V & A checkerboard quilt - revisited

This afternoon, I got the corner triangle sections added to this contemporary fabric remake of the V & A checkerboard squares patchwork I did over Christmas (more info on the first version here), as shown above. The fabrics are all from Moda's Sultry range, by Basic Grey. The first version I made over the Christmas holiday is shown below, when I was attempting to capture the mood of the original quilt. The blocks in my version are smaller (4in finished squares rather than 6in), so I ditched the small scale (1/2in squares) mini checkerboard blocks from the design and substituted them with sixteen patches with 1in squares - there's still quite a lot of those.


I found this quilt intriguing because, on the face of it, it looks like the squares were arranged and then the patchwork assembled in strips, at least that's how most quilters would approach it today. As I wrote in earlier blog posts (go back to December 2010), the original quilt clearly wasn't made this way and is really a medallion or 'frame' quilt, even though the border progression is camouflaged by the checkerboard squares. It has a lot of complex rotational and reflective symmetry going on in what, at first glance, looks like very little organisation of the fabrics (there are a few deliberate oddities in there though). I love quilts like this, were there is so much to look at and retain interest in the prints, even in simple matchy matchy fabric games.

The pink version was made the same way, working from the centre outwards. There were fewer fabrics in this, although I used (probably) the whole Sultry range. The dark browns give the central arrangement more weight and drama than in the original, although the darker patches don't extend throughout the piece quite as much.


The pink takes on the role of the red and the lime green, to a certain extent, the yellow. The increasingly busy prints in the patchwork's corners and the low value contrast between the colours merges one patch into another far more than the original maker did. Including some of the lime greens in the checkerboards at random makes the blocks pop.


Why do something like this? It has been a learning curve of a different kind but, as well as the obvious desire to have those museum quilts for myself (remade to look close to the originals), the activity of selecting the fabrics and going through the same stages of construction (even if by machine, not hand) is one way of getting inside the head of the original maker - if that doesn't seem a peculiar thing to say! We have so little infomation about the people who made these quilts in museum collections, this is one way of making a connection, at least for me.

Why choose a very obviously modern range like Sultry for the second patchwork? Largely for a ultilitarian reason - it really was what I had on hand. I used the range for the Log Cabin chapter in '130 Little Quilt Blocks' ('130 Mini Quilt Blocks' in USA & Australia) because I wanted a very bright, contemporary look for the traditional Log Cabin blocks. Starting out with a Layer Cake (10in square stack) and a Honey Bun (1 1/2in strip cut, like a Jelly Roll), I still had most of the cake left over and the strips hadn't been used at all. Being a 2009 range, I couldn't find any more in the shops, but spotted two fat quarter bundles up for grabs on eBay, plus some yardage in the dark brown houndstooth (I will also use that for binding, while the repro version will have the edges turned in and butted, English style). Bringing the patchwork bang up to date in the fabric selection also shows just how timeless many of these antique quilt designs can be.

Here are some of the 'mix & match' computer generated quilts created for '130 Little Quilt Blocks', just the ones done from my reference photos - they look much better in the book.


Quilting ideas - I will use Mountain Mist 100% cotton wadding (batting) for the repro version as it is very thin and excellent for handquilting and 80/20 cotton/poly for the Sultry one for alittle more 3-D to the quilting (I will preshrink the wadding though). The repro to be handquilted, with a grid and concentric squares similar to the original, while the pink will be machine quilted - I acquired a stunning lime green thread shading through to white while at Quilts UK, and will use that. Not quite sure of how I'll quilt it, but it will probably be something similar to the original, just using the harder lines of the machine quilting to make it look different.

Next? Sewing a border onto my repro patchwork based on the Sarah Wyatt quilt (also in the V & A) . Big tacking (basting) session coming up!

Oh yes, and I don't 'do' pink... usually...

V & A checkerboard quilt top

Mary Jenkins (author of the Little Welsh Quilts blog) posted on Facebook about the original checkerboard quilt in the V & A's collection, which is featured in this video of author Tracey Chevalier looking at quilts as part of research for a novel.  It reminded me that, although  pink and green modern update of this quilt was finished in 2012 (quilted by Ferret), I haven't yet quilted the one above.  There's always a few tops waiting to be done!

To sash or not to sash - that is today's question!

