And the Rest of the Show...

Three days was barely enough time to see everything at the European Patchwork Meeting quilt show, and one post was not enough to share all the pictures I took! Today you will get to see the most recent edition of the Quilts de Légende—an exhibit that I probably would have missed had I not chatted with a lovely lady from Wales. You will also get to see some of the unique textile art that was displayed from many different places around the world.

The Quilts de Légende exhibit was one of my favorites exhibits at Houston last year, and you can see those quilts and read more about them here. I had no idea that the new exhibit would be at this show, so I had a hard time containing my excitement when I found out. These exquisite quilts are all made completely by hand and must be inspired by an antique quilt.

India Mosaïca
Dominique Husson

Médaillon Et Sabliers
Colette Bourgain
Inspired by a Dutch medallion quilt

Deuxmillehuitcenthuit
Ewa Guérin
Inspired by an old quilt top from Iowa

Ogeechee
Aline Joulin
Inspired by an American quilt in the
Grand Rapids Public Museum, Michigan

Detail: Ogeechee

Vase de Fleurs et Roses Grimpantes
Michèle Beugnon
Inspired from a quilt from the POOS collection
owned by Kay Triplett

Detail: Vase de Fleurs et Roses Grimpantes

The choice of fabric and quilting
made this flower seem 3D

A line of quilting in red encircles the center

Vagues
Maryvonne Marmion
Inspired from an old Ohio quilt dated 1891/1911

Detail: Vagues
Each triangle is only about 1"

Bleu de Prusse
Will Widnic
Inspired by an old English quilt circa 1830/1840

Be still my heart! I adore this blue!

Military Coverlet
Isabelle Muzeau
Inspired by a military quilt from the Nova Scotia Museum

Millefiori
Maude Devesly
Inspired by an 18th century Welsh quilt

Detail: Millefiori

Marie Henriette
Martine Crabe-Lanux
Inspired by an American quilt from the Shelburn Museum

The details of this quilt are charming!

Love the pups in this quilt.

This exhibit was one of my favorites, as the detail on each quilt was inspiring, magnificent, and mind-blowing. While this was spectacular, there was much more to see and enjoy. A favorite of many was the exhibit by Ian Berry, a British artist, who uses jeans to create stunning works of art. The detail he creates with varying shades of blue in denim is amazing.

A self-portrait of the artist

It was fun to see school groups enjoying this exhibit and others!

We had to travel through the towns, following the well-placed signs, to reach each exhibit. One of the local churches was dedicated to a display honoring the Amish roots of quilting along with some excellent examples of Amish quilts.

There was such a variety of textile art; something to appeal to everyones creative taste. Here is just a small sampling of the variety displayed in the various villages.

White Pine: Titan of the Shield
Janet Elliott

Detail: White Pine: Titan of the Shield

Monarch Migration
Barbara Lange

A stunning quilt all done in silk

Build
Hana, Jo
Korean Bojagi Forum

La Petite Roumaine
à la manière de Matisse
Smaranda Bourgery

This was originally part of an actual garment.

Zealandia
Isabelle Cluzel

Detail: Zealandia

These next few pictures are from an exhibit by Lea Stansal of France titled "Embellishment Embroidery."

Love the embroidery on patchwork

Hmmm...

The charm of French villages, all things textile, and a few French pastries for good measure—this quilt festival was phenomenal from beginning to end. Did I mention the vendors? Let's just say I parted with a few euro last weekend, but it was worth it. Sometimes I had to think hard about what language I should attempt to speak, but thankfully oohing and aahing over fabric and threads needs no spoken language.

The Dutch Heritage booth

The lovely ladies Petra Prins's booth

People from many different countries were represented here, all to be joined by a love of creating. The CEO of the event wrote an introduction for the festival program, and I'd like to leave you with a portion of what he wrote:

"Quilts and textile creations are evidence of human know-how over the ages. The emotion is present as well as the story woven in each of its threads. Indeed, one does not make a quilt without intention. It is created to express dissatisfaction or rapture, history or deep feeling. It is a way to express oneself through art without words. Finally, it is a medium to leave an imprint."

Claude Abel

CEO SPL Évènementiel en Val d'Argent

Log Cabin Love

As novice quilt collectors, Teri and I (Kara) have stumbled upon some wonderful finds in our early collecting days. We do not have infinite budgets, so the quilts we have purchased have been on the low end of the cost spectrum, but usually appraise well above what we paid. I make sure my husband knows that little fact when I come home with an old (new to me) treasure. 

