14 August, 2007

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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12 August, 2007

Little Elements of Fire



Little Elements of fire - folded detail


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.



Log Cabin Quilt WIP 26 of 35





WIP - another corner



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.


Log Cabin Quilt sketch

Quilted but not finished yet.

Little Elements of Fire - 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 Elements of fire - red and white quilt