There are a lot of blocks I made for "Japanese Taupe Quilt Blocks" that haven't been assembled into quilt tops yet. I plan to make sampler quilts from them, as I did with the blocks from "Japanese Quilt Blocks". The brown blocks (below) were made with the idea of a simple checkerboard sampler quilt, alternating patchwork and applique blocks in a checkerboard without sashing, as I did with the sashiko and patchwork blocks in the "Kasuri Sampler" quilt from the previous book. I am going to add a striped border too, using my favourite tsumugi striped cotton. The blocks are shown together in the diagram below.


The dark blue fabric in the kasuri quilt is the same dark blue tsumugi cotton in the sashiko blocks and the patchwork blocks, woven with a black warp and blue weft. Although the new quilt is closely coordinated, there are many more fabrics used. It might look better if I add sashing strips between the blocks, like this (mockup) -


The woven sashing effect is one of my favourites. I used it in the "Kamon Sampler" below and have used it again in the Kimono quilt on the cover of the forthcoming "Japanese Quilt Inspirations".


If I use a wide stripe instead of the ombre shaded fabric above, it should be possible to achieve a slightly 3-dimensional effect to the weave, like with the more convetionally pieced sashing on this sashiko sampler.


The tsumugi stripe I would use for the sashing is the same one used in the border on the "Hakone Yosegi Sampler" below.


What do you think? I could get the quilt basted and work on it during my trip to Australia too, handquilting of course.

Antique quilt inspirations and two forthcoming exhibitions

Antique quilts have such wonderful designs and two forthcoming exhibitions will no doubt provide more inspitations.  At York, the Quilt Museum opens their new exhibition, 'The Blossoming of Patchwork', on May 18th.  With its focus on early printed fabrics, this promises to be very interesting and it will include some well-known quilts and coverlets from the collections.

One of the quilt images being used to promote the exhitbion online is the Mrs Billings coverlet which appears as a tiny thumbnail on the exhibitions page - here's a link to the larger image in the Heritage Collection online.  I'm looking forward to seeing this intricate early patchwork.  Australian quilter Karen Styles has drafted templates for a version of this patchwork, shown here on her website.  It's got a few changes from the original, but they are hard to spot and the effect is really lovely.  I wonder if there will be some more quilts inspired by this complex patchwork coverlet after the exhibition.

The patchwork in the photo at the top is my version of a checkerboard quilt that was shown as part of the V & A's 'Quilts 1700 - 2010' exhibition in 2010.  Like Karen's version of Mrs Billings' coverlet, it isn't identical to the original. I was interested in the process of creating a quilt with a similar effect to the original but not necessarily a replica, so I resized the squares so I could use charm packs. It's two thirds the size of the antique quilt. I left off the mini checkerboard blocks visible at the edges of the original quilt in the photo below (one taken by Sally Bramald when we attended the bloggers' preview), because the pieces would have been really tiny - less than 1/2in finished.  More links re my V & A repro quilts here.

 

Many of the quilts from the V & A's exhibition are about to be shown in Brisbane, at the Queensland Art Gallery, 15th June - 22nd September 2013, so our Australian friends will have a chance to see them and, I hope, be just as inspired to make their own modern versions.  If you can get to Brisbane, don't miss these quilts!

Hexagon Quilters and the Rice Sack Bag Revisited

It's over two weeks ago now that I had a great bag making workshop with Hexagon Quilters at Reading, after the Sashiko and Japanese Country Textile talk the night before (glitches with a worn out wifi router at home and my week in Ireland led to my long blogging break - new router now installed!) Some more variations on the Rice Sack Bag (my favourite) were created. From left above - Kaffe Fasset printed stripe used for panel and strap; Cathedral Windows panel combined with Ricky Tims fabric; checkerboard panel coordinating with colourful tsumugi stripe; scrap panel with same tsumugi (closest to the original bag panel, which was foundation pieced from scraps); Thai patchwork panel combined with Thai (?) ikat; straw coloured Japanese fabric with blue tsumugi stripe; blue/brown colourway of Robert Kaufman's "Imperial" collection with brown tsumugi. Endless possibilities for making this bag very unique, as you can see.

I also remembered to take some work in progress photos during the class. We were in a very comfortable church hall, with a view of the gothic church through the back window and the old churchyard on the other side.


