Antique Hand Quilting Blogathon - Hexagon Medallion Day 14

You may have noticed I like antique hexagon quilts. This hexagon medallion from the Starley Antique Quilt Collection is full of wonderful novelty prints. The hand quilting is the traditional outline around every single hexagon.

Look at all the wonderful novelty prints!! The bird above and flower below are from a crazy quilt cheater print.

That pink/red hexagon with the bell is an 1876 Centennial print (made to celebrate the Centennial of the United States, 1776-1876). Remember the 1976 Bi-centennial hoopla? Well, the Centennial was a huge event as well.

The full quilt! Love the rounds of color. So well done.

More Antique and Vintage Quilts from MOKA & Cindys Quilts

More treasures from MOKA Quilt Study Group. These are all from Cindy Rennels of Cindy's Quilts from Oklahoma and they are all available for purchase.

Cindy brought this charming Rocky Road to Kansas especially to share in KANSAS!

And she brought its friend a crazy quilt Rocky Road to Kansas. Love how different the two quilts are though they are made from the same pattern. I actually share a couple of my own Rocky Roads in my trunk show: Patterns through Time which compares versions of the same pattern and teaches quilt history. *Available to come to your shop or guild.

And here's one of her Star Quilts in masculine browns with stripes adding a lot of movement and interest. And a bit of her Flying Geese too.

Antique Crazy Quilt - Cotton Crazy Quilt

Generally, when you hear the phrase "crazy quilt" you think of high style fancy silk and satin and velvet quilts with intricate embroidery and over the top details but not all crazy quilts are fancy or made from silks.

This is a simpler version but still a "crazy quilt" and made out of cotton. Starley Quilt Collection. Late 1800s. Individual pieces are foundation pieced onto fabric squares.

Arts and Old Lace Challenge - Art Quilt

As I've mentioned previously, I love to make challenge quilts - quilts made for challenges issued by fabric companies, quilt shows, guilds, organizations, etc. A couple of years ago Artistic Artifacts issued the Arts and Old Lace challenge and this is the quilt I created. Part of my Rising to the Challenge trunk show/lecture.

Here are the materials I received to create my quilt - lots of suiting samples paired with summery stripes and seersuckers and buttons and lace.

One of my favorite techniques is to take the challenge literally and spell it out in paper pieced letters. I used fancy stitches on my machine to highlight the letters and quilt the quilt at the same time.

I used the lace to frame the center of the quilt. I hope you'll be inspired to find a quilt challenge and create your own masterpiece!

Antique Horse Quilts - 31 Days of Antique Quilt Treasures

Love this folky Christmasy quilt with a lot of unusual horse appliques. It is not common to find horse appliques  on antique quilts. Birds and flowers and wreaths are usual but not horses.
Thanks Sharon W.! It is from New York state. It is actually a signature/name inscribed quilt but most are too faded to read.

Here's a horse and rider from a crazy quilt dated 1885.

Most of the horses seen on antique quilts are found on novelty/conversation prints. Equine motifs were very popular in the 1880s and 1890s.

 Here's another. Both are on tumbling block star quilts from Lancaster Co. PA

I do have another appliqued horse on a quilt with a few funky appliques and cheater cloth prints too. Dated 1887.

You just never know what you'll find on a quilt ... joining the horse above is an appliqued pig along with a strange doll/person, an anchor, etc.  The red mariner's compass next to the horse is a cheater print, the sunflowery one is pieced.

31 days of Antique quilt treasures - Day 4 more novelty printed patchwork

That blue butterfly is part of an 1880s faux crazy quilt fabric below. Scroll down for the full quilt.

Such a great fabric with simulated stitching and crazy quilt motifs.

 Love these figures and of course the bird and look at the blue stripe on the bottom row is another printed patchwork, cheater print.

 And the center fabric below with the Liberty Bell is another 1876 Centennial print. Remember to always look for them in later 1800s charm style quilt. 

The full quilt -what a beautiful hexagon medallion, circa 1885.

Antique Quilt Treasures for 31 Days -Blog Challenge

I love sharing my antique quilt collection here and in trunk shows and classes, so please feel free to contact me, if you'd like to see the collection up close and hands on.

Here's a detail of another late 1800s quilt with printed patchwork (star with flowers) and lots of fun and funky details. Starley antique collection.

Here's the full crazy quilt top. This is a cotton crazy, quite different from the fancy silk and velvet beauties of the same era but with many of the same design motifs, cats, fans, flags, etc.

This block shows the Japanese influence that likely helped created the crazy quilt phenomena. The lower left piece is from another printed patchwork depicting scenes from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado opera.  This is the crazy quilt block pattern and could be pieced in an uneven/crazy method. 

