Revisting the Cabin

The quilt that founds its way home

A couple of months ago, Kara wrote about this lovely quilt and related the fascinating story of how it arrived back in its original home—the old log cabin in which it was made. (For the story of this quilt, read The Quilt That Found Its Way Back Home.)

Last month, Jane—one of the ladies we met at the cabin in June—emailed us to say:

"....and the story of the quilt continues....

I sent the blog to my friend Susan, who likes to quilt.  She immediately recognized the material as being from her grandparents' mill! Also, her mother, Peggy, played at the cabin as a child and remembers them quilting." 

Susan, however, had never seen either the quilt or the cabin. A follow-up lunch was proposed, so that Susan could see the quilt and share what she knew of its story. Sadly, we had to cancel our plan as Peg, the owner of the log cabin, became quite ill. As I (Teri) had taken quite a few more photos of this amazing cottage, we thought it might be nice to share the tasteful touches that Peg had added to the home as she refurbished it, staying true to the style of the log house. Enjoy!

The welcoming garden at Pleasant Springs Farm

Restored kitchen

The cozy parlor

I love this lace on the mantel!

Each piece of furniture and every accent could have been in the original cabin.
Except, of course, the addition of electric lamps!

Bedroom #1

A sitting room upstairs; of course there is a quilt on the couch!

Bedroom #2:

Needlework on the walls...

...and an embroidered dresser scarf on the bureau. (That is Peg in the mirror, giving us the grand tour of her log cabin.)

Such a beautiful, peaceful view from the window

Lovely flowers from the garden as a centerpiece on the table

One of my favorite pictures of the day—these three friends chatting: Peg, Bonnie, and Jane

That delightful day didn't end with our lunch. On our way home, we stopped to visit Bonnie's home, where she showed us this beautiful red and white quilt. Bonnie says that the quilt top was made by her great-grandmother, probably sometime in the mid-1800s. The top was passed down to Bonnie, and she had it quilted in the 1960s. Some friends from Bonnie's church made the Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, who look perfectly happy sitting upon that gorgeous quilt!

 

What a perfect ending to a perfect day!

What a blessing it was to be able to meet Peg Coleman and hear the amazing story of her quilt. Kara and I are so grateful that we had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with this multi-talented, charming lady, and we are thankful that our friend Carol arranged for us to meet her. We were saddened by the the news of her passing last Friday. Though we only recently met Peg, we will forever remember her smile and caring nature, and her welcoming us into her home. She was indeed a special lady. Our condolences to her family and close friends. 

Zooming in for a Closer Look

Last week, Kara shared the story of the Album quilt that we made and presented to our dear friend, Bette. This week, I (Teri) would like to share some details of that quilt with you, along with a few more detailed stories of our making of the quilt. So put on your glasses; we have a lot of beauty to behold!

I'll start with a block that Kara made. She really likes birds, and she tends to want to put a bird on everything. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little bit!) But I thought it was a bit humorous that of the four blocks Kara picked at random, two of them had birds. Bet you can guess which ones she chose to make! I think she was pretty happy when she got to the bird after all those acorns.

Kara's bird in an oak wreath

Almost every week, Kara and I got together with our friend, Jo Ann, to stitch and work on our blocks. It was wonderful to be able to encourage and inspire each other. Jo is incredibly creative and not afraid to try anything, so she gave us a lot of courage to attempt some new techniques. Watching her work on this monument was a thrill. She set the bar high, pushing me (maybe both of us) to expand my horizons and take risks.

Jo Ann's monument block with birds made of ultra suede

We had quite a discussion about what these were supposed to be. Jo made them cactus flowers, with blooms made of hand-dyed velvet. This design is also in my cornucopia block, but I made them strawberries, since it was filled with fruit.

Jo's ruched flowers are stunning!

If you look closely at the picture above, you will see a little bee flying above the top flower. Jo had the idea that we should put bees on our blocks, because Bette was our Queen Bee, leading us all as we worked at the Appliqué Academy. Kara and I loved the idea and proceeded to place bees on our blocks as well. You can see Kara's bee at the base of the wreath on her bird block above.

My first block was a basic wreath with leaves and buds. I am not sure what kind of leaves or buds they are supposed to be; I'm certain the leaves aren't rose leaves, but my buds are rather rose-like. The calyxes are made with wool to add interest. To make the wreath, I braided three bias strips of fabric, appliquéd it down, and used a fly stitch on top. Each bud is tacked with a bead.

My wreath of leaves and buds

With Jo's guidance, I tried stumpwork for the first time to make the wings on my bee.

Jo Ann's sister, Jan Vaine, has also been quite an inspiration for both Kara and me over the years. She taught us her method of Perfect Placement appliqué, and we have been hooked on a back-basting type of appliqué ever since. While I was venturing into the unknown making my bee's wings, Jan was using stumpwork embroidery to make the petals of her flowers. Her work is exquisite!

Jan's urn with doves and floral heart block

Detail of Jan's dimensional flowers

Last week, we showed you one of Bette's blocks, with her teeny tiny stems, for which she is well-known. Bette is the master of minute detail, and her work is amazing, as you will affirm when you examine her other block. She is truly an artist who strives to better her needle skills with every new piece she stitches.

Bette's block, depicting the end of the Civil War

Detail: date appliquéd with ultra suede

Detail: photo transfer on urn

Detail: flower crocheted with fine thread

Detail: padded acorns with knotted caps

Kara had fun creating the variety of flowers in this block. With all the birds in these patterns, I'm not sure how I didn't get one at all!

