Rita's Roses

Roses by Rita Verroca

About five years ago, I (Kara), was working at the Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy in Williamsburg. It was my first time helping there, and administrator Bette Augustine had me run a note down to one of the classrooms. As I approached the door, I heard peals of laughter coming from inside, and when I went into the classroom, the hilarity continued. The laughter caught my attention, but it was the amazing quilts that caught my eye. That was my first experience meeting Rita Verroca and seeing her exquisite work. Since that time, I have continually been inspired not only by Rita's passion for quilting, but also her surprising love of American history considering she is originally from Dusseldorf, Germany.

Teri and I have long admired Rita's eye for color and detail, so when the Baltimore Appliqué Society offered one of her workshops, we jumped at the chance and signed up. Prior to the workshop, we had the opportunity to listen to Rita speak at our monthly BAS (Baltimore Appliqué Society) meeting. Rita shared six of her award-winning quilts and told delightful stories about each. You can view all of the quilts on her website, here. 

Prairie Trail, by Rita Verroca

Sundance, by Rita Verroca

Roses of Shenandoah, by Rita Verroca

Lady of the Lake, by Rita Verroca

Rita sharing how the medallion of this quilt was constructed

The use of color in these quilts is absolutely amazing, and it was such a treat to be able to look at them closely and marvel at the detail and life that Rita brought out in them. Here are some detail shots for you to study.

Two days later, Teri and I fought the morning traffic to get to the workshop. When we arrived, we pulled out the lovely kits that we had picked up at the meeting and began to work. The kits came complete with an enlarged pattern to lay out the pieces, laminated templates to cut out, paper templates for reference, and of course, the best part—a selection of fabrics in Rita's signature bright colors.

What great fabric choices for this kit!

Rita showed us her method of choosing a section to work on, and then cutting the templates and fabrics for that area. Both Teri and I prefer the back-basting method of appliqué, but we were intrigued by Rita's method of having all the fabric parts cut out ahead of time. This allows for some flexibility in changing a color or fabric if you don't like the way it is working with the rest of the design. I decided to give it a try and really liked it! It's always good to learn new methods and see how they work for you. In my case, I morphed what I do with what I learned, and I look forward to putting it into practice as I work on this block. 

There were so many great tips that Rita gave us, but one stood out from the rest—fraying the seam allowance on sharp points. It sounds a bit counter productive for needle-turn, but it works so well.

Stitch to the point.

Trim underneath and use the needle
to fray the end a bit.

Ready to be turned under

A perfect sharp point

Rita's floral designs include many split leaves, and she showed us how she makes them, with an added bonus of teaching her special trick for making a sharp point at the tip of the leaf with two fabrics. 

Pinning the second fabric in place

Ready to turn under and stitch

My first leaf ready to be appliquéd

To learn how to do all the things we learned in the workshop, you can purchase Rita's book, Baltimore Album of Roses, here. You will love the gorgeous pictures of Rita's work and the many detailed directions telling how to re-create these amazing works or art.

We had a great time at the workshop with many of our BAS friends. A big thank you to Springwater Designs Quilting for providing such a lovely, well-lit, workshop space.

If you have a chance to take a class from Rita, you will not be disappointed. She is a wonderful teacher, historian, and artist. As a self-taught quilter, she is an inspiration to appliqué lovers everywhere.

Rita Verroca

Fairy Tales Through the Needle's Eye

. . . upon a time, there were two friends who loved to stitch together. They had taken classes, gone to quilt shows, made wedding quilts, joined guilds, and worked at The Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy as a stitching team. One evening, about two years ago, they were sitting at a meeting of the  Baltimore Appliqué Society. Just before the speaker began her lecture, Kara whispered to Teri, "Have you ever seen a Baltimore Album-style quilt with fairy tales?" Throughout the rest of the meeting, wheels of inspiration were turning in their heads, as both friends loved fairy tales as much as they loved to appliqué.

As soon as Teri and Kara reached the car, the talk began. Which fairy tales would they stitch? How many should they choose? How large should they make the blocks? They brainstormed during the entire 45-minute ride home. The next day, they had each done exhaustive internet searches to be sure that there were no such quilts. They discussed and finalized the list of stories they wanted to use, including some tales from the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. The next weeks were filled with planning. Which blocks would be picture blocks, which would be wreaths, and which would incorporate papercuts? They wanted to stay true to the style of Baltimore album quilts, so they intended to include each of these major styles of album blocks. Designs were drawn, colors were chosen, and background fabric and a few base fabrics were purchased. And the friends began to stitch.