This lovely quilt is a version of my Kasuri Sampler from "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match". The fabrics are from Euro Japan Links Limited (see my links menu right). I love the inclusion of the soft lilac and turquoise fabrics. Otherwise, it is probably it is one of the closest versions to the original, as even the border fabric is the same tsumugi stripe - I'll add a photo of my Kasuri Sampler at Quilts UK 2007 so you can see them both together (may have to do a blogpost rounding up all the versions of this quilt sometime soon!)

Pink, Green and Brown Checkerboard quilt

Ferret mentioned yesterday that my quilt is currently on the frame. She's freehand longarm quilting it with a central design inspired by wrought iron swirls in browns, then leaves and flowers in pinks and greens, followed by more brown thread towards the edges and corners. Can't wait to see it. I'm entering it for the National Quilt Championships 'In the Pink' charity challenge at Sandown Park in June. EDIT - I forgot to menion that the fabric range was 'Sultry' (by BasicGrey) for Moda.


The quilt was inspired by one in the V & A's collection, and I made a scaled down 'replica' version of that first, which will be hand quilted (sometime!) -


The main theme category is 'Garden Party' and it would almost have fitted that too, although I have another quilt that I might finish for that - one I started for Wrexham Quilting Circles first theme challenge, 'Split Nine Patch'. That will tell my WQC friends that it's a quilt that's been on the go for a long time. I tacked it and started quilting it a long time ago and it's a quilt that always ends up on the back burner. We got it out of my UFO pile a couple of months ago and I decided it really should be finished asap, as I still really like it. Lots of shaded greens and, surprisingly for me, plains - I don't use a lot of flat colours in my quilts, but these shade from turqouise into purples. I'll have to find my stash of Steph Francis threads to finish this one.

Quilts in progress

I finished the top of the "Dryslwyn" quilt before New Year and would have liked to post a photo before now, but we haven't had the combination of weather and light to allow a photo outdoors. It isn't quite as large as the V & A checkerboard top shown in the same blog post (click the link above) but it is still a reasonable size - about 60in square - too large to photograph easily in the house.

Continuing the theme from those, I worked out a version of a quilt from Omagh in the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum (shown on p93 of "The Quilts of the British Isles") and this quilt in the V & A's collection. The "Lee" quilt is quilted in a wineglass pattern, according to the description, although I can't make out all of the pattern so well in the detail photo - maybe it will be easier to see in the exhibition catalogue print. There is an illustration of the quilt centre, up to the large zigzag border, in the V & A's desk diary for 2011 (on a quilt theme), but I think the only photo in the exhibition catalogue is a detail of the corner. Now I'm starting to make my own versions of some of the quilts, I wish I could remember a bit more detail from them. I should have made sketches as well as taken more photos at the bloggers' preview. Keeping the maths reasonably easy, my version of this quilt would be 110in square finished, slightly larger than the original. At that size, I think I'll be paying to have it longarm basted. I couldn't baste something that large and keep it square. The quilt appears to be of Welsh origin and I would like to do something a little more elaborate on it for the quilting than just the wineglass pattern, although I would probably incorporate that and use the patchwork borders to frame the quilting designs.

While sorting out fabrics for this new project, I got sidetracked into making up the centre for this quilt.

Quilt in progress - giving in to more checkerboard blocks!

After trying to stick with the idea of only using one Honey Bun roll (forty 1 1/2in wide strips cut across the fabric) to make the sixteen patch checkerboards for the quilt I wrote about yesterday, I decided I liked the look of them too much to skimp on using them on the outer sections of the quilt. So I am part of the way through making another twenty four, using thirty two strips cut across thin eighths - this time the fabrics at Collections for a Cause "Hope", which coordinates well with the strips I used for the first sixty two blocks. I've taken out the mainly red prints from the selection, and added more mid indigo blues.

Repro quilts - medallion quilt centre panel

One of the difficulties in making your own version of many early nineteenth century quilts is finding something appropriate to use for the central medallion.  Quilters back then often used specially printed panels, rather like the 'cheater' panels and cushion panels sometimes made today, as the focal point of their quilt design.  Finding anything that substitutes for these adequately is a bit tricky, even though there are plenty of attractive and authentic reproduction fabrics around for the rest of the quilt.

The 'Sidmouth' quilt is in the Quilt Museum's collection.  I love the simple borders of squares and X patches - ideal for using 5in charm square prints - and the touches of cheddar yellow, madder reds and icky overprinted greens make it a very cheerful quilt. Click here to see the quilt in more detail in the Museum's online collections.  I started making notes for a repro of this quilt a few days ago, but got stuck for the centre panel.

