Brothers Grimm Household Tales Quilts

This is a request for help I posted in the flickr “quilts and quilting group”. I am adding it to my blog posts not only to also ask anyone reading this for their inspiration and thoughts but above all to share the progress of this quilt project with you.

“I am working my way to a “Household Tales of the Brothers Grimm Quilt”. I am serious; this is my quilt group’s 2008 summer exhibition theme. You know the Brothers Grimm (the real ones not their movie version), don’t you?

By now I know most of their “fairytales” which are a surprisingly lot more (200 +) than the well known Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood etc. tales. Here is a list (and full text) of the Grimm’s’ Household Tales

I know their town of birth Hanau , went to their childhood home turned museum in Steinau an der Straße and paid the “Brüder Grimm Museum” in Kassel’s Palais Bellevue a visit.

Now I would like to see other quilters creative work inspired by the Brothers Grimm. Do you know of any quilts ideally on flickr or with a www link to the picture inspired by their household tales? Can you recommend a link to any kind of illustrations that would be a nice inspiration for a quilt? Any thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!”


Diesen „Hilferuf“ habe ich in der flickr group “quilts and quilting group”. geposted. Ich nehme ihn jetzt in meinene Blog Posts auf um auch alle anderen, die ihn lesen um deren Ideen zu bitten aber auch um die Fortschritte und Ideen dieses Quilt Projektes zu dokumentiern.
„ Ich arbeite mich zu einen „Märchen der Gebrüder Grimm Quilt“ durch. Das meine ich ernst, es ist das Jahresthema meiner Quilt-Gruppe für die Sommerausstellung 2008. Ihr kennt die Gebrüder Gimm (die richtigen, nicht deren Kinoversion)?

In der Zwischenzeit kenne ich so ziemlich alle ihre Geschichten, von denen es so viel mehr (200+) als nur die gut bekannten Aschenbrödel, Rotkäppchen etc. Märchen gibt. Hier ist eine Liste (und Text) der Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Gebrüder Grimm..

Ich kenne ihre Geburtsstadt Hanau , war im Haus ihrer Kindheit , dass jetzt ein Museum ist, in Steinau an der Straße und habe das “Brüder Grimm Museum“ in Kassels Palais Bellevue besucht.

Jetzt würde ich gerne die kreativen Arbeiten anderer Quilter / Patchworker sehen, die durch die Gebrüder Grimm inspiriert wurden. Kennt Ihr Quilts bestenfalls auf flickr or mit einem www link zu deren Bildern, die durch die Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Gebrüder Grimm inspiriert wurden. Könnt Ihr links zu jeder Art Illustration empfehlen, die eine schöne Inspiration für einen Quilt sein könnten? Jede Idee oder Vorschlage ist sehr sehr willkommen.!”
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Little Elements of Fire

The „4 Elements“ have been this year’s summer exhibition theme of my quilt group. I have been thinking about a red and white log cabin quilt for quite some time and choose to use that idea for the Elements theme.

I love to work with old/vintage cotton though this time the fabric was rather new; t used to be the curtain for my Berlin apartment a few years ago. 3,80 m high walls, big old windows and therefore lots of white cotton….

The red fabric is silk I bought from IKEA two years ago. And I have to admit I regretted using it. It is not colour fast especially when washed with cold / timid water; it suffered from the hot ironing temperature needed for the cotton and the edges frayed a lot.

The batting is the cotton batting 275 from Freudenberg. It is not very heavy; it looks a little bit like it has been felted which I why it does not loose its shape even after several washing or heavy use. Hand quilting it was pretty good too.

It all started with log cabin squares without measuring their size just sewing one after the other whenever I felt like it. Later I had to trim quite a few of them to size.

When I have already finished many of the squares I started planning the quilt. Thinking about it size, the amount of squares needed for it in the end and especially making up my mind about how to quilt it.

With the little doll quilt I learned how the quilting lines can change a quilts appearance and with the graphic strictness of the log cabin I wanted to add a little “chaos”, some softer lines to my quilt. That is why I went with an all over quilt pattern with circles and half circles to contrast the log cabin squares, again.




Quilted but not finished yet.




The finished quilt, photographed in front of a window with the sun shining through it. It is beautiful (I am biased I know…) and very comfy.

little red and white doll quilt

Something different, not exactly Redwork though I added a few running stitches in red just like aviva_hadas suggested.

Inspired by the doll and miniature quilts of the doll quilt swap I created my own version. The progess with such a small quilt is amazing only two nights and all hand piecing, basting and the first quilting lines were finished. If only my other project would go so fast. Now I wished it would grow into a big quilt all by itself…..


My little doll quilt as a WIP after two nights.

Vintage hand pieced Album Block aka Chimney Sweep Block

This is a vintage block I bought from Jane Lury of Labors of Love at the Carrefour de Patchwork in the Val d’Argent a few years ago. Again, as usual, it was the red&white color combination that made me notice it. But I also really liked the simple and grafic block pattern.