While vacationing in Maine in the fall of 2016, a friend and I did some antiquing in and around Wells, Maine. I wrote about some of the things we saw here, but what I didn't write about was my purchase. When I go to an antique mall and see a booth with any type of linen or fabric, I usually scour the booth from top to bottom. In this case, my intense perusal paid off, and I found this beautiful, log cabin summer quilt.

This particular log cabin is the "Sunshine and Shadows" variation.

Over the course of the last year, I have been fascinated by reproduction fabrics, so when I saw this, my first thought was, "Oh! Someone made a quilt with reproduction fabrics." Then I realized they weren't reproductions! I looked at it closely—it was in good shape, but my knowledge of dating fabrics was minimal at the time. While the price was reasonable, I wanted to think about it some more, as this would be the first time I had purchased a quilt for my collection. After seeing pictures, Teri encouraged me (as a good friend should) to hightail it back to the booth and buy it. Thankfully when I got there, the booth owner was tidying the booth, and I was able to get a little information from her. She had purchased the quilt from another dealer in Maine, who said it came from Dover, New Hampshire, and was made with Cocheco Mills fabrics. Unfortunately, that was all the information she had.

At the time, I had no knowledge of Cocheco Mills and the important part they played in the history of American fabrics. As soon as I got home, I researched the name and found this wonderful article by Kimberly Wulfert, PhD. You can read her article here. Regardless of the type of fabrics, I fell in love with this quiltmaker's use of fabrics.

I love the blue centers, some of which are made from silk.

Of all the reproduction fabrics we have available to us today, I think the pinks are the easiest to find.
The above block contains a good example of a popular pink of that era.

You can still see a little glimpse of the purple in the brownish fabric.

After visiting my favorite appraiser, Phyllis Hatcher, I was able to find out that indeed, this quilt was made from fabrics from the 1870s-1890s. There is no batting, which given its location origin, indicates that it was made to be a summer quilt. The backing is pieced blocks of muslin, and it is evident that the maker was quite thrifty and used up even the smallest scrap of muslin.

Pieced muslin backing 

Closer detail of the stitching

One of the shadow blocks looks like it may have been a mistake—I wondered if the maker just ran out of dark materials. At the appraisal, Phyllis and I discovered that the fabric that looked to be part of the mistake, had indeed been a darker purple that had faded through the years.

The block on the upper left appears to be a mistake.

A close-up of the light fabric

Here you can see the
original purple.

This quilt was a good start to my antique quilt collection; little did I know that eight months later, I would find another log cabin quilt. This time my find was a bit closer to home in Emmitsburg, MD. Teri and I were meeting her parents for lunch as a good-bye before I moved to Germany. We were there a little early, and there just happened to be an antique mall nearby...so off we went. I wandered into a booth near the entrance and found this gem.

Quite a bit different from the previous log cabin quilt

My quilt-dating skills had improved somewhat since my first log cabin purchase, so I guesstimated the age of the quilt as closer to the turn of the century. My guess was confirmed at the appraisal, as most of the fabrics dated in the range of 1880s-1900s. Whereas the first log cabin quilt consisted of almost exclusively cotton, this quilt had a wide range of fabrics: cotton, silk, fouillard, and faille, just to name a few.

The navy fabric pictured was a striped print which allowed the maker

to use the same fabric, but with different looks.

The piecing of this quilt wasn't the most skilled, but that certainly
added to its charm.

A classic red center, and in this block you can see the use of the navy fabric;
this time more of the print is shown.

An interesting thing I discovered when the quilt was appraised, was that it had never been washed! Based on some areas on the edges that were dirtier, we surmised that it had possibly been used on a bed, but had then been put away, since there is little fading of the colors.

A picture of the quilting from the back side

These two quilts were purchased with very little information about their origins. We can make deductions about what they are made of, how old the fabrics are, and even some information about the way they were quilted, but we still don't know their full stories. I certainly wish quilts could talk and tell us all about who made them and why, but for now, we will have to let our imaginations come up with their tale.

If you would like to read more about some of the quilts we have added to our collection, you can read about them in these posts:

Vintage Flower Baskets

A Crazy Treasure

Crazy for Crazy Quilts