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.

Liebst du der Rose Pracht hab'auf die Dornen acht.

My latest fleamarket treasure. It is very old, way to delicate to really use and I am afraid it could break from displaying it alone. But I love it.

The German text reads if you love the rose’s beauty be aware of the thorns.

It has all the marks of its age, the dayly use and the fequent washing. Threadbare and already loosing a few of its Redwork stitches it still is simply beautiful.

I took this photo in front of a window to show how thin the fabric of this Redwork piece is. The darker parts are done in traditional embroidery with white floss. And you can see a few Redwork lines are already missing.



Here are a few photos where you can see the different stiches in white floss used in this redwork piece.




























If you want to re-create the piece here is the pattern I traced from the original.

IKEA hack - "Turntable Ironing Board"

I saw this Clover „Turntable“ ironing board in many of the japanese craft magazines and thougth it would be quite handy. As Clover does not sell it in Germany and I remembered the “lazy susan tray” at IKEA I made one myself.

Material needed: SNUDDA (lazy suzan tray 39 cm) from IKEA 5,99 €.




Cotton fabric, and heat resistant batting (mine is from an ironing board cover). The batting needs to be cut exactly the size of SNUDDA, the fabric appox. 10 cm bigger than SNUDDA.

Make a giant yoyo with a rather strong thread, put the batting on top of SNUDDA and cover both with the yoyo. Pull the thread tight and voila…

Nursery Rhyme Pattern in Jayne's Quilt...

I kind of love the nusery rhyme pattern most as all of them have the little text line in it.

Little Miss Muffet



Sat on a tuffet,
Eating of curds and whey;
There came a spider,
And sat down beside her,
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

On Project Gutenberg I found the book The Little Mother Goose published in 1912 by "Good Housekeeping Magazine" with the lovely illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith. All of the nursery rhyme pattern in Jayne's quilt are based on the original artwork of this female illustrator.

Apparently her work must have been quite popular in her time as those Mother Goose illustration where already available as Redwork pattern then according to Deborah Harding

Later on the pattern was also published by Butterick. A re-print of that vintage Butterick pattern is available from
Patternbee


Jessie Willcox Smith- Bio Links
http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Smith.html
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/jwsmith.htm
http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/illustrators/smith.htm

and the wounderful Children Book Illustrator site www.nocloo.com with some of her artwork:
http://www.nocloo.com/gallery2/v/jessie-wilcox-smith-garden-verses/
http://www.nocloo.com/gallery2/v/jessie-wilcox-smith-north-wind/

May I introduce Greta Lillian Rutledge

Jayne’s Grandmother and the quilter of her Redwork Quilt.

I have a little green cardboard box with all he finished Redwork blocks of my re-make of Jayne’s quilt. It is like a little treasure trove, by now it contains 11 of the quilt’s squares.

In a file folder I keep the patterns in all their different stages.

• the printouts of the photo jpgs Jayne sent me from all the individual Redwork block in her quilt, for which I am ever greaful
  
• my tracings on overhead films which I made from each block to act as my pattern masters that I scanned and then resized to fit the fabric squares I choose
  
• and last but not least all iron-on transfers of the final pattern I made by tracing the pattern on the back of paper print-outs
  

I also filed all the little stories Barb send me, the mails I received on my progress and the comments that where made on the photos in my flickr photo file.

And very special pieces in my little collection are the two b&w photos Barb sent me. A potrait of Greta Lillian Rutledge which was the source for my Redwork picture you can see in this post and another b&w print showing Greta Lillian and her little son Floyd for whom she made the quilt so many years ago.