Back in Germany I started to research the pattern a bit and found some very nice quilts on the web pieced with this block pattern.

A beautiful example –

and the one I liked most…guess why… - can be found in an an article on the Quilt History site, which is by the way a great source if you are interested in vintage quilts!

Another example of a beautiful Album Quilt is on the RMSC site

As with quilt projects and me it take ages before I am ready to start. Sometimes I think the research and planning of a project is what I love most about this craft…However, I want to use the vintage block in my quilt and so far I haven’t found “the” idea, yet.

Nevertheless, I keep looking for Album Block Quilts and already marked a few sites with the pattern piecing instructions to be ready to go when I am ready to start…

• An Album Block instruction with foundations to print out
  http://www.threshpublications.com/kris.html
  
• A German text version:
  http://www.patchworkgilde.de/quilts/public/show.php?id=133
  
• This link is also for a pattern of the classic Album Block but the way the fabric color is used it looks kind of wrong but interesting….
  http://www.sewquilty.com/History/0105.html
  

If you find out more about this block pattern please let me know.....

Hand piecing detail of the Album Block aka Chimney Sweep Block

12 Carrefour Européen du Patchwork - Val d'Argent 200

12 Carrefour de Patchwork in the Val d’Argent was again – as every year has been so far – an amazing gathering of quilts and quilter from all over the world and across all quilt, patch and textile art disciplines. I just love it.

The old churches, public buildings like theatre and exposition halls scattered in the 4 adjoining villages are a rather unusual and very beautiful setting for the patchwork exhibitions. And a week-end spend with hundreds of other quilter which you meet in the exhibitions, shuttle busses, sidewalk café, hotels etc. is just as inspiring as the quilter’s shopping mall with international vendors and the textile artists that top this event off. What awed me was the fact that even though we seldom spoke each others language quilter’s of all countries seem to understand each other perfectly in front of the quilts they unanimously admired.

This year there were almost no Redwork quilts on display. Too bad, but it obviously is a quilt style just too simple for most of the avid quilter. The elaborate appliqué or colourful textile art quilts with lots of batik fabric and fabric manipulation still seem to be the thing among the patchwork community.

I prefer the vintage quilts (beautiful examples shown in the Villa Burrus – Collection of vintage Australian Quilts from Annette Gero) and the few examples of simpler / traditional quilts especially in red&white (very nice Quilts in the Austria Exhibition - this year’s guest of honour ).
Nevertheless, like many I was impressed by the craftsmanship of the quilts in the “Japanese Exhibition”. Yoko Saito showed amazing appliqué quilts with so many delicate details all stitched and quilted by hand

and the colourful quilts by Suzuko Kosegi were just as beautiful and an example of almost intimidating skills.





But also all the other quilts on display in the different exhibition venues were amazing. Léa Stansal work was another extraordinary example. According to the program her exhibit in the Espace Exposition in Lièpre (Venue No.) “Philosophical Tales” was “…inspired by Alsatian tales and particularly Hansel and Gretel. Léa has built either a fictitious world with original scenarios that include embroidered and simple stitches patchwork objects or large narrative quilts….” Nothing prepared you for the colourful explosion and almost pop art-like quilts.











I had great fun to see her work life and in “technicolor”. Most of it is in her latest pattern book “La trousse à couture Petit conte philosophique pour 20 objets à réaliser soi-même” which I am sure is available via amazon. If you are in to “something different”, funny and modern in quilts, especially for children, you’ll love her work.

There wasn’t a single exhibition that wasn’t worth seeing and even though many of the quilts and textile art pieces weren’t exactly “my cup of coffee” I enjoyed seeing the vast variety of patchwork techniques.

If asked for my favourite exhibitions that really impressed me most I would choose “Face to Face” by “Pascale Goldberg” in Rombach le Franc and the already mentioned presentation of vintage Australian Quilts from the collection of Annette Gero.

“Face to Face” by “Pascale Goldenberg”
I was intrigued by a quote in the exhibition program”“…new materials don’t interest me, they don’t appeal to me! It is not their “virginity”, but their “inexperience” that I don’t like…” Pascale Goldenberg prefers recycled materials that “sublimate a life” for quilts dedicated to life….”” A statement I can wholeheartedly relate to. I also love fabrics with a life and history.



And as an icing on the cake she used my favourite red&white color scheme in quite a few of her pieces. I just loved her work.





Antique Australian Quilts from Annette Gero

A quilt historian collection of vintage quilts and interesting pieces of history of the women in Australia presented in the Villa Burrus.

Not a single Redwork quilt (not counting two Kate Greenaway kids in this crazy quilt)





but a wonderful appliqué nursery rhyme quilt from the 1940ies.

