What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Taking good care of antique and vintage quilts is taking good care of family, textile, and social history. It’s a wonderful journey! 

My next workshop will be held January 27 - February 24 2024, on 5 consecutive Saturdays.  All the details and registration are on my website.  If you have questions, contact me here or at annquilts@comcast.net. 

Restoration

Conservation

Preservation

Philosophy

Techniques

Supplies 

Each student can present one (or two if time allows) quilts for discussion of how, when, and why to use the various supplies and techniques. All eras and styles are welcome.  This will be our ...

Quilt Repair Tidbits.  The next (somewhat) weekly installment of quilt repair tidbits and photos.

This week’s tidbit:  A hand-me-down set of vintage/antique Mosaic/Grandmother’s Flower Garden blocks.

I’ll be teaching a virtual quilt care and repair workshop in winter 2024.  One thing I’ll be talking about is learning how to tell the age of the fabrics in old quilts.  These blocks have a secret key to their age. 

All the info about the workshop is on my website.  And you can email me to be added to the interest list for notification when registration opens ...

The next post of fun quilt repair moments. 

This week:  a prize-winning family heirloom quilt.  Check out the design and sewing skills, about as perfect as a quilt can get.

I hope this beauty will inspire you to join in the virtual quilt repair and care workshop that I will be teaching in winter 2024.  All the info is on my website.  Email to be added to the mailing list for notification when registration opens.

The workshop will cover restoration and conservation supplies and techniques and how to choose which to use, and also, fabric history, and preservation concepts like ...

The second installment of weekly quilt repair tidbits and photos.

Schoolhouse quilt, c. 1915-20

This week: a wonderful schoolhouse quilt, a lovely and unusual rendition of a favorite traditional block.  One of the benefits of working with antique and vintage quilts is that it’s like having your own up close and personal quilt show!

I hope I can inspire you to join the virtual quilt repair and care workshop I’m planning for winter 2024.  All the info is on my website.  Email  me to be added to the mailing list for notification when registration opens.  

The workshop will ...

The worktable.  Grandmother’s Flower Garden c. 1980

I’m starting a new little outreach project here.  A weekly tidbit and photos.  A new insight or skill?  A really cool fabric?  Who knows what it’ll be!

This week’s tidbit:  I’ve found myself ending up patching with fabrics that at first glance I was sure would look terrible.  They certainly aren’t exact matches, but end up being just right.

My underlying goal is to inspire new students for the virtual workshop I’m planning for winter 2024. All the info is on my website.  And you can ...

Here comes some thinking and wondering that I've been doing lately.

Over the last few years, people have been asking me to repair soooo many really seriously damaged quilts from the 1960s-70s and onwards.  For the most part, these are family heirlooms, made by beloved grandmas and great-grandmas.  

I'm thinking that what I'm seeing are the quilts that have been used and loved and "used up" in the old-fashioned terminology. 

Many are not fancy in pattern or workwomanship.  Part of this is that in the 1950s-70s era, the making of super intricate quilts kind of drifted off ...

This small quilt that came to me for repair is a family heirloom with a touching story.  

Here's the story as told by the owner:
Thanks so much for restoring this quilt.  It was made for my grandfather around 1962-63 after he suffered three consecutive heart attacks.  Two women who worked in his accounting practice made the quilt, so it is precious to me.

What made the repair fun for me were the fabrics.

The fabric with the most disintegration was probably silk, given the nature of the damage.  But the rest are probably rayons.  (I didn't do ...

I am fascinated by this quilt.  It was brought to me for minor repairs by the granddaughter of the quiltmaker.  (Thanks to her for the photo above.)  Not only are the design and fabrics really interesting, but the stories about the woman who chose them are great, too.

First, the design.  I don't remember ever seeing a quilt like this, with it's plain, all-white center panel with a frame and the deep appliquéd drop around the sides of the bed.  Have any of you seen such a quilt?  

My mind wants to place it in the 1960s and ...

Hi, everyone!  I'm announcing a new video on my YouTube channel.  It's a bit of a tour of my quilting studio and fabric stash.

You'll see fabrics, new art quilts, and loads of doo-dads.  

Click here to access the video.

Please come visit!  

(You can also find my channel and see the whole video collection, and my interview on the Just Wanna Quilt podcast, by searching in YouTube for my name - Ann Wasserman.)

I went to a church rummage sale recently and bought two ziploc bags of rick rack, bias tape, and seam tape for $2 per bag.

I sorted the all-cotton from the synthetic. 

Remember when stretchy lace seam binding/hem tape came out?  And iron-on hem tape? (Fusibles have come a long way since the late 1960's.)

These are Coats & Clark.

Quilting

I have been very bad about blogging. I was surprised to see it has been almost 3 months. Time is slipping away.

I went to our local Bernina dealer, Hinkletown Sewing to get a new foot for my machine. I saw this bag behind the counter and asked if I could have one. How cool is this!? I love how the handle for the bag is the handle for the machine.

I did a swap this spring with During Quiet Time with her book, Petals and Stems. The idea was to make a top and bottom but don't sew ...

Day 36: Airplane Blanket This family favorite was made for my kids, in the late 90s, from a delightful print of animals flying airplanes.

I found these blocks in a rural antique shop in upstate NY in the early 90s - there was a big ...

 Day #25: Tokyo Life

I made this quilt in 1999, a cathartic project working through memories of living in Japan for a year and a half, in the early 1980s.

Tokyo was indescribably dense, and everything seemed tinier than in the US - cars, furniture, cups, plates, clothes, and especially the people. Most of the women and many of the men were smaller than me - I felt like a massive Barney the Dinosaur, especially when perched on ludicrously petite chairs. Each day, I lumbered through a fascinating shopping street, decorated with strings of artificial flowers. The novelty fabric in the center ...

I made this quilt in the 90s, finishing the work of an unknown quiltmaker.

Recently I shared my Vintage Halloween Economy Blocks on the blog, and I promised you there would be a tutorial. So today I’ll be sharing some information on how I made my blocks, including tools, tips, measurements and basic assembly instructions. This post is not a pattern for a full quilt, so there will not be fabric requirements. But the great thing about the Economy Block is that it fun, easy and a great way to use up your scraps and stash. Let’s get started!

Vintage Halloween Economy Block
Size:
4 1/2” (unfinished);  4” (finished / when sewn ...

I have a weakness for vintage inspired children’s fabrics. They remind me of my favorite children’s books . . . tender stories of sweet boys and girls finding adventures in their everyday lives, learning lessons of kindness, honesty, resilience and even bravery. Every illustration was a small work of art, inviting me to another place and time. It’s no wonder that I couldn’t resist this darling Halloween themed fabric with a vintage vibe.

The focal fabric you see at the center of my blocks is from a Halloween collection by Belle and Boo, which is a company based in ...