"Potts" of Flowers

As I (Kara) sit here at my computer typing this post, I am basking in the spring sunshine, enjoying the sounds of the birds, when the sound of an Accuweather bulletin breaks my peaceful mood with a frost warning! At least it isn't snow this time, but spring has taken her sweet time in arriving—not just here in Maryland, but across the country.

Photo Credit: Only in Your State

Though spring has been delayed, there are signs that she is on her way. My tulips, daffodils, and carefully cultivated dandelions are showing themselves, and the flowering trees around here have been beautiful.

While we have been waiting for warmer temperatures, the Baltimore Appliqué Society has been helping us with thoughts of spring flowers through the Margaret Potts Quilt. This quilt was made by Margaret Potts and her family, friends, and neighbors from 1851-1858. It was given to her son, Ellis P. Miller, who recorded all the quiltmakers' names and their relationship to the family. The 85 appliquéd blocks are made of cotton fabrics with cotton and wool embroidery and are charming in their simplicity. The quilt was donated by Priscilla Hart Miller and currently resides in the Winterthur museum where it will be treasured as an important part of women's history. The BAS was given permission by Priscilla to create the patterns and share them with quilters everywhere. Mary Lou McDonald, Margo Cramer, and Eleanor Layman did an exceptional job of creating these patterns.

The Margaret Potts Quilt Pattern

As a way to help BAS members who don't live in the Baltimore area feel connected, the BAS is doing a Block of the Month for its members, featuring the Potts quilt. Each month, a new block is showcased with the pattern, a picture from the original quilt, and a color chart. You can join the BAS here if you would like to stitch along with everyone, or you can purchase the pattern here.

Teri and I were asked to teach an embroidery workshop for the BAS members, and as we were throwing around some ideas about how to structure it, Teri came up with the idea of embellishing a Potts block with embroidery. The simplicity of the blocks lends itself to embroidery, so we picked the December block and started to work on our sample. I did the first sample, so we would have some advertisement for the workshop in March.

Teri did the same stitches for her sample with just a few variations in placement and thread color. We chose to use a fused appliqué method since we would be making kits for the workshop, and all the pieces would be anchored with the buttonhole stitch.










Since I had already finished my sample, I thought I would do another block since the first one went together so quickly. I chose to do the February block and used a bit of silk ribbon embroidery for the flower centers and a piece of French ombré ribbon for the bud. This second block allowed us to show how versatile these blocks can be with regard to embellishment.

We had 24 ladies for the workshop, and it went so well that we forgot to take pictures! We learned various embroidery stitches and even played with the ribbon stitch as part of the acorn cap.

When I first saw the Potts pattern for sale a couple of years ago, I thought it was pretty, but I chose then not to purchase it. Now that I've done two of the blocks, I've not only purchased the pattern (currently on sale for 50% off), but am hoping to work my way through all the blocks. In fact, I've just started the February block in batiks.







Fused appliqué or needle-turn, I think you will find that these blocks are mildly addicting. Other stitchers around the country have caught on to the Potts block attraction. Fellow BAS member, Nanette Chopin Cook, has started a few blocks and tells about them on her blog, Chopin—A Passionate Quilter.

If you would like to see the quilt in person, you can visit the Winterthur Museum in Winterthur, Delaware. If you can't visit in person, check out these blogs for more pictures and details of their visits to the museum: Jacquelynne Steves, The Art of Home and What a Load of Scrap.

When we were stitching on these blocks, they provided us with thoughts of the spring flowers to come. Now as I stitch on my latest Potts block, I can look out my window and actually see those spring flowers. Hopefully, we have inspired you to take a closer look at this lovely quilt and to maybe begin stitching one for yourself!

Crazy Quilts, Session 3: Ribbon Fun

Could there be any better way to begin a class on crazy quilting than to have a 125-year-old crazy quilt to study, up close and personally? We don't think so!

One of the members of our monthly class brought this beauty to class for us to admire and examine. Her sister had inherited it from her husband's family, and she allowed Sue to borrow it and share it with us. We spent a good deal of time taking pictures and gleaning inspiration from this lovely old quilt—trying all the while not to drool on it. We were so thankful for the generosity in giving us the opportunity to see it. 

This lovely quilt had it all: fancy fabrics, amazing embroidery, ribbon flowers. Since we would be making flowers with ribbon that day, it was a perfect way to begin our class. 

Made in 1890, this quilt was in excellent condition. What wonderful ribbon flowers, made with a simple ribbon stitch—one we would be learning in class. Note the name embroidered here; there are several different names and/or initials throughout the quilt.

          Daisies: stem stitch              

Goldenrod: silk ribbon knots

More ribbon flowers. Note the fraying silk on the right, the only real sign of wear on the quilt. This border was made with long pieces of satin ribbon stitched around the quilt. 

Detail: ribbon border, front, with decorative stitches

Detail: ribbon border, back

Initials "LR" are satin-stitched.

This horseshoe was a favorite motif. Aren't these flowers
exquisite? [Ribbon and satin stitch, with chenille calyxes]

The black velvet circle was attached simply with the decoratively stitched stars.

We finally parted from the quilt to get down to work. We had several ribbon techniques to learn in class. As hard as it was to stop admiring the quilt, everyone was excited to play with ribbon. We were going to be working two different kinds of flowers: one with silk ribbon using the ribbon stitch, as we had observed on the antique quilt, and a gathered rose with French ombré silk wired ribbon.

