag dolly quilt is about 20 inches square - slightly bigger than a fat quarter. Ah, interesting.

I was rather pleased when I sewed the rows into the block that I managed to keep most (if not all) my triangle points. My first few experiences of patchwork cutting and sewing were more on the 'that's done' side rather than the 'quilting-guild-badge-of-honour-precision-sewing' side. I'm still on the bell curve down on the 'that's done' side but would like to see how far towards 'precision sewing' I can move, without bending myself out of shape. I don't want to win awards, I just want some beautiful objects, something warm on our legs in front of the TV and I want to learn as I go.

If you're interested, I found someone on the interwebs who seems to have made a number of dolly quilts. Back in 2009, she also signed up for Material Obsession's dolly quilt program. She seems to be still blogging, but not so much quilting.

It's always funny reading really old posts...there's quite a story in the link-throughs on that blog. Dolly quilt swaps 1, 2 and 3, unkind words, one quilter pointing out that someone's quilting just "wasn't up to standard of a swap"....ouch. Like many people, I got involved in swaps when I first started reading, and then writing, blogs. To be honest, I found them pressured and anxiety ridden (or is that me?). There were deadlines. There were questions one asked oneself about one's competancy...am I good enough for this? And there was always the odd feeling that even though they said 'thanks ...I love it"` was it really useful or beautiful to them? So, I stopped doing swaps and maybe it's where I read these days, but I don't notice that many these days. Do people still do them? Personally, the bake-along that I did was the most fun, least stressful, kindest group of women to share an activity with. I wish I'd signed up at the beginning instead of the end. But hey, that's life.

Flower garden quilt progress

I have done quite a bit of work on my flower garden quilt. In order to make the quilt top, I needed to cut 144 squares, sew them into 16 9-blocks, then cut them up into 64 blocks. Divide and conquer. I have completed 48 of the required 64, so only another 16 blocks to go. In a fit of excitement, I laid the blocks out on my bed without any particular order or thought going into the layout. I followed a pattern but no thought was given to whether this print looks nice alongside of this print.

The accent fabric is a dark brown and you use the dark brown to determine a pattern. As with all geometry, there are a number of patterns that can be created. It would be hard to discern the pattern from the picture below - nonetheless, there is one. Can you also see the angel? The bright sunlight has cast an interesting shape onto our bed. Namaste.

And then the cats joined me. As you do, when stuff is going on - fabric on the bed. The conversation between the new black boy kitten and the well-loved older girl cat goes like this "I'm new, I love you, bite bite bite". Her answer is hissssss, scat "none of this is necessary. Biting is NOT a sign of love".

A flower garden quilt

In 2010, after making a couple of simple, small quilts, I took another quilt course at my local fabric store that was advertised as a "Divide and Conquer" quilt. Now this kind of a title wouldn't necessarily appeal but the quilt of that name was hanging in the store and I really loved it. It was big, made out of Japanese fabrics (as in Japanese themed fabric) and had a kind of appealing randomness to the pattern.

I decided, given my love of dirt, and that my first, much loved, much treasured, used everyday quilt had a floral orange and brown theme I would make a riff on those themes. So a Flower Garden quilt was born. The pattern of the Divide and Conquer quilt needs an accent fabric and I chose a dark, chocolate brown (from the Japanese fabric range used in the store's quilt). This dark brown fabric isn't actually included in the photos below.

The selection of fabrics for my quilt came from a Sew Mama Sew sampler put together by Hillary Lang (oranges/brown/florals). I actually had picked this out and bought it long before I decided to make this flower garden quilt. And I had purchased a whole swathe of Anna Maria Horner Garden party fabric - again pre-quilt course. I'm fascinated by the way some creative projects seem to come together from serendipity. Two separate purchases, two different times, a Japanese quilt in a fabric store .... but underlying all that serendipity are actually broad themes running through one's creative imagination. Anyway, here's a selection of photos of the fabric laid out on the floor.

They are laid out in 9 patch blocks because that is the start of the whole sewing process.