It looks like Mother Goose was well known all around the English speaking world.

Not exactly quilt or patchwork but another interesting exhibit I enjoyed was from the “France Point de Croix”; a textile artwork called “Recycled Clothing”. Unfortunately the rather long description was all in French and the ladies “guarding” the display weren’t able to give an English or German translation/explanation. However, I liked it even without knowing the deeper meaning….




And then there is Jane Lury of “Labors of Love” all the way from Hillsdale, New York who sets up shop in the “Ancienne Sogenal” in Ste Marie aux Mines at least for the last three years. I always pay her a visit and look through the vintage quilt blocks she brings with her to the Val d’Argent which are the only items within my budget. Last year I found a few niece Redwork blocks and a “love at first site” traditional red&white patchwork block. Her collection (for sale) of antique quilts is breathtaking. She even had two Redwork quilts this year but then I am not able to spend several hundred dollars for a vintage piece (yet…). I envy Deborah Harding (author of one of my favourite Redwork books “Red & White American Redwork Quitls” who obviously purchased this beautifulRedwork quilt from Jane Lury. Unfortunately, other than in all exhibitions where photos are aloud, Jane asked not to take any photo, so no picture samples I could share with you.++++ little update +++ Apparently, this was not true, I must have mixed up the "please no photo" signs of the commercial exhibits/vendors I tried to respect. Jane was so kind to mail me and said I could have taken photos....too bad! But then there is the 13th Carrefour du Patchwork next year.

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But now on to this year’s Val d’Argent booty of mine: I was looking for a French Redwork embroidery book and did indeed find it for surprisingly little money (8,90 €)!





“Broderie Rouge” by Agnès Delage-Calvet (ISBN 2501-04657-99 has an almost “Japanese craft book” look and very nice, simple Redwork ideas. I wished there where more Redwork books like these on the market….

Another book or rather pattern collection I found by chance actually is “Le nappe de Gertrude” (Gertrude’s table cloth).





I saw a Redwork tablecloth in the booth of www.abcedaires.com and the very nice shop told me the story of this collection of vintage Redwork pattern used in this tablecloth. She also allowed me to take this photograph.

To my surprise, as it was a Redwork piece stitched in France, I already knew some of the pattern from vintage American Redwork quilts. The world a village already in 1899….







Notions (the “most wanted” rubber thimble – … and a few more pieces for my red&white fabric collection also went home with me.





Unbelievable but true, not a single vendor was selling the sulky cotton 12wt. But I found an Italian brand “AuriFil” with nice red 12wt cotton tread. All the other floss, especially the overdyed ones which I was really looking forward to, just didn’t appeal to me.

All in all I had a great time in Alsace and I am already looking forward to next year’s Carrefour the Patchwork.

Just to give everyone a glimpse of the vast array of quilts on display in the Val d’Argent I added a few of the 200+ photos I shot to my flickr file even though most of them are not “my cup of coffee”…

Waldspaziergang NinePatch

This is number 4 on my RedworkStitchers Group UFO list. A ninepatch I finished quite some time ago; I just couldn't decide what Redwork pattern to stitch.

I found the 2005 BOM on www.sulky-international.de/ Waldspaziergagn (walk throught the forest) with lot's of different leaves as applique and embroidery pattern. And as my patchwork group exhibition theme this summer is "Trees" it is the perfect match....

In the meantime I finished 7 1/2 blocks but don't have a current photo, therefore, here is the 4 1/2 blocks picture:



My nine patch has 17 white blocks to stitch and as the pattern only has 16 leaves I will add a little saying for the remaining block. Needless to say, it will be something about trees and in Geman...

Floor-Standing Quilt Frame for my Missouri Puzzle Quilt

My quilt is large, 2 x 2 m and I am still determined to do all the quilting by hand. When I took quilting lessons with Ester Miller in Berlin we worked on those wounderful floor-standing scroll quilt frames which I loved but was not willing to spend that much money on. Besides, those frames are like a bulky piece of furniture which I wouldn’t know where to put when I am not working on a quilt.

That’s why I was using a larger hoop frame at first and also tried one of those plastic klip frames a friend gave me. But to be honest once you worked on a large floor-standing quilt frame anything else just doesn’t feel right. And with the technique we learned from Ester Miller you need both hands free for quilting which doesn’t work with frames you have to hold in one hand.

