Spring Fiber Fest 2020—Coming this March!

Last week, Kara wrote about our busy month of March, filled with teaching and lectures, beginning with the Academy of Appliqué in Williamsburg, and including two guilds. At the end of the month, I (Teri) will be concluding the frenzy of March with a fabulous getaway in Fairfield, Pennsylvania—Spring Fiber Fest 2020, where I will be teaching this wool appliqué flower with embroidery and ribbon embellishment.

 

Last year, I visited the event to shop the vendors. The location is lovely, just a few miles from Gettysburg. I so enjoyed my time there that when Kathy, of Primitive Homespuns Wool & Needleworks, asked me if I would be interested in teaching a class, I jumped at the chance. 

Because the goal was a finished—or close to being completed—project, I wanted the design to be fairly simple, while still maintaining the variety of textures that our designs typically feature. The focus of the class will be less about the appliqué and more about the embellishment. The bottom of the flower design will be appliquéd to our background, but the embroidery around it is what makes it pop. And if you know anything about us, you know there has to be some ribbon.

We will learn a ruching technique to create the ribbon center of this posy, bedecked with a few beads. Here is the gathered ribbon, before adding the beads or appliquéing it into place.

Finally, we will learn how to frame our design, using some batting to give a bit of dimension to the design within the frame. The class comes with everything you will need, including the frame.

To further embellish our flower, we will learn how to embroider this vine, which could be placed beneath the flower if you want to display it vertically, or on both sides for a lovely horizontal picture. The leaves are made with silk ribbon.

For more information about this event, click HERE. There are only two weeks left to register for the event, so check out this opportunity now! I would love to have you join me for this fun and relaxing stitch time. Hope to see you there!!

“Floral Wool Appliqué with Ruched Ribbon and Beaded Center”

Basic wool appliqué comes to life as we create this charming dimensional flower. The center is created with a ruched ribbon, and topped with a few beads. Embroidery around the outer petals completes this bloom, and it will be ready to frame. Have you ever wanted to learn how to frame a piece with batting behind it?  Well that's the finish we will be doing for this one. We may even have time to add some vines in the border!

The class fee includes everything you will need to complete the project: handout, background fabric, wool for flower petals, ribbon, beads, floss, needle, thread, batting, and frame.

Kits in a variety of colors will be available. Come join the fun!

Class Duration: 3 hours

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Saturday March 28th 2:30 pm - 5:30pm

Lovely Lane

A couple of weeks ago, the Baltimore Appliqué Society sponsored a trip to Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, to hear a lecture from Marylou McDonald about the Baltimore Album Quilts housed in their museum. What an incredible treat! To be in the presence of these amazing works of art, stitched by women nearly 170 years ago, is awe-inspiring, to say the least.

There were four Baltimore Album Quilts and one whole-cloth quilt for us to view. The Album Quilts were all dated between the years 1846-1852, all made for pastors of Baltimore churches.

In the interest of inspiration, I (Teri) am going to let the quilts and blocks tell their stories. I hope that you will be just as moved as we were to study some of these blocks. They certainly have motivated me to try a few new techniques. And there are at least a few that I have put on my "must stitch" list. Enjoy!

This quilt was made for Reverend Best of the Bethel Mission, an interdenominational church for seamen.
This quilt faded quite a bit after being submerged in a river.

Seamans Bethel (Note: It actually reads Belhel; the t was not crossed.)

Cornucopia 

This quilt, bordered with chintz, was made for Rev. Robert Lipscomb

Detail of inscribed Bible block for the Reverend

Note the Rose of Sharon block beneath the star; there are six variations of this block on the next quilt. 

The lovely inked embellishments on this vase of flowers add such detail.

There is nothing I do not love about this vase of flowers.
The quilting is unique in each album block,  appropriately known as "album quilting." 

This quilt, the largest we saw, was made for Rev. George C. Roberts.

This was the first block to draw my eyes, since it was the first block that I taught as a class. To see my version, click here.

Several blocks on these quilts were done using the broderie perse style.

Here are five of the six Rose of Sharon blocks in the Roberts quilt, similar but not identical. I thought I had photographed them all, but I missed one. The sixth is pictured in the full quilt, above, to the left of the yellow star block. 

This quilt was made for Reverend Henry Wilson

Green Street Church block

Detail: Each brick and window pane is created with white sewing thread in a chain stitch.

Another lovely vase of flowers with inked embellishment

Check out these ruched flowers! And more lovely quilting to frame the vase.

Detail of ruching

The oldest of the quilts, there is some uncertainty as to whether it dates to the 1600s or 1700s. It is a white, whole-cloth quilt with a coarser fabric on the back. The channels were then stuffed. Originally, the quilting thread was blue, but at one point, when it was cleaned, the blue faded. This view looks to the center of the quilt.

A corner of the quilt

A view of the back, where you can see the stuffing.

A perfect ending to a perfect morning: enjoying some live spring flowers!

We hope you have enjoyed visiting these quilts with us. I have a few more photos of several additional blocks, but they may have to be a Part Two. There is no more photo-wrestling energy left in me today!