We decided to start with the gathered flower. I (Teri) think this is one of the simplest ribbon flowers to make. You can make a gathered flower by doing a running stitch along the edge of the ribbon and gathering it. However, we used wired ribbon here, so it was even simpler. A gentle pull on the wire (after securing the wire on one end) gathers the ribbon into a spiral, which can then be manipulated into a flower shape. I gathered the outside edge just a bit to turn the edges under, but as you will see, it would have a much different look if you didn't. My rose, from our fairy tale crazy quilt, is on the left.

Gathered tightly on one edge only

Gathered on one edge, a bit less tightly

Also gathered on one edge only

Gathered on one edge, with a more open center

One edge gathered; an even more open center

One edge gathered more tightly; the outer edge very lightly gathered; beaded "dew drops" 

Both edges gathered; the outer edge just enough to turn under the edges; beaded center with metallic thread

Everyone started with the same 15" piece of ribbon, but the variation in color and how tightly the ribbon was gathered resulted in much different looking flowers. I thought it was fun, if not a bit exciting, to see how different our flowers were, depending on how they were gathered and manipulated. Creativity soared!

The next flower we created was made using two widths of silk ribbon, 7mm and 4mm wide. The one Kara stitched is pictured here, on the right. Again, there was a good bit of variation in the resulting flowers, due to color choices, size, and placement of the petals. It was fun to see how everyone approached making their blooms. Some just eyeballed and stitched, and some carefully measured each petal; some sort of combined the two methods. A few modified their plan as they started stitching and seeing how it looked—the most enjoyable and exciting part of creating, in my humble opinion!

 

Everyone was so focused on creating their flowers, it was the quietest class ever.
(Until the giggling started... )
We do have a lot of fun!

We had a wonderful class, from beginning to end.

The most thrilling thing about studying a quilt like this antique is the inspiration it provides. As everyone in the room worked on their projects, I could see the different plans in place, and everyone was eager to create their own unique works of needle art. One can only wonder what the story of this antique quilt is. We can see that there were apparently several makers, due to the different names and initials on the quilt. But oh, how we would love to know the details! This is a great reminder to us to record the stories of our quilts, so that in 125 years, when people are inspired by our stitches, they are also inspired by our stories.

Pincushion Potential Realized

This past September, I (Kara) wrote a post about my growing pincushion collection and some of my "future" pincushions (you can read about it here). Recently, I decided that I needed to put my money where my mouth was and actually fulfill the potential in my found pincushion items. The piece that spoke to me the most was a sugar bowl that I picked up at an antique store in Salisbury, MD.

The sugar bowl on the left will be used for this project 

The plan, as I had mentioned in the previous post, was to turn the top into a pincushion while still using the bottom for storage. I decided to go forward with that and see how it would turn out. The first thing I did was to pick a fabric for the pincushion. Pulling from the colors on the sugar bowl, I decided on a beautiful, plum-colored, raw silk. The silk was re-purposed from a thrift store blouse. Since this project was a "make-it-up-as-I-go-along" process, I cut my circle out much larger than I thought I would need using my technical measuring device—a salad plate measuring around 8.5 inches in diameter. I cut the circle out and then serged the edge since it was silk (a zig-zag stitch around the edge would work as well).

I used a chalk marker to trace around my salad plate

The plum silk picks up the sugar bowl rose

The diameter of the sugar bowl top was a little less than 2.25 inches, so I made sure my design would fit into that space. I created a small floral design based on the front of the bowl, and you can download that here. 

Originally, I chose silk ribbon for the embroidery, but I realized that it wouldn't really be durable enough for practical use as a pincushion, so I chose some lovely perle cotton that Teri and I had recently purchased. The hand-dyed perle is from House of Embroidery, a South African dye house; since I had bought a rather large kit, I had all the colors I needed.

The bouillons are finished

I transferred my design onto the silk and stitched away. Once the main design was finished, I decided to add seed stitches throughout the entire top. (Note: this took longer than the rest of the embroidery combined.)

So many seed stitches!

Once I finished the stitching, I ran a line of gathering stitches about 2 inches in from the edge of the circle. I learned the hard way to use quilting thread for these stitches because it is stronger.

Gathering stitches

I pulled the gathering stitches a bit and added fiber-fill until I felt it had the right amount, checking the fit of the pincushion with the top of my sugar bowl.

Then I tightened those stitches and arranged the gathers until I was pleased with it, and then I added a few little stitches all the way around until it was secure. As you can see, the size of my circle was more than enough, but I was glad I had extra to trim rather than not enough. I trimmed the circle leaving about an inch.

I added E-6000 around the inside of the lid and placed my pincushion inside. I let the glue set up for about an hour. E-6000 holds things very well, but just be sure to use it in a ventilated space.









Voila! A secret pincushion and caddy is born. I love how it still looks like a sugar bowl, but it now has a whole new purpose.

I tested the caddy part by putting my perle, my thimble, and my needle case in it, and they all fit perfectly.

At some point, I will get to the rest of my pincushion creations, but for now I will enjoy this one. Also, check out our "Pins and Needles" Pinterest page for more pincushion inspiration.