Amish Life & Quilts

Last Friday I enjoyed a most interesting lecture by Jan Jefferson who originates from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

On the right is a photo of Jan holding an example of a quilt made by an Amish woman to sell to tourists in modern times. It is an example of the 'Sunshine and Shadow' design.

The original settlers in Pennsylvania were very hardworking people seeking religious freedom in the New World.  The Amish dress very plainly with a limited range of colours. Jan told us that the women never cut their hair but always tied it back very tightly and covered it with a cap. The men are clean shaven until they marry. Then they grow a beard.  The quilts were always made for practical reasons out of scraps remaining from garment making. Fabric was such a precious commodity that everything will have been saved. Anyone who has handwoven fabric would understand this. 

This quilt on the left, is an example of the 'bars' style of design with four patch inserts. It was made in the late 19th century and has the typical print fabric in red and green colours used by Pennsylvania women. These pretty prints were very popular between 1880 and 1900. 

This one on the right caused quite a stir in the room!  The 3D blocks were amazing.

The pink quilt below with the flying geese is another example of 'bars' The colours were stunning and, on the whole, the same colour is used across the quilt on each row.  

The simplicity of this quilt particularly appealed to me. I hadn't been patchwork and quilting very long before I decided to concentrate on working with plain or solid fabrics. I think I must have been influenced by the Amish more than I thought.  The very early Amish quilts are stunningly simple in their design. diamonds in squares for example with an exceptionally limited colour pallette. 

Another quilt that made us all say 'wow'. It's an example of a design called 'Broken Star' made in the 1930's in Lancaster County, PA. The effect of the plain colours with silky cotton fabric is stunning.  It doesn't show up on the photograph but the 'plain' background has the most amazing hand quilting. 

Finally, my favourite of them all....this one below is a true scrap quilt. Made in the 1960s the maker used scraps with no plan or pattern. you really get the feeling that she was determined to use every last scrap in her possession come what may.

Baby Quilt Commission

Following Cambridge Open Studios, my friend Alison asked me to design and make a baby quilt for a soon to be expected grandchild. The mother to be loves elephants so that was the starting point for my brief. After an initial design Alison decided that it was a good idea to keep the quilt gender neutral so we agreed that I would make the quilt bright red, white, bright blue and navy. The central part would be an elephant print, white on red; the main work would be kept to the borders, partly to keep the work and therefore the price to a minimum. The photo shows my preparation for the border units called 'Flying Geese'.  These are rectangles with a large central triangle which is the 'goose' flying in some direction.  I made over 50 geese units in case some turned out to be too wonky to use. 
The next photo shows the method I used to create the geese. You lay two smaller squares on a larger piece, draw a line down the centre, stitch on both side, cut, flip and press. Then with each separate mini block you add another square, draw the central line, stitch on both sides (1/4" seam of course). Therefore one large square and four smaller squares yields four flying geese units. It's not as complicated as it sounds and you can make lots of units in a short space of time. 

I cut the central panel, added a dark border then laid everything out to see if the design works. I know many quilters 'out there' use a design wall but I don't have the space......I put everything on the rug in my studio! Many apologies as to the quality of the photo as I can see it's somewhat out of focus at the back but you can get the idea. 

Finally, a close up of one of the finished corners. I quilted the central portion using a meandering line with the odd five pointed star. The navy border and the flying geese borders had a random quilting stitch as I didn't want the quilting to detract from the fabric print.  I used a different elephant print on the reverse and added a very simple blue binding. The whole thing came out quite large and I hope that at some point in the future I will add another loose layer on the back with some Velcro tabs so that it will be possible to include a small duvet which will extend the life of the quilt when the baby is ready for a big bed.