Kara's urn of flowers...with a bird, of course!

Detail: A bee and a flower made of wool and ribbon

My second block was a cornucopia, which I shared in November, here. This block offered so much more variety and was lots of fun. As I was planning what fabrics I would use to make each fruit, I decided to include a lime. It seemed appropriate to place a coconut next to it, though by scale, it is a bit too small. By the time I finished that block, we were tired of having the song "The Lime in the Coconut" stuck in our heads. (It may have been sung a few times in our stitching sessions.) If you'd like the song stuck in your head, take a listen by clicking here.

Detail: my lime and the coconut, surrounded by plums, a peach, and apples.

There were ten of us stitching blocks for this lovely quilt, from six states across the U.S. Bette was so kind as to send it to us for a lecture we gave in the fall for the Baltimore Appliqué Society. While it was here, I took some photos of some of the blocks. Here is a representation of the other stitchers in our group of friends.

Doris's block, so bright and cheery

Kathy's lyre block, with her ruffled ribbon rose

Lou's block, with dimensional pineapples—Lou made four blocks for the quilt and is Jan and Jo's mom.
She certainly passed down her talent to her daughters!

Megan's flower block, perhaps geraniums 

DeeDee's dove and anchor block, with lovely folded rosebuds and calyxes

We hope you have enjoyed exploring this Baltimore album-style beauty with us. The patterns were all created by the Baltimore Appliqué Society from the 1847 Samuel Williams Quilt, which resides at the Baltimore Museum of Art. I hope you have found some inspiration from these blocks. And we also hope that you, too, have found a group of stitching sisters, tied together by your love of needle and thread.

More Wedding Collaborations...

Making a group quilt for someone who is getting married in your church is a lovely idea. That's what I (Kara) thought after we had done Teri's quilt and then found out that there would be another wedding in our church the following year. The lady who had done Teri's quilt wasn't able to work on this one, so I took the reins. I chose some lovely companion fabrics, set the parameters for the blocks, and sent the information out along with deadlines as to when I needed the blocks in hand. Let's just say the deadlines were interpreted as guidelines, and collecting the blocks was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. I finally received all the blocks and was able to assemble the quilt top. A few friends came over, and we tied and bound the quilt. The quilt was given to a wonderful young woman at her wedding shower, and she was thrilled. And with the second collaboration quilt, a tradition was started within the church.

Not too long after this quilt was presented, we found out that another couple in our church was getting married. At this point, three of us decided that less hands involved with making the quilt might make the process a bit easier, so we each decided to do several feature blocks and then make up the rest of the quilt with signature blocks. The groom was in the Army, and the bride was musical and loved Hawaii, so that gave us some inspiration. We had the blocks available to sign at the shower and did our best to guide the signers away from the seam allowances. Thankfully the couple lives locally, so we were able to see the quilt again and get lots of pictures. We appreciate the loan of the quilt!

Our friend Pat's beautiful wedding ring block made an appearance in several wedding quilts! See Wedding Collaborations for another.

 

Of course the following year there was another wedding, and it was just Teri and I working on this one. For this quilt we decided to go with the signature quilt style and have a center picture block. The bride and groom were big beach fans, and since I was in my "landscape quilt phase," it worked perfectly to have an ocean and beach vista for the  center block. Teri worked the math for the surrounding signature blocks.

Many thanks to the bride for the photos of her quilt!

We were a bit terrified of having a finished quilt that people would sign as opposed to having people just sign individual blocks and then put the quilt together. Thankfully no one got too crazy with the pens, (we might have taken turns standing guard,) and the quilt was a hit.

By this time we had begun to get a reputation for making wedding quilts. It was a lot of work but we enjoyed it, especially because we had only done one per year. We still thought it was a special thing to do for a new couple, and it would provide them with some lovely memories of their wedding day. Then we found out that there were going to be four weddings in our church the following summer!

After we got over our shock, we decided to simplify things even more than we had been doing and went with a rail fence signature block. We picked colors for the four couples and took a roadtrip to Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, to buy fabric. That was the fun part. We each took two sets of fabrics and hunkered down to get the signature blocks done before the respective showers. We marked the 1/4" seam allowance and gave instructions not to sign in that area. Some people followed directions and some didn't, but what are you going to do? After we got all the blocks signed, we soon realized that we were not going to have the quilts done by the weddings, so we went with the etiquette rule that you have one year after the wedding to give a gift. We were in such a frenzy to get them finished that we forgot to take pictures of all of them but we do have a few.

The first of four quilts on the design wall before signing and piecing together.

We picked the colors for each quilt based on what we learned of their tastes. The other two quilts were red and green and a blue and white batik.

When the final quilt had been sent out (within the year window, barely,) Teri and I looked at each other and said, "We're done!" and our career as the church wedding quilt makers was over.

We learned a lot about making group quilts, and I'm not sure we would have done things differently, as we needed to go through the learning process of what worked for us. Both sayings, "many hands make light work" and "too many cooks spoil the broth" applied at different times. Thankfully, the amount of weddings in our church dwindled, so we didn't feel too bad about hanging up our wedding quilt needles. The biggest lessons we learned were be careful about starting a tradition, and that it's okay to end a tradition. Do you have any quilt traditions that you have started...or maybe ended? Please share some stories!