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Ich bin glücklich, in der aktuellen Ausgabe der Zeitschrift "Patchwork Professional" zu sehen sein. Das Magazin ist sehr schön, aber schwierig, in den Vereinigten Staaten zu finden. Wenn jemand weiß, wo es mehr Kopien zu finden, lassen Sie es mich wissen. Danke "Patchwork Professional" für die schöne Artikel!

Invited back for Quilt County 2015

The "Beauty Secrets" exhibition, 2011, was my first exhibition of quilts

Back in 2011, I had my first exhibition of quilts at the Benton County Historical Museum in Philomath, Oregon. The exhibition, "Beauty Secrets, 150 Years of History in One Quilt Pattern" included 21 quilts plus ephemera and drew a record number of visitors to the museum.

Hexagon Diamonds, c. 1970, Oregon

The event was part of the biennial Quilt County. Next year, I will be presenting another very dynamic group of quilts- "Modern Materials, Quilts of the 1970s" which will debut earlier in the year at QuiltCon in Austin, Texas.

American Flag, c. 1976, Florida

Every two years since 1991, Benton County has transformed itself into Quilt County in the fall. Quilt County honors the art and craft of quilt making with approximately two dozen diverse exhibits. Quilt County is sponsored and organized by the Marys River Quilt Guild and the Benton County Historical Museum, in cooperation with other Benton County cultural agencies, churches, shops and galleries.

Log Cabin Medallion, c. 1975, Washington

The exhibition is tentatively scheduled to run from August 21st to October 3rd at the Benton County Historical Museum, and I can promise another eye-opening display. These quilts will be very different from the New York Beauties I exhibited in 2011, but every bit as energetic. Thank you to Curator Mark Tolonen for inviting me back. I'm excited!

old quilts - edge finishes

applied binding, blue resist whole cloth quilt, c. 1760-1800

Call me a nerd, but one of my favorite topics came up today when someone on Facebook asked a question about edge finishes for wholecloth quilts. Although I think the question was geared more toward standards for judging in today's shows, I love very old quilts and especially love to study their edge finishes, so I had to share a few old quilts and talk about the edge finishes.

blue resist wholecloth quilt, c. 1760-1800 

There were several types of edge finishing seen in the earliest American quilts, such as applied binding, knife-edge, fringe, applied twill tape and top or back fabric brought to the opposite side. The blue resist quilt, c. 1760-1800 from the eastern United States, has an applied binding, and it was done with a fabric that was different from the top fabric.

wool wholecloth, c. 1790, New England

The wool whole cloth T-shaped quilt, c. 1790 from New England, has an edge finish of top fabric brought to the back.

wool wholecloth, c. 1790, top fabric brought from front to back for binding

Applied twill tape was popular in many forms starting around the turn of the century. Sometimes this tape is called "Trenton Tape" because one popular type of twill tape was manufactured in Trenton, N.J. That particular tape had greenish blue lines running through it, but it is not necessarily what is seen on all quilts. I have a couple quilts with twill tape. One is an 1810 wool Economy Block from New England with two different colors of hand-loomed wool twill tape - red on three sides and green on the other side.

Economy Block, c. 1810, New England

red hand loomed twill tape, Economy Block, c. 1810, New England

Another example of the tape binding is on a whole cloth chintz quilt, c. 1820 from the eastern U.S. This example is closer to the Trenton Tape, but not exactly it. There is one greenish band of color, and one white.

wholecloth chintz quilt, c. 1820, eastern U.S.

tape binding, wholecloth chintz quilt, c. 1820, eastern U.S.

Fringe was used in some of the early quilts, such as the wholecloth whitework "Trapunto" Willow Tree quilt from New England, c. 1790-1820. There are actually two Willow Tree quilts in my collection, and the first has a fringe that appears to be part of a twill tape. The second quilt appears at first to be a knife-edge binding, but is really top cloth brought from front to back.

The Willow Tree quilt #1, c, 1790-1820, New England

fringe edge finish, The Willow Tree quilt #1

The Willow Tree quilt #2, New England, c. 1800-1820

edge finish, The Willow Tree quilt #2, New England, c. 1800-1820

edge finish, The Willow Tree quilt #2, New England, c. 1800-1820

Although it is not a wholecloth quilt, the chintz appliqué counterpane attributed to Achsah Goodwin Wilkins, now part of the collection at the DAR Museum in Washington, D.C., also has a narrow tape binding.

applique counterpane, c. 1815-1820, DAR Museum

edge finish, applique counterpane, c. 1815-1820, DAR Museum

Another early quilt, not a wholecloth but a very early American pieced quilt from Rhode Island, c. 1800, has a knife edge binding with stitching along the edge.

pieced quilt, c. 1800, Rhode Island

knife-edge finish, stitched along the edge, pieced quilt, c. 1800, Rhode Island

I really appreciate the nuances of edge finishes and how they help us date quilts. These details are exactly what I love to study. I do not know if any of this information will help the person asking about edge finishes, but I hope so. 

PMQG Show & Tell - Andrea Balosky!