I always thought about the quilting bees in the old days on frames they made themselfs and kept looking for “how-to’s” for a frame that would fit into my appartment. I did not find anything I liked that is when I started to make up my mind about my own version of a two poles floor-standing scroll frame and here it is:

The Material I used is:

• my kitchen table ;-) ( actually it is the table legs Vika Artur from IKEA which look a little bit like sawhorses but have two seperate top bars for adjusting the hight of your table. Between the two bars you can easily secure the side poles of your quilt frame)
• two wooden poles approx. 30 cm longer than your quilt (you need 15 cm minimum on both ends to hold the poles between the bars of “Artur”, smooth sanded otherwise your quilt fabric might get damaged. In my example I used flat ones but if I’d do is again I would choose round poles.
• 4 screwclamps
• 4 smaller “regular” clamps
• two pieces of 30 – 50 cm long string (I used cotton fabric string)
• two stips of Linen (or any other strong material) a little shorter than the length of your poles, widths 10 cm
• Only tool needed is a tacker with staples long enough to secure the fabric strips on the poles

Tacker the fabric on to the wooden poles.



Now you are ready to attach the quilt to the frame. As my quilt was a work already in progress it was “properly” prepared. The quilting design was marked and the backing, wadding and top where tacked with basting stitches. (on the website of Cotton Patch you can find a very good description of how to prepare your quilt and they offer the “real frames” too)

All three layers of your quilt need to be attached to the fabric stips on the poles. The fabric strip should be facing up ( see picture above) and the entire quilt needs to be smooth and flat between the two poles. If you are in doubt do it again otherwise you might regret it when you quilt it in your frame later.



Roll up the enire quilt on one of the poles and give it a little tension. First, put the “empty” pole between the sidebars of the “Vikar Artur” table leg (see picture below) and secure it on both ends with a screwclamp. Then roll off just as much of the quilt to barely fit the lenght of “Artur”. Pull it tight and now secure both ends of the second pole with a screwclamp.



With the “regular” clamps and the string I pulled the sides of my quilt tight (which is optional I think, see if you need to).



When you finished quilting the part of your quilt in the frame just open the screwclamps, roll the finished part on the "empty pole" and put all clamps back on.

Now when I finished the quilt or want to take a longer break I just disassemble the frame. I can put the quilt rolled-up on the poles under my bed and Artur will become my kitchentable again.

Redwork

Redwork Doll Quilt, originally uploaded by Redwork in Germany.

Die Sticktechnik ist denkbar einfach, in feinen Stielstichen werden die Konturen der einfachen Linienzeichnungen mit rotem Garn auf weißem Stoff nachgestickt. Die Einfachheit und der klare rot/weiß Kontrast machen den Charme von Redwork aus.

Wirklich bekannt und sehr beliebt war diese Form der Stickerei in Europa – wenig später auch in den USA – in den achtziger Jahren des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ein besonderes rotes Stickgarn (so genanntes Turkey Red = türkisch Rot) war ein wesentlicher Faktor dafür. Anders als andere farbige Garne in der damaligen Zeit war es erstmals farbecht und konnte daher auch zum besticken von alltäglichen, oft zu waschenden Gebrauchstextilien benutzt werden

In Deutschland gab es vor allem in den Jahren 1870 bis 1930 eine wahre Redwork Blütezeit. Der Begriff Redwork wurde damals hier in Deutschland dafür noch nicht benutzt.

Zuerst in den Haushalten des Bürgertums der Gründerzeit, sehr bald aber auch schon in den Kleinbürger- und Arbeiterhaushalten entstanden wahre Kleinkunstwerke in Form von gestickten Spruchtüchern und bestickten Haushaltstextilien. Wand- und Überhandtücher, Kissen, Servietten und vieles mehr wurden mit Redwork verziert. Neben dem Schmuck des eigenen Heims hatten diese handgearbeiteten Stücke immer auch den praktischen Zweck zu schützen und zu schonen.

Anders als in Deutschland wurden in den USA neben den bei uns bekannten Haushaltstextilien auch Decken (die traditionellen US amerikanischen Quilts) in Redwork gearbeitet. Die Motive, die gestickt wurden, waren vielfältig und oft aus Zeitschriften u. ä. abgepaust. Man konnte in den USA sehr bald schon kommerzielle Stickvorlagen kaufen und für wenig Geld auch Muslin-Stoffstücke, die bereits mit kleinen Stickmotiven bedruckt waren. So genannte „Pennysquares“ die zur Popularität von Redwork vor allem auch bei Kindern beitrug. Die bestickten Stoffstücke wurden zu größeren und großen Decken zusammengenäht. Einfach nur Rot auf Weiß oft mit Hexenstichen in rot um die Nähte zu verzieren bzw. zu verstärken.

In Deutschland ist Redwork heute nicht mehr sehr bekannt. Man trifft allenfalls noch auf Spruchtücher mit den antiquierten „Heimchen am Herd Weisheiten“ auf Flohmärkten oder in Heimatmuseen. Redwork Quilts aus alter Zeit hat es bei uns (meines Wissens) leider nie gegeben und fast alle Quellen über Redwork von heute und dessen Geschichte sind in englischer Sprache. was es deutschsprachigen „Craftspeople“ nicht immer einfach macht den Weg zu Redwork zu finden.