Kona cottons

Some of you may be interested in more information about the Kona cottons. Here is the full list of the colors Eileen identified as historical. The numbers refer to the numbers on the color card from Robert Kaufmann fabrics. I ordered the color card from Hancocks of Paducah. The numbers on their website are different from the numbers below, so you'll need to look at the color name. Right now these fabrics are on sale for $2.25 per half yard. Here is a link directly to the fabrics.

149 Papaya is Chrome Orange (which 21st century quilters now call Cheddar)
1482 School Bus is 1890’s orange
1551 Rich Red is Turkey Red
1480 Chinese Red is 1840-1860 Turkey Red
1390 Wine is 1920’s Turkey Red as well as 1860’s and 70’s Turkey Red
25 Ocean is the closest thing to 19th Century Prussian blue
1192 Lime, 1703 Grass Green, 317 Peridot, and 1451 Avocado are all overdyed greens from the 1850’s through 1900
1865 Celadon, 29 Spring, 1259 Old Green, 1328 Seafoam, 1256 O.D. Green are all 1920’s through 30’s greens
198 Parsley is 1820’s through 30’s green
1185 Kelly, 1166 Hunter Green, 137 Pine are all oil boiled greens of the 1850’s through 1870’s
1361 Spruce, 1217 Mallard are 1870’s through 1880’s greens
1002 Alpine is an 1890's green
1373 Teal Blue is 1850’s green
1151 Garnet is an 1890’s red
1082 Cocoa is Oxblood from 1870’s
1191 Lilac is 1840’s-1900’s

Fabric and more fabric

A few weeks ago I ordered a swatch card of Kona Cottons by Robert Kaufman fabrics. (I think these are the best quality solid fabrics available for quilters.) I took the card to my last "Turn of the Century Random Sampler" class with Eileen Trestain last month, and asked her to label various swatches as to which ones were suitable for reproduction quilts. I was surprised to find her labeling almost 25 of the different colors - I never thought there would be that many. My friend Franny - also in the class - and I decided to order bolts of many of these over the course of the next couple years, as we both want to replicate some of the antique quilts we saw in class - particularly applique quilts done with solid fabrics.

Yesterday the order arrived, and I spent much of today separating each bolt into two even halves. Gazing on such riches just makes me smile! That's about 10 yards apiece of each of the colors - enough for the very large four-block quilts we saw in class. We can hardly wait to get started!

From left to right, these are the fabrics we chose - overdyed greens 1850-1900 (Kona Grass Green), turkey red 1840-1860 (Kona Chinese red), 1870's-1880's green (Kona Spruce), chrome orange, which we call cheddar these days (Kona Papaya, which looks much too yellow in the picture), 1850-1870's oil boiled green (Kona Kelly).

I also ordered a couple of new-to-me books. I'd seen Flora Botanica by Barbara Brackman at Momma Made It and knew I had to have it. It's the catalog of a display of floral quilts at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas. It's a marvelous books - as are all Kansas City Star quilt books IMHO.

The second book, Small Blocks, Stunning Quilts, was recommended by my friend Kathie Holland. It's full of pictures of full size antique quilts made with small blocks - 4" to 5" or less - with instructions for reproducing them. Some have blocks as small as 1 1/2"! There are several quilts in this book that I'd love to make. If you love little blocks and antique quilts then you definitely need this book!

I've put my sewing room back in order after all the cutting - now to get back to the medallion quilt.

Another UFO finish - and it's an oldie!

I'm happy to report that the Spring Trio is quilted, bound, and labeled - ready to hang in the entryway next spring. Don't they look great on the blue wall? Not sure why the one on the left has such a crooked left edge in the picture - it really is straight! Nothing like finishing a 16 year old UFO to give one a real feeling of satisfaction!

I also finished a couple of the little projects from my quilt history classes with Eileen Trestain. The first is a "make-do" done in the Turn of the Century Random Sampler class. At some point I may get a new base for this one - the candle holder Eileen furnished in class really isn't big enough for this one. The second picture shows two "pocket pincushions" that I made in the Civil War class. Love these, as the pins can't poke clear through and catch on something. These were so easy to make - just two circles of thin cardboard, two of batting, and two of silk taffeta. Gather the edges of the circles, then insert the batting and cardboard, then pull the gathering stitches and tie off. Tack in your ribbon hanging loop, then whip stitch or ladder stitch the two circles together. Easy, quick, and very useful!

Last night I moved on to my next UFO - "Times Remembered" by Pat Sloan. I made the first two blocks in 2003, as well as the pieced backgrounds for the rest of the blocks. Then I must have started something new as this project was put aside. I figure the best way to handle these remaining UFOs - three appliqué quilts - is to treat them like block of the month programs. If I finish one block each month in each quilt then they should be finished tops by the end of next year. I'll start by prepping all of them, so I can pick up a new one as soon as the old one is finished. Works for me I think! I'd hoped to have the first blocks prepped by now, but instead I watched Joseph all week. A joy to be sure - I'm a lucky grandma! And today I have two small customer tops that must be quilted. So these blocks must wait for another day at least.

************
Gratitudes:
1. Beautiful fresh fall vegetables for roasting
2. Fragrant fresh herbs from a friend
3. Good times with great friends

The Golden Age of 1880-1910

Even after two years I can hardly believe how fortunate I am to have access to classes taught by Eileen Trestain, one of the country's most well known authorities on textile dating and history. I've been privileged to take both her pre-1830's medallion and her mid-century album quilt classes, and currently am taking her class called "The Golden Age of 1880-1910. The textile and quilt history is absolutely fascinating, and has led me to look at my fabrics in an entirely new way.

These classes have also led to congestion in my sewing room caused by several large baskets of fabrics which I've sorted into appropriate periods for my class quilts. I'm not anywhere near being confident enough of my new knowledge to put these fabrics back on the shelves, so I just work around the baskets the best I can. Here you see the baskets for "The Golden Age of 1880-1910". Lots and lots of shirtings for the backgrounds, plus distinctive prints representative of the era. The project is a "random sampler" - very different from the structured quilts of previous eras. "Twinkling Stars" is one of Eileen's antique tops from the period - I love it's very funkiness!

In one way this class is no different from the previous two - I'm going to have a VERY hard time choosing between all the wonderful settings Eileen provides for the class quilt! So for now all I'm doing is making random blocks. These are all from the first lesson. I took the baskets of fabric on retreat and made these after I caught up with the Civil War Diaries blocks. I still need to make a dark spool block before I can put the spools together into a larger block.

If you enlarge the picture you can see the fun conversational prints that were so common during this time. Also note that I cut the plaids wonky - just as our foremothers did. I had fun sewing together little pieces of the orange plaid in order to simulate the "waste not want not" blocks found in antique quilts. Even in the early years of the 20th century quilters felt every scrap of fabric was too precious to waste. Even in these days of marvelous fabric bounty I still feel that way - as my overflowing scrap drawers prove!

This week I hope to make more Lesson One blocks as well as a bunch from Lesson Two. They are all simple - which makes them really fun to do.