Day 13 Hexagon Medallion

Wow, can't believe I'm on my 25th post of the month between my two blogs. Don't foget to visit Quilt Art Star to see my antique repro and art quilts. That is more posting than I did in 2013 and 2014 on both blogs combined. Thanks again to Cheryl Sleboda's 31day blog writing challenge.

Today's quilt is a stunning hexagon medallion from Stella Rubin. c. 1890. It has lots of novelty prints including many from a cheater cloth crazy quilt print from the 1880s and a couple of 1876 centennial prints.

Love this fox whose after a butterfly :)

And this lovely lady though the bird next to her didn't fare well in the fussy cutting

And this gentleman appears to be her companion. Charming flowers too.

And a little bugler with a bird from the crazy quilt print and a delicate little cheater print bottom right.

Antique and Modern Quilt Adventures in Southern Utah

Feeling a bit (crazy)

Need a quilt fix, come on down and see us in St. George, Utah, January 6-10 at the 2nd annual
Quilt St. George retreat.

This is one of the classes I will be teaching.

I will also be doing 2 in-depth  half day antique quilt sessions.  Patterns Through Time and Sign of the Times.  Great opportunity to see lots of museum quality antique quilts, up close and really examine them.  What an amazing way to learn quilt history.

**I will also be doing appraisals**

And whether you already love applique or have never tried it, my Red Rock Mini Landscape is the perfect class for you.  You'll get to make an easy yet very impressive souvenir of your trip to Southern Utah.

And that is not all I'm doing in St. George, click on the link to see all my activities.

Quilt Alliance Twenty Contest - 2 days of Voting Left

Detail of "It's All About the Dots"

 The voting for the 2013 Quilt Alliance (formerly the Alliance for American Quilts) is now open -- through Midnight Eastern Saturday June 29th. My entry is quilt #88, It's All About the Dots. It is machine paper pieced from my own patterns and machine quilted/embroidered in crazy quilt fashion.  Another of my "Word Play" quilts and a 'literal" interpretation of the Challenge title.
 I hope that you will consider voting for me. You must be a member to vote but it may not be too late to join the Alliance; an excellent organization that does so much to preserve the history of American Quilts. I especially enjoy the Quilt Index. If you join by June 28th, Amy probably will be able to email you a ballot. You can join on the Alliance website and pay by credit card or paypal, it is only $25.00 (tax deductible) and again it goes to a great group.

                                                 It's All About the Dots  20" x 20"
It was fun to make and I enjoyed using bits of my favorite fabrics.  Dogs, Cats, flowers, buttons, pins and of course, lots and lots of DOTS!

 

 

Cheddar Cotton Crazy - Great Novelty Prints

Detail of circa 1890 cotton crazy quilt top.  This block  and the whole quilt is chockful of great novelty and conversation prints.  Love the appliqued cat who hasn't lost her mitten. Also the novelty running horse and of course, the printed patchwork aka cheater cloth (a pretty famous print).
Note:  the printed patchwork star/hexagon was produced by Cocheco in about 1882.
  P.s. don't forget the wavy green 'eccentric' print in the bottom right corner.

Here's the full top.  You can see all the different blocks and large variety of piecing and appliques.  Quite a charming conglomeration.  Do an eye spy of all the motifs:  hearts, more mittens, boot, mirror, cross and more.

And here is one of the most known and sought after cheater or novelty fabrics:  the Mikado (Gilbert and Sullivan opera) this version done in a crazy quilt print.  A wonderful parrot? type bird and an indigo blue leaves w/shadows print.   

More terrific fabrics:  jockey cap/horse shoe conversation print; blue and black floral print from Hamilton Print Works printed 1881 (Lowell, Mass.) along with a moire or wood look print in pink; a border print; an ombre pink polka dot and a blue crinkle type print.  The Hamilton print is also found in red, tan and green.

Here's an old fashioned button shoe applique, a horseshoe novelty and a great sampling of 1890 pinks.  And below is another interesting block- reminds me of a kite or a pinwheel. Enjoy.

Cat and Horses on Quilts --Oh My!

Cotton crazy quilt top-detail of block circa 1890

Novelty print -cats and thread

Novelty print- horse & rider (polo pony?)

I'm very fond of novelty or conversation print fabrics. And thought I[d start sharing some of my favorites -both from my quilts and other sources. The cotton crazy quilt has lots of notable fabrics and funky folk appliques and the block above includes a cat along with a horse novelty fabric which worked well with the other 2 blocks I found in my photo collection.

The cats and candles and thread are too cute although they do seem like a fire waiting to happen. These were a set of blocks that got away- I was outbid. The cats and horse blocks were sold on eBay by JK Gardner. Both are also circa 1890. I'd love to see novelty prints in other collections, so please post and share.