Two years later, the top was completed, and they took the quilt to Bellwether Dry Goods to be hand-quilted. And this past Monday, they went to pick up the completed quilt. The stories had come to life. Kara and Teri were thrilled!

Here are a few highlights from the quilt.

The spinning wheel and briar roses from Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella's glass slipper

Little Red Riding Hood with her basket of goodies for her grandmother

One of Snow White's seven dwarves, in front of the magic mirror

Andersen's Nightingale singing with the emperor's mechanized bird

The Ugly Duckling in the nest

Thumbelina in a walnut shell being pulled to safety by a butterfly

The ship that intrigues the Little Mermaid

Beauty approaching the Beast's castle with the rose her father picked for her

Can you find the Beast hidden in the tree?

Jack climbing the Beanstalk on the left border . . .

. . . with the cow at the bottom

Jack descending the beanstalk with the golden harp on the right border

There is no sashing between the blocks, so the quilting design provides that separation.

Teri and Kara are delighted with the completed fairy tale quilt and cannot wait to share it at the Baltimore Appliqué Society meeting next week. Unfortunately, the Snow Queen interfered with their opportunity to share it at a lecture that they were scheduled to give earlier in the week. They have many plans and ideas for fun projects to continue telling these fairy tales through their needles' eyes. 

The two friends are already discussing their next quilt project. Which fairy tales will they stitch next? What stories would you tell through your needle's eye? 

Kara and Teri don't know what adventures their quilt may have, but they do know that any quilt about fairy tales will surely live happily ever . . . 

Here's the Story of a Lovely Lady...

No, this post is not about Carol Brady, but of a Baltimore album quilt's path to different lovely lady. This story begins in 2013, in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the tail end of The Elly Sienkiewicz Appliqué Academy.  This was my (Kara's) first year working at the Appliqué Academy, so I was the newbie on staff at the time. What an amazing experience it was to work at an event such as this! I marveled (when I wasn't running up and down stairs between classes) at the level of detail and thought that was put into this week-long gathering filled with classes, lectures, and fun. The chief mastermind behind a lot of that thought and detail was the lovely lady I previously referenced. 

Lifelong friends were made, and even though we were exhausted by the end of the week, we still had fun. It was the last night at the Academy, and we were all sitting around the table in our "headquarters," and someone brought out the Samuel Williams Quilt patterns. A suggestion was made that we, the staff, each pick four block patterns at random and complete two of the blocks by November to be made into one quilt. We decided to raffle the completed quilt at the following year's Academy, deciding to choose a charity at a later time. We all liked that idea and proceeded to pick our four block patterns.  This was one of my four:

Let's just say I wasn't thrilled about making all those berries, so this was not one of my first two. Jan Vaine chose the background fabric and three coordinating fabrics for us all to use. The coordinating fabrics had to be in each of the blocks for continuity.  Most of us followed those rules (you know who you are if you didn't.) Around September, Jan and her sister Jo sent an email asking what our thoughts were about making this quilt for Bette Augustine (that "thought and detail mastermind" mentioned in the first paragraph.) All of us thought this was a brilliant idea, as Bette worked tirelessly all year to make the Appliqué Academy such a wonderful event and had been doing so for many years. Bette was making blocks as well, so we kept up the ruse of a raffle quilt for her benefit, and we stretched the truth when we said the longarm quilter hadn't yet finished the quilt and it wouldn't be ready in time for the Academy.

Once all the staff had assembled in Williamsburg, we presented the quilt to Bette. You can see by the look on her face that she was surprised.

Bette's surprise

Bette with her good friend, Elly Sienkiewicz

Taking a closer look at the quilt

Everyone showing Bette the blocks they completed

Exclaiming over the beautiful border chosen by Jan Vaine

So because this quilt was a surprise for Bette, she didn't realize that she was making two blocks for her own quilt. Not only is Bette a splendid event organizer, she is also an accomplished appliqué artist, as seen in this exquisite block:

Bette will be teaching at the Kathy Dunigan Academy of Appliqué in February of this year, and you too can learn how to make the smallest of stems just like these:

This label, made by Jan Vaine, represents the loving hands that created this beautiful quilt, but it doesn't adequately express how much love went into it. This was the perfect sentiment to describe our feelings for Bette:  "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls bloom." 

The making of this quilt and the experiences we shared at the Academy bonded us together more closely than we could have imagined. Stitching sisters are a wonderful gift that we have been so blessed to have been given.

The Stitching Sisters

This is the completed twenty-block quilt, made with love for our "sister," Bette.  Next week, we will show you close-ups of the blocks and share some of the stories that came out of the making of this quilt.  Join us next week!