"Cross Currents Study #2" 1994 by Andrea Balosky

Last night I brought three Andrea Balosky quilts to the Portland Modern Quilt Guild May meeting for show & Tell. I have seen a lot of people working with print fabrics lately, and thought they would enjoy seeing Andrea's quilts. I actually have more than what I was able to bring, so here's where you can see more!

"Night Flight" 1982 by Andrea Leong Scadden, aka Andrea Balosky

The first time I met Andrea was at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show when the Oregon Quilt Project had a booth. Although the booth idea wasn't the best, one great thing came out of it. I got to meet Andrea.

She wanted to find a home for her quilt, "Night Flight" and I spoke up right away. The quilt was made in 1982 when Andrea lived in Seattle. It was included in the 1983 Quilt National. At the time, her name was Andrea Leong Scadden.

"Jerry's Garden" 1995 by Andrea Balosky

When she gave me "Night Flight" she also brought a small quilt from her "Transitions" book- "Jerry's Garden". She wanted us to raffle the quilt, but we had no way of holding a raffle, so I held on to it. After I curated an exhibit of her doll quilts at Latimer Quilt & Textile Center, she said I could keep the quilt.

Andrea's book - I have the quilt on the cover and two others
in the book. Those were the three I showed last night.

some ephemera and photos

Her name would evolve over the years, and she was best known as Andrea Balosky, during the time she lived in Camp Sherman, Oregon and was actively involved with the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. That was when her work was best known. These days she lives in the Himalayas and is known as Nyima Lhamo.

"Cross Currents Study #3" 1995 by Andrea Balosky

In 2010, I curated my first exhibit of quilts at Latimer Quilt & Textile Center. It was "Small Wonders, Doll Quilts by Andrea Balosky" and the catalogue is still available - click here for info.

She doesn't really make quilts anymore, but a few years ago came out of retirement briefly to make several little quilts for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative (AAQI). I bought as many as I possibly could.

"Blue Skies" AAQI Quilt #6392

"Green Tangent" AAQI Quilt #6393

"Enigma Variation" AAQI Quilt #9937 

"This Is It" AAQI Quilt #9938

"C is for Curiosity" AAQI Quilt #11,734

"Sealed with a Smile" AAQI Quilt #11,735

"Keep in Touch" AAQI Quilt #12,904

A couple years ago, a neighbor of a friend found some "studio droppings" as Andrea would call them, and asked if I would want them. Of course I said yes! There were many interesting unfinished pieces in the bundle.

The last time I saw her was a couple years ago at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. She was in the U.S. for a visit that summer, and came to visit me at my home before returning to Mungpoo, Darjeeling, India - in the Himilayas, where she now lives. I have begged for her to come back to America, but she is happy where she is now. I think about her often. Hopefully she will come back and visit again soon!

PMQG Trivia - about that quilt...

Snake Trail Fans, c. 1890, eastern United States

Earlier this evening, the Portland Modern Quilt Guild had a trivia contest during the May guild meeting. I was sitting in with the winning group, the Granny Squares, and was pleasantly surprised when one of my quilts popped up on the screen as one of three choices for the question, "Which quilt is the oldest?"

Although I have several quilts that are older and a few quilts that are more than 100 years older than this magnificent Snake Trail Fans quilt, it was the oldest of the three choices and was the correct answer. It was made in the last quarter of the 19th century in the eastern United States, possibly Pennsylvania, and I thought I would post a few pictures and let people get a better look at it. The embroidery detail is wonderful.

The quilt came from the personal collection of Shelly Zegart and once hung over the sofa in her New York apartment. It was auctioned through eBay in a fundraiser for the Alliance for American Quilts, and I was the lucky winning bidder. The quilt was featured in a 1989 article in Country Living Magazine.

It is made of lightweight wools, and is in excellent condition. I may have to bring it to a future meeting so everyone can see it in person. A couple years ago, I brought it to Sisters and showed it to Gwen Marston and Sue Spargo during the folk art quilting retreat weekend. Kristin Shields took a picture of us looking at it in Gwen's workshop before the retreat part of the weekend began. You can tell by the picture, Gwen was very interested in it!

Thank you Kristin Shields for the photo :)

That was the same weekend I started two small quilts, which you may have seen on my blog- "Center Star" from Gwen's Liberated Medallion Workshop, and "Wild-Eyed Susans" from the Folk Art Quilting Retreat with Gwen and Sue Spargo. I had several old quilts with me that weekend, and brought them along to show for inspiration.

"Center Star" 2013

"Wild-Eyed Susans" 2013

I don't know about everyone else, but I was inspired. Haven't seen many of the finished quilts from the other participants, though, so if you were there and haven't finished your quilts yet, get crackin' - and send pictures!

Trivia night with Portland Modern Quilt Guild was a lot of fun, and I hope we'll do it again! I got a cool button for being the team's mascot. There were gift bags full of goodies, and refreshments, too. This group really knows how to have a good time. I brought three very special quilts along, and will post more about those tomorrow.