After looking online to see if there was anything suitable (just checking out the usual fabric stores online), I more or less decided that the best I could do would be to use one of the two remaining reprints of the Fife coverlet centre in my stash.  I think these were printed over a decade ago and they are definitely in short supply now.  They are also much smaller than I really wanted.  The Fife coverlet is in the Quilt Museum's online collection resource - click here.  I've already used this panel for the centre of my V & A checkerboard repro quilt (shown on the cutting mat with the central patchwork arranged) and I didn't really want to use it again.

 

This afternoon, the Quilt Museum posted on Facebook - it turns out that they have reprinted the Sidmouth quilt centre as a panel and it is available in their online shop!  Here it is.  I ordered one straight away.  Mine will become the centre of a modern repro of the Sidmouth quilt.

 

What an amazing coincidence! I hope some more repro panels are in the pipeline.  I would love some yardage of the Circles quilt too...

Quilt design inspirations - not always Japanese...!

Some quilters seem to think that all my work is 'Japanesey', but what do you think? 'Time and Again' (above) is probably as much retro as anything, while 'Spinning Squares' (below) is an abstract block - not even any Japanese fabrics there (although it would look lovely with lots of colourful gold prints).


When I first started quilting, I had just returned from working in Japan and I didn't have many non Japanese fabrics. Quilt shops were thin on the ground (I didn't know of any in the early 1990s that were local to me), so my other alternative was making quilts from my dressmaking scrap bag, mainly 1970s and 80s fabrics, with lots of Laura Ashley and Liberty materials. While I was inspired by the work of Japanese quilters, who were in turn often inspired by traditional American quilts, I don't think my quilts generally are very obviously 'Japanese'. True, I often use the geometric designs traditionally seen in Japanese fabrics, architecture etc. but very little of my overall output features kimono, geisha, koi, dragons or whatever, and much of the vintage Japanese kimono fabric I sell is selected for it's abstract or retro designs - I don't have much with things like Japanese landscapes and I just don't sell 'geisha' fabric at all.

Quite a lot of the following quilts were featured in 'Compendium of Quilting Techniques' ('200 Quilting Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets'), so you may recognise them from there, but some are more recent.

A lot of my quilts have been inspired by other things, from Celtic design ('Solstice', my triangular quilt) ....

...to traditional British culture & folkore ('Fish & Chips', 'The Fabled Hare', 'Dancing Colours')...


... as well as antique quilts in the British tradition.


The remake of the checkerboard medallion above, in contemporary fabrics.


I like my retro 50s inspirations too!




The retro cot quilt uses blocks from the 'Retro Revival' chapter in '130 Little Quilt Blocks' -


The red and white 'Fanoe' quilt which is appearing in the latest edition of Fabrications magazine was based on cottage doors in Sunderho, Fanoe, Denmark.


'Lulea Blockhus' (Lulea Log Cabin) uses scrap bag fabrics in a random arrangement based on old Swedish utility quilts.


This earlier quilt, 'Roman Perdu', is just a scrap quilt -


My Oriental Log Cabin Sampler looks just as good made in Kona Bay Japanese prints or another colourway - mine is at the top, while Michelle Boyd from Chester Ps & Qs made the second one, begun in my workshop. I think the red and black one is by Eilish Lund, from Wrexham Quilting Circle.


'Masu' uses the Courthouse Steps construction with textured Japanese wool kimono fabrics, but the 'square in a square' result is very abstract (and not a pagoda or geisha in sight!)


Even a lot of the quilts made using my 'Japanese Circles and Squares' workshop design don't look especially Japanese. The blue one was made by Charlotte Coghill at last January's workshop at The Royal Hotel, Bridlington, while the mixed up batik patchwork blocks became my 'instant art quilt' version. The next is inspired by Chinese colours and patterns, while the last uses the same block design and layout for a community arts project.



Super Strips is based on the 'Hearts and Crosses' coverlet in the collection at the Quilt Museum, York. The original is made from C19th prints. This one by Margaret Evans from Gresford Craft Group is made from batiks -


This is my 1930s style print version and the crumb quilt made from the leftovers -


Maybe people only think I made quilts like this? LOL Hope you enjoyed